In 1974, Stephen King introduced the world to Carrie White, a teenage girl whose first period becomes a public spectacle of humiliation.
More than half a century later, Mike Flanagan has brought Carrie back to our screens in a new Prime Video series. The setting has changed. Technology has evolved. The cruelty has found new ways to spread.
But the scene that should feel the most outdated somehow doesn’t, and we think that’s the real horror story.
Fifty-Two Years Later, We’re Still Throwing Tampons
For those unfamiliar with Carrie, the story begins with a teenage girl getting her first period in a school locker room. Carrie has no idea what’s happening to her. Her mother, whose extreme religious beliefs have shaped nearly every aspect of her upbringing, has never explained menstruation. Carrie believes she’s dying.
Instead of helping her, her classmates mock her, throw menstrual products at her, and turn her fear into entertainment. In Flanagan’s adaptation, the humiliation extends into the digital world
It’s a horrifying scene, but what disturbs us most is the fact that a scene written in the early 1970s about girls humiliating another girl for menstruating is still believable in 2026.
We have smartphones, artificial intelligence, advanced medical technology, and instant access to more health information than any generation before us, but we’re still living in a world where girls are still being bullied or shamed for having a period.
How have we advanced so far technologically while remaining so painfully behind in how we talk about women’s bodies?
The Real Monster Is the Silence
Carrie’s classmates are cruel, but the failure begins long before she enters the school building.
It begins at home, where her mother has turned a normal biological process into something frightening and shameful.
Margaret White is an extreme fictional portrayal of religious control. But the larger problem of using cultural expectations, religious interpretations, or family traditions to discourage conversations about menstruation isn’t fictional.
Across communities and generations, girls are still taught to be discreet about their periods, to hide menstrual products, and to avoid discussing what their bodies are experiencing.
Of course, religion itself isn’t the villain. Many religious families and communities actively promote menstrual dignity and education. The problem is any belief or tradition that makes a young person feel ashamed to ask a basic question about their health.
If a girl can grow up surrounded by adults and still be completely unprepared for her first period, we’ve failed her, and this failure extends beyond the home.
Our Schools Should Know Better by Now
According to a 2024 report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization, only 39% of schools worldwide provide menstrual health education, based on available global data.
Less than one-third have bins for menstrual waste in girls’ toilets.
In other words, the world has had more than 50 years since Carrie was published to recognize this problem, and we’re still struggling to provide basic menstrual education and dignity.
Period shame isn’t harmless teasing. It perpetuates menstrual stigma and can discourage students from asking for help, contribute to anxiety, make school an uncomfortable or isolating place. In a world where humiliating moments can be recorded and shared within seconds, the consequences of that cruelty can extend far beyond a locker room.
We should be outraged that this remains believable.
Period Shame Doesn’t End at Graduation
At The Fibroid Foundation, we’re especially concerned about what happens when menstrual stigma follows girls into adulthood.
A young girl who learns that periods are embarrassing may become a woman who hesitates to discuss her symptoms.
A teenager told to stop complaining about cramps may become an adult who assumes debilitating pain is simply part of womanhood.
And a woman who has spent years hiding heavy bleeding may not realize that it could be a symptom of an underlying condition, including uterine fibroids.
Fibroids aren’t the cause of every difficult period, but heavy menstrual bleeding, pelvic pressure, and persistent pain deserve attention, not automatic dismissal. When society teaches girls to stay quiet about menstruation, we shouldn’t be surprised when women struggle to speak up about their reproductive health.
The silence doesn’t disappear when we turn 18. Instead, it often becomes a habit that lasts decades.
The Scariest Thing About Carrie Is That We Haven’t Changed Enough
We can appreciate Carrie as horror while recognizing the uncomfortable truth beneath it.
The telekinesis and supernatural violence are fiction. But menstrual shame, menstruation-related bullying, and the failure to educate young people about their bodies are very real. In 2026, that should embarrass us as a society.