Period Piece

Cleaning Alternatives for Reusable Pads

2011-12-05T17:47:00.001-06:00

The ladies at the Be Prepared Blog sent us a link to their new post discussing alternate cleaning products for reusable pads. They talk about H20 at Home's Eco-Clean Laundry Ball as well as a couple of organic washes.I personally never thought about using a different soap for my pads; usually I throw them in with my regular laundry loads. Yet they bring up a good point of the chemicals in laundry detergent sticking to your pads after you wash them (and who wants that near your ladyparts?).While we're on the subject, I have to give a plug for the Forever New wash. It's branded primarily for washing lingerie but I've washed some of my homemade pads in it as well.Are there any other products or methods you use to clean your reusable pads?

Separating the men from the boys

2011-11-08T16:43:00.000-06:00

The other day, I read an excerpt from Mindy Kaling's new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling's hilarious, so of course the excerpt was good. In it, she talked about the importance of dating a man, rather than a boy.

Until I was 30, I dated only boys. I'll tell you why: Men scared the shit out of me. Men know what they want. Men own alarm clocks. Men sleep on a mattress that isn't on the floor. Men buy new shampoo instead of adding water to a nearly empty bottle of shampoo. Men make reservations. Men go in for a kiss without giving you some long preamble about how they're thinking of kissing you. Men wear clothes that have never been worn by anyone else before. ...Men know what they want, and that is scary.

What I was used to was boys.

Boys are adorable. Boys trail off their sentences in an appealing way. Boys get haircuts from their roommate, who "totally knows how to cut hair." Boys can pack up their whole life and move to Brooklyn for a gig if they need to. Boys have "gigs." Boys are broke. And when they do have money, they spend it on a trip to Colorado to see a music festival. Boys can talk for hours with you in a diner at three in the morning because they don't have regular work hours.

But they suck to date when you turn 30.

So the concept of differentiating men from boys has been in my mind a lot lately. Cue the latest post by The Frenemy, who is also hilarious and good.

There’s this guy standing in front of me right now-adult, able to buy his own toothpaste, knows his jeans size in inches. This guy has totally lost his shit somewhere on the corner of Metropolitan and ‘maybe we should have taken a left’, and it’s technically something I said but not my fault. I’m standing here, looking around frantically at the six-pack of the kinds of hipsters that say they’re hipsters, so are therefore just dudes wearing hats. I’m eyeing them like maybe I’m the one that should be embarrassed, because my friend is going LA LA LA I don’t want to HEAR you and I have to keep on moving, coaxing him out of the moment like a dog.

Okay! I won’t bring it up anymore. Can we just get our hands on some ‘artisan what the hell is artisan’ burgers now and you can stop singing?

All I had said was that I was on my period. This is around the time that he started acting like a child, and it’s not his fault. 9 times out of 10 idiots, it’s this: you tell any adult man that you’re on their period/he’s got the maturity level of Dave Coulier in Full House, he can react in the ‘nana nana poooopy’ kind of way and we just accept it. He’s a baby, we think! I better stop being such a lady and shut my mouth!

...For the men- if you want to be an adult about it, you nod when I say that I have my period. You nod like an adult and you move on. Once a month, blood is shed from my uterus because I am not pregnant and I’m not having a baby squeeze out of me any time soon. It does not pour out like the river.It does not shoot out of my vag like a squirt gun filled with Kool-Aid, and it A THING THAT HAPPENS and you shouldn’t be grossed out by... Do not look away at tampons, do not wince at the word uterus. If you’re a grown-ass man who wants to stick his grown-ass parts into any woman, you better be respectful enough to acknowledge that the things her body does are normal and fine and not gross. I know you’re not all like this, because I know some real cool guys. I tip my hat off to you and your uterus respect.

I mean, I don't want to hog all the good quotes here, so go read the whole thing. I have yet to read a Frenemy post where I didn't LOL at least once.

