If Men Could Menstruate

Radio Springtime. 1979. Zeitpunkte, a new women’s political magazine from SFB-Radio’s Women’s Program is broadcast for the first time on channel SFB 2. In addition to short features, reports, commentaries and interviews from a feminist perspective, there’s also room for a lighter take on the news and opinions of the day. I suggest several short essays, including an adaptation of the text, “If Men Could Menstruate,” by American feminist Gloria Steinem – a piece I’d read in Ms. Magazine. Zeitpunkte editor Magdalena Kemper gives an immediate “Yes!”

Soon after, in the summer of 1979, the piece is broadcast. … A short time later, the phone rings in our apartment in Neukoelln. Traute, one of my roommates, answers. Excited, she runs into my room: “Guess what? It’s Alice Schwarzer! For you!” Alice Schwarzer? For me? Huh?

The German feminist monthly “Emma” has been in the magazine stands since 1977 and Alice Schwarzer is its editor-in-chief. She wants to print the Steinem piece in the next issue. I immediately say, “Yes!” And the rest is history.