Donald Trump has expressed disgust and disdain for women's bodies on more than one occasion. Credit:AP Again this was in response to criticism of him by Brzezinski and her co-host Joe Scarborough on their show Morning Joe. Trump also insulted their show as low rating, Scarborough as "psycho Joe" and Mika as being "low IQ". Once again, there has been considerable outrage in response to Trump's tweets, particularly the gendered insults aimed at Brzezinski. Brzezinski denies ever having a facelift. It interests me that insults about women and blood, about menstruation, have come back into vogue (well, with hyper-macho national leaders, anyway). In a strange way, these insults feel rather old fashioned, particularly Putin's remarks about "bad days". These were the sort of weird arguments that were routinely used to justify excluding women from responsible positions a few decades ago. You know the sort of thing. That you couldn't trust women with the nuclear codes because they "go crazy" at that time of the month. I often used to wonder, hearing such nonsense spouted, how it was that virtually all wars, mass murders and violent crime is perpetrated by men. If they didn't have "bad days" as Putin puts it, what is their excuse for such loss of control and bad behaviour? I also used to wonder how we could leave defenceless children in the charge of crazed menstrual women month after month, year after year. Funny how loving fathers never had a minute's concern about that.

Vladimir Putin told Oliver Stone: 'I am not a woman, so I don't have bad days.' Credit:AP Trump and Putin are, of course, voicing a disgust at menstruation that has been part of most human societies and is certainly integral to all religions. While I was watching the outrage about Trump's latest insults unfold on social media, I was also watching a fascinating debate between Egyptian feminist Mona Eltahaway and a devout Muslim about the need to separate women worshippers due to the fact that a man praying could inadvertently be standing next to a menstruating woman – and that was "against Islam". Disgust at female bodies, as well as the contradictory attraction towards them, is probably involved in the refusal by some male Orthodox Jews to sit next to women on planes, for example. Many cultures still routinely banish women to huts and sheds when they menstruate. Others refuse to allow menstruating women to handle food or milk cows. And women in the West still feel shame when they get their period, dreading the tell tale spreading stain or – worse – that they may betray their state by the smell. Oddly, in Australia, we are still charged luxury tax on tampons! Contradiction, thy name is our attitudes to women. The Greens have been rocked by a second resignation after Queensland Senator Larissa Waters quit upon realising she, too, was a dual national. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Yet why are we so disgusted by a perfectly normal and natural bodily function without which none of us would ever have managed to exist? And why in particular do puffed-up, macho braggarts like Putin and Trump see it as the ultimate insult? Such men like to brag about their attraction to some women as long as they are compliant and no threat, but they quickly reveal their revulsion towards them as soon as they step out of line.

It's not just menstruation that reveals this misogyny. I think such disgust is related to the outcry that greeted Greens Senator Larissa Waters when she breastfed her baby while moving a motion in the House. Indeed, the debate over breastfeeding in public is often couched in similar terms to that about menstruation. Many people, even many women, want such functions to be hidden and disguised, carried out only in private. Many people, even many women, want such functions to be hidden and disguised, carried out only in private. The trouble with that, of course, is it banishes mothers from the public space, from their workplaces, from cafes, restaurants and adult company. Anyway, why? Why is menstruation still such a taboo, even though it happens to half the population every 28 days for a good two or three decades of their lives? Even more strangely, why is feeding a baby regarded with such disgust? Here is my theory, for what it is worth. Women's bodily functions, particularly those that relate to reproduction, are an uncomfortable reminder that human beings are not special. When women's bodies behave just as every other mammal's does – menstruation ("on heat" in other animals), pregnancy, birth and lactation – we cannot pretend that we are different.

Far from being made in the image of the divine, we're just another animal, subject to our biology. Worse, it is also a reminder that if we reproduce just like all the other mammals, then we will likely die like them too. It is my belief that it is this dislike of being confronted with our lack of divinity and specialness that is at the heart of most misogyny. Women's bodies make it harder for us to maintain our illusion of human exceptionalism. We urinate, defecate and have sex in private for the same reasons. They embarrass us because they are base and animalistic. No wonder macho narcissists such as Putin and Trump are particularly offended by reminders that despite all their power and braggadocio they are just as ephemeral as the rest of us. After all, by force of arms, by fear, by threat of violence, they can dominate other human beings (especially women) for a while, but in the end, no matter how powerful they may make themselves or how loudly they shout about their own importance, they too will die.