Personally, I remember one of the first times I told a guy I had my period. He was my boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure I told him straight up. He was like, "That is awesome! I couldn't even tell! This is one of the many reasons why I love you--you're exactly the same when you have your period! You're not even grouchy or anything! That's awesome!" Ahw. <3

The Power of the V?

2011-10-19T23:52:00.004-05:00

I've posted about Summer's Eve's "Hail to the V" commercials before, but they've reached a whole new level of ridiculousness with their latest spot:I never realized all the great battles in history were fought over getting some pussy. The whole epic set-up to advertise for vaginal cleansing products is both laughable and in my opinion rather offensive. Depicting men fighting over a woman (or more specifically her va-jay-jay) is objectifying rather than empowering. I guess it's impossible to fathom that men would want a woman for anything other than the power of her lady parts, like her personality.So I guess the lesson here is to keep your vagina clean and you'll have men fight epic battles over you. Or something.

What's that tampon doing next to your penis?

2011-10-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

So on the Ms. Blog, I came across this new machine that simulates the pain and bleeding of menstruation.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/09/26/if-men-could-menstruate/
http://www.sputniko.com/works/sputniko/menstruation-machine

The inventor of the machine seems to be posing the question, why should women menstruate at all anymore. To me the question seems less cultural and more biological. It's true that it's a womanly thing to have, you know those menses, for me however, the pills that down play your menstrual cycle seem biologically bizarre and I don't trust them.I'm probably completely wrong, but it seems unhealthy to me to NOT menstruate every month. Also, I really really appreciate my body telling me for absolute certain that I am not having a baby right now. It's almost like a courtesy call from my uterus. "*Ding* Not this month". I don't feel I am culturally attached to having my period, and I think it's something that should be discussed freely and openly without people being embarrassed, but I don't know if that extends to having a machine that simulates the process.

I find the idea of this machine really bizarre as well. Not that I think it's necessarily a bad product and don't mean to blast it at all. I find the idea of it intriguing. But it seems to make menstruating into a novelty, which is not an experience that goes along with female menstruation. It's something that happens all the time, whether you like it or not. Is there any real reason for someone to wear this machine? I can't see a real justification. Because it's not like it can possibly simulate ALL of the symptoms of menstruation. Example: I get itchy during my period because of my hormones, does this machine make you itchy? I think that claiming that it simulates menstruation as an experience is a little misleading. I love my period and all the things that go with it (even the bad ones, because when they go away it's all the better) but I don't know if I would want my boyfriend walking around thinking he knew what menstruation was like because of a machine that he wore for a week or so.

The thing that weirds me out the most is that it actually bleeds as you can see in the video on both links. Where is the blood coming from? Who/What's blood is it? What if the blood touches me? I mean, I'm okay with my own blood, but mystery blood, not so much. And if it is your own blood (which I think would be better) how do you get it, is there a needle like a diabetes finger pricker? I guess this machine leaves me with more questions than answers ultimately. I do think it's an interesting idea as I said, and can certainly help get discussion going, which is always a good thing.

Real quick round-up

2011-09-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

Are you more creative while menstruating?
A post on Amplify about the Nepali tradition of chaupadi--isolating women who are on their periods:
In this superstitious logic, if a menstruating woman touches a tree it will never again bear fruit; if she consumes milk the cow will not give anymore milk; if she reads a book about Saraswati, the goddess of education, she will become angry; if she touches a man, he will be ill.
Similarly, Jos at Feministing writes about the attitudes and beliefs surrounding menstruation and sexuality while growing up in an Eastern Orthodox Christian church.
Every sperm, and egg, is sacred. Wasting either, through masturbation, a wet dream, or simply having your period, is a sign of our fallen state, our unclean-ness. Even though a woman’s period is also a sign of her one real purpose: to make babies. So women are baby-making factories, that’s what God made them for, but their ability to fulfill this purpose makes them unclean. So women are inherently unclean, or a failure at being women.
Jezebel posted a trailer for the new movie Hysteria, about the invention/development of the vibrator. Actually, it's a rom-com that happens to be based around the development of the vibrator. It looks pretty feel-good, so to speak. Don't expect a documentary, people!

