Episode Fifty-Five Pt.2: Bloody Mary [feat. Back Away Slowly] Spooktober Urban Legends

Okay, so where we left off, we were getting into the international variants of the Bloody Mary legend.

So there i- there are phenomenons, or phenomena, in other cultures, uh, which do tie in a lot of the Bloody Mary elements.

The Bloody Mary legend belongs to a broader global phenomenon, the, quote, "toilet ghost".

Whilst pop culture gave us fictional takes like Harry Potter's Moaning Myrtle, the real world folklore features countless spirits said to haunt bathrooms, loos, and lavatories across the globe.

I just had a thought that I wonder, 'cause, um, I've kind of trained myself to think this way, but as you're reading that about, yeah, there's international folklore around bathrooms, which that doesn't surprise me, especially since this is something that everyone experiences.

Everyone goes to the bathroom.

Mm-hmm.

Everybody goes there alone, whatever.

It's very isolated, you know? And so when it comes to Bloody Mary connections, I think it's another, another, uh, tick mark into evidence about its connection to menstruation, of these international stories happen, not just international bathroom, international bathroom about women across languages, across cultures.

What's one of the things that women have as part of their lives everywhere? It's menstruation, and I think that is further solidified by the age group of these stories being told is still the-

Yes

... same across all of that.

Mm-hmm.

So, it's just a passing thought.

Yeah.

And it's, I think it's like there's something quite comforting in that, like, the shared-

Yeah

... like, universal experience.

Yeah.

Like, every girl goes through this, no matter, like, how, say, how menstruation or puberty was explained to you as a kid.

Maybe your parents were very progressive about that.

Maybe your parents just weren't and they didn't really have the language and tools to speak to you about it.

Um-

I got an American Girl book that was not helpful.

[laughs]