In which I am an agent of social change

2011-09-02T13:13:00.000-05:00

This is a bragging on myself type of post. If you are not interested in that, skip down and read Jamie's post about RePhresh tampons.

...I'll wait...

Carrying on. After numerous phone calls and letters to many of the major retailers in the area, one has finally answered my call to start carrying Softcups. If you are in the Fayetteville, AR area and are interested in giving these a try, the Wal-Mart on Martin Luther King is now selling them. I have to admit that after Jamie sent me a sample pack, I absolutely fell in love with this product. Though not as friendly to the Earth as a Diva Cup (someday!!) I really enjoy them. I can't feel them at all, and it's nice to not have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night to change a tampon. I still frequently use tampons during the day, but the Softcup has become my go to night time protection product.

So to wrap up: I like Softcups, they sell them in my town now, I want a Diva Cup.

The End.

In which I am skeptical once again

2011-08-12T07:03:00.001-05:00

FACT: The insides of your vagina are a chemically delicate ecosystem. It's no big though, because mostly, your body regulates this itself.

FACT: If this pH balance gets messed up, you may get a yeast infection.

FACT: One of the ways your pH balance can get thrown out of whack is by using tampons. Tampons are up in there indiscriminately absorbing not only blood, but your other lady-fluids as well.

Okay, so. It seems to me that if using tampons is messing up your insides, the most straightforward/logical solution is to stop using tampons.

But I guess in our wacky medicalization society, another viable option is to just treat tampons with even more chemicals to help "regulate" your vaginal pH balance. Introducing RepHresh, "the first and only tampon clinically shown to reduce the usual vaginal pH increase during your period."

I get that yeast infections are annoying. And that tampons are convenient. And so if there's a way you can have your convenience and not be itchy, that sounds great. But is it really so smart to keep absorbing more and more chemicals into our bodies? My complaints are along the exact same lines as Aana's when she writes about scented tampons. To me, this is just another quick fix that treats the symptoms of a larger problem without even recognizing that there is a larger problem.

Thoughts?

h/t to EmpowHER

Big deal or no?

2011-08-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Lots of blogging about Always' new ad campaign that actually portrays a red dot on one of their maxi pads, replacing the notorious/sanitized/confusing blue liquid.

image from adweek.com

Is this really that big of a deal?

Diva cup experiences

2011-08-10T10:03:00.001-05:00

I adore my Diva cup. It is one of my favorite inventions. Every month, I'm so thankful I have it. It's comfortable and clean (aside from the obvious insertion messiness). Actually, I usually forget I even have my period at all until it's time to dump it out. But I even enjoy dumping it out!! (TMI?)

I think more women would use Diva cups (or Keepers, or Mooncups, or any type of menstrual cup... I just refer to them all as Diva cups cuz it's easier) if they knew about how awesome they are. Probably most women don't even know about them, then when they learn, their first reaction is "omg, gross/weird." I know that's how I was.

Every so often I come across accounts of women's first impressions of using the Diva cup, so I thought it might be beneficial to group them all together in a post here, so you all can see I'm not the only one in love with my cup!

The Diva Cup Review (Mom, Dad this is all about my menstruation please don't read it) at jessicagottlieb.com: I was walking through Whole Foods, spotted the Diva Cup, and thought, “Why not? It’s only $30, I’m going to waste more than that on snooty cheeses this week.” ...It’s become one of those things that I want to shout from the rooftops. YOU NEED A DIVA CUP.
Would You Use a Menstrual Cup? at No More Dirty Looks: The cup is not gross in the slightest (and I’m squeamish). In fact it feels far “cleaner” than tampons or pads—sterile almost. ...Application and removal were easy, and it felt more comfortable to me than a tampon. In fact, it almost felt like I didn’t even have my period. My only regret was that I hadn’t tried it sooner.
The Diva Cup: A New Trend: "With all the state-of-the-art conveniences western society has developed, it baffles us why outdated feminine products are still being used. We believe that reusable menstrual cups are the next generation of feminine hygiene because they are the most environmentally responsible choice. They are also the most convenient and reliable option available and are not linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome."
My First Experience With A Menstrual Cup at Mamas and Babies: I had NO LEAKING the entire time I used the cup. I had been cautioned to use pads the first few days or so just in case, but I didn't need them. I was very impressed, especially because even tampons leak when they get full.

Real quick round-up

2011-08-08T18:33:00.000-05:00

Video: How to make a vagina cupcake. [Insert pussy-eating joke here]
My Little Red Book--stories about people's first periods! I'm adding it to my want list.
From Jezebel: How to Menstruate Politely. This is actually practical advice! I love Jezebel more and more lately.
From Huffington Post: "A new study suggests that depending on where they are in their menstrual cycles, women have very different reactions towards strange men."
A woman is donating her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter! Isn't that an interesting thought?--The place where you came from is now inside you! At least you'd know you were getting quality equipment. :)

Mother Nature is pretty weird/awesome

2011-08-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

Check out this picture of Blood Falls in Antarctica.

The scientific explanation is less depressing than you might imagine.

h/t to Atlas Obscura

Scented Tampons

2011-08-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

So I accidentally bought a box of scented tampons yesterday, and didn't realize it until after I had broken into the box and opened the first one already. There goes exchanging them for non-scented tampons... Unfortunately for me, I bought a huge box, and am now going to have to use them for probably 4 or 5 months. Lame. I hate scented tampons for 2 reasons.

Reason #1: I can't imagine that having the kind of chemicals that make tampons smell "fresh" have any business being anywhere near the inside of my vagina. Frankly I have the same issue with feminine sprays as well. I would just rather not put a bunch of chemicals inside my body, especially not attached to a tampon that has the possibility of tearing open some skin. On a more personal note, I have mild allergies to many soaps and lotions, and have a concern that this might translate to the "fresh" scent on/in the tampon.

Reason #2: I don't like the whole idea that my vagina, whether menstruating or not, smells bad. I don't mind or even notice most of the time what my vagina smells like. The fact that there is an idea that a woman's vagina inherently smells bad is just ridiculous. Just like any other part of a person's body the vagina does have the possibility of having a smell, even a distinctive one. Even one that others might find offensive, but it is ultimately a personal choice whether you want to cover that smell or just accept it. There are options for either, I just always find it frustrating that the scented tampons are not labeled better. This is not the first time I have accidentally bought scented tampons because it only says scented in little tiny letters, and I have a 4 year old and am often in a hurry.

I guess ultimately what I am saying is that tampon companies need to label their scented tampons better so my vagina doesn't smell like some combination of flowers and vagina...which is a much more unpleasant smell than either one by itself.

Hail to the V

2011-07-27T20:20:00.001-05:00

I've been reading a lot about the series of Summer's Eve commercials featuring hands representing vaginas, with their slogan "Hail to the V."

They were recently parodied on The Colbert Report.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

I'm not sure how I feel about these commercials. Obviously as the video above points out, they rely heavily on racial stereotypes. On one hand I can appreciate that they are trying to represent the female body and perhaps break taboo about talking about vaginas, but using the talking hands makes them more laughable than anything.

Do you think the commercials are more empowering or ridiculous?

Can't quite put my finger on it...

2011-07-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking of going to Florida lately.

Summer camp

2011-07-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

I think I am in love with new website Camp Cranky. It has:

Stories about first periods TOLD WITH PUPPETS
Info about what menstruation actually is on a scientific level

plus a barfing kid animation I find hilarious

A comprehensive explanation of nearly ALL period products (Softcup was the only one I noticed missing)

The opportunity to "sponsor a period" with Huru International
No corporate sponsorship! (as far as I can find)
Fun design!

This is a website for girls done right. I'm so impressed. Check it out for yourself!!

Real quick round up

2011-07-05T06:47:00.002-05:00

photo from mermaidhostel.com

Heavy Flow is a new menstruation zine I have not read [yet], but it looks cool.
There's some pretty solid advice about how to Macguyver yourself a maxi pad in an emergency over at Jezebel. Favorite part?: "If you really want to give your clothes eternal life, you're going to have to mummify your panties."
There is talk of remaking Carrie.
Lately I am in love with The Frenemy. Here she hilariously expands on what Cosmo has taught her about her vagina.
lovelifeproject sings the praises of reusable maxi pads.

Ban the Bland

2011-07-01T16:15:00.001-05:00

Kotex has partnered with designer Patricia Field to put together Ban the Bland, a site where users can design their own disposable maxi pads. Fun colors and patterns are one of my favorite things about reusable pads, so it's interesting to see a major manufacturer of disposable products picking up on this.

At first, I thought it was a contest, where some of the winning designs would be incorporated into some of Kotex's future products, but that was probably just my hopeful idealism kicking in. There's no competition, and actually their "bold" new products look pretty much the same to me. Still, it's fun to design your own.

my design, "8loodthirtsy"

It made me think about what I would want my ideal disposable pad to look like, though. Bleeding onto an octopus sounds a lot more fun than just another white sterile pad (especially when the unnecessary bleaching of these products leaves behind dangerous dioxins). I've been reading more Gloria Steinem lately, and so I tend to reframe this thought in regard to her "If Men Could Menstruate" essay. I imagine disposable pads for men with targets and crosshairs. I think bleeding on a target could be okay.

Then again, perhaps there is something to be said for providing your own art (hah).

Ladybag vs. P-Mate

2011-06-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of an adventurous ~~peer~~ pee-er (that is, one who pees). I like plumbing, or at the very least, an actual toilet seat. So since I haven't encountered or used either of these products, it's more like a mental would-you-rather type of game for me. Camping season is upon us, so this seems like a good time to pose the question. Which would you prefer?

Exhibit A: The Ladybag

Basically, a plastic bag filled with absorbent crystals. You pee in the bag, the crystals absorb the liquid, and then you can throw away your pee gel. I'm not sure what purpose is served by the four protrusions on the sides. (Want to play Germany or Florida with this one?)

Exhibit B: P-Mate

A funnely thing you hold up to your crotch to enable you to pee while standing. This seems like it would really broaden the horizons about where you can do your business.

Or does everyone else have some foolproof top-secret outdoorsy peeing style I am unaware of?? I don't think I've ever peed outside in my adult life. Is that sad?

Cool, but...

2011-06-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

...I would not do this.

h/t to WTF Tattoos

What Men Think of Menstruation at The Frisky

2011-05-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

omg, this column made me laugh too many times to not share it here.

Men don’t really think about menstruation, because we don’t have to think about menstruation. We don’t have uteruses. Male genitals are embarrassingly simple. Our junk is a Speak N’ Spell. A woman’s private parts are more like an iPad. ...
It is difficult to empathize with biological functions that are radically different to your own. How would you feel if a man’s penis molted once a month and we had to apply copious amounts of salve to our raw member? You’d try to be understanding as best you could, but you wouldn’t really understand. But I bet you’d respect our space and our strange lizard wangs. Men don’t think about menstruation. But we know the best way how to deal with it: with a healthy amount of respect.

Go read about face rain and baby space pods and lust spawn. It's all very cleverly written.

Your body is disgusting. Let us help you out with that.

2011-05-23T10:39:00.005-05:00

Libby Copeland at Slate has a really good article about how advertisers have historically marketed personal hygiene products--particularly new ones--by creating an anxiety for consumers and then oh-so-conveniently providing them the cure for it. This has long been effective marketing strategy for feminine hygiene products as well as deodorant.

Writes Copeland:

Dove recently unveiled its latest campaign, and it hinges on the idea that your armpits are ugly. Dove Ultimate Go Sleeveless is supposed to give women "softer, smoother underarms in just five days"—in ads for the product, which Stephen Colbert calls a "breakthrough shame-o-vation," women cut the sleeves off their tops with joyful expressions, as if they've been liberated from a terrible scourge. If it's news to you that this part of your body is not so hot, Dove says you're in the minority, citing a survey in which 93 percent of women said they "think their underarms are unattractive." And if you doubt statistics culled from 534 women in an anonymous online poll, rest assured that Dove's best advertising efforts will be directed at making those numbers true.
Pity the poor deodorant-makers. What else are they to do? As the Wall Street Journalpoints out, they're in a bind—almost the entire U.S. population already uses deodorant, and consumers appear reluctant to switch to new brands. Dove's empowerment-via-shame marketing approach for Go Sleeveless has its roots in advertising techniques that gained popularity in the 1920s: a) pinpoint a problem, perhaps one consumers didn't even know they had; b) exacerbate anxiety around the problem; c) sell the cure.
The history of ads directed at women is particularly rich with such fear tactics. Thus, ad copy from the 1920s and '30s warned women of their place in the "beauty contest of life" (a corset manufacturer) and reminded them that "The Eyes of Men …The Eyes of Women/ Judge your Loveliness every day" (Camay soap). A 1953 ad for Chlorodent toothpaste stated point-blank: "There's another woman waiting for every man." Yikes!

Certainly there's been a good dose of shame-marketing towards ladies' down theres, as Copeland explains. She highlights the use of Lysol as a douche.

The unfortunate truth was that as a contraceptive, Lysol was ineffective, not to mention dangerous. Improperly diluted, it burned and blistered the vagina, and in some cases even caused death. Yet, Tone writes, it wasn't until the pill came along that Lysol douche was supplanted as the top choice of women looking to prevent pregnancy.

I've read about Lysol douching probably 100 times over the years, and I still cannot wrap my mind around the horribleness of the idea. I barely use any strong chemically-cleaning things, but sometimes I use Lysol to clean the bathroom. And when I do, I'm paranoid as shit. I super super dilute it, wear gloves, turn on the fans, and tell my cats to stay away so the fumes don't damage their sensitive little nosies. So the idea of using it to clean out the holiest of holies (so to speak) sounds just downright awful. (Although mentioning that this was the top birth control method before The Pill gives it some significant context.)

After reading this piece, I realized that all of the campaigns and products mentioned were marketed towards women. Surely similar tactics have been used to sell stuff to men as well, yes? I'd be interested to see how ad campaigns like this directed towards men differ from those direct towards women.

A Reasonable Compensation

2011-05-21T11:45:00.005-05:00

It's immature, but I do enjoy a good rage comic:

h/t to Memebase

Period Packs

2011-05-18T22:57:00.001-05:00

This is such a cool idea! Period Packs is a company that sells gift packs to give to girls when they have their first period. The gift pack includes not only menstrual products (like pads or tampons), but also a copy of the book Period., a calendar to keep track of her cycle, and a couple fun items like lip gloss and cocoa.

I was touched by Period Packs founder Wendy Bulawa Agudelo's story about why she started the company:

I was brought up on a farm in Upstate New York alongside three brothers and my father. As you can imagine, getting your period amid all that testosterone in rural America was interesting to say the least. The day I got my period, I remember calling my father’s office to let him know and to figure out what to do. He seemed flustered but said he’d be home soon and would bring me the things I needed. At that point I thought, ‘Okay, that’s great, but what do I do now? Do I just wad up some toilet paper in my underwear? Take a shower or a bath?’ Needless to say, I was confused. A few hours later, my father arrived home with a package of maxi pads, and uncomfortably explained that I needed to wear them and to read the instructions on the package. He also suggested I call one of my aunts. The poor man, he was so ill prepared and obviously uncomfortable that his only daughter and precious little girl was going through a monumental change. I was growing up, and similar to most fathers, mine dreaded this day as I began to transform from little girl to young woman.

Being a teenager, I felt completely awkward and didn’t really want to call my aunts to discuss ‘cousin Red.’ I instead visited the school nurse who gave me a preparation pack of sorts—containing various size pads and panty liners as well as a booklet on ‘Getting Your Period.’ Oh, the joy I felt from receiving a simple box of goodies and information. It was if I had just received the most wonderful of unexpected presents! And, that feeling of excitement stuck with me.

I really like the idea of creating gift packages like these without the corporate sponsorship. Even though "alternative" products aren't included in these packages, the Diva cup is at least mentioned on the website, so I like that too. Period Packs also offers an Organic Period Pack (which also happens to be less pink... I appreciated that).

The Organic Period Pack

When I was about ten, I got a package of product samples from Procter & Gamble in the mail. I was thrilled. It came in a teal velcro case covered with inspiring quotes and a couple booklets. I read over that stuff probably a hundred times and studied every product. And still when I got my period (three years later) it was so totally different than I expected! I think gifts like these can do a lot of good in preparing girls for their first period and making them feel like they can handle it.

Real quick round up

2011-05-16T08:29:00.001-05:00

We've kind of known that menstrual blood contains stem cells, but scientists are always learning more about how those cells can be used to treat disease. In the meantime, there are mail-in menstrual banks where you can donate and store your menstrual blood. (For $499 + $99/year, I'm not exactly sure why you would, unless you're soon approaching the age where the well runs dry, so to speak..)
A pretty awesome description of what PMS is like for one woman. Exceprt: "A black hole of emotions where sad and happy, tired and energetic, talkative and anti-social all meet and penetrate one another, forming a blob of nothingness. Yeah, I kind of feel like that. They’re all inside me, yet I can produce nothing. It’s like a sharp, involuntary intake of breath seconds before what you THINK is going to be a massive, super satisfying sneeze and… nothing." (PS, that's also where I found this picture.)
I'm sad there is a market for products like The Va j-j Visor. Also I hate the word va-jay-jay.
Did you plan your wedding by your menstruation date?

Homelessness and menstruation

2011-05-14T03:45:00.001-05:00

I found this interesting:

Of course not everyone's experiences with homelessness are the same, but these sound reasonable. Anyone want to weigh in here?

UPDATE: Crimson Campaign pointed us towards a personal account of menstruating while homeless. It gives a real-life perspective on the experience. An excerpt:

Although I was so blessed to have my girlfriends, it was embarrassing to go to them and say, “I’m on my period and I’m broke.” I felt three feet tall. I felt beneath everyone else. I was taken by an inferiority complex still battle to this day. Not being able to support my most basic needs made me think back to being the poor kid in grade school who never had pencils. Guilt, embarrassment, and shame became emotions that were too familiar and entirely too soon to experience.

Check out the whole thing at Crimson Campaign's blog.

A Pocket Guide to Vaginal Euphemisms

2011-05-10T19:41:00.006-05:00

A while ago Jamie made a post about euphemisms for periods. I found a similar list of euphemisms for vaginas on the Re(vulva)lution Tumblr.

I thought it was interesting how they broke down the different names into categories, showing that a lot of them have similar themes.

One of the more surprising ones I read was "Penis Penitentiary." Seriously? Are vaginas so icky that they're compared to being in prison?

I found most of these gross, but some of them were funny. I may have to start utilizing some of them ("Hairy Manilow"). What do you call your vagina?

Real quick round up

2011-05-09T02:32:00.001-05:00

A University of Miami study suggests that women have less contact with male family members--fathers in particular--while they're ovulating. The study looked at phone records of women's calls with their fathers. I guess I thought this was interesting because I talk on the phone with my dad pretty regularly, and sometimes we'll talk for a couple hours, and other times I'm more just like, "Yep... well... bye." Now science will support these sentiments!
An article about menstrual synchrony, or why women living together tend to cycle together. I have a feeling that any woman who've ever lived in a dorm while not on birth control probably knows exactly what I'm talking about here. IT'S REAL.
I just heard about this book--The Modern Period. I want!!
Moon madness! We all know that menstrual cycles can be at least somewhat synced up with the moon, but did you know that there have also been correlations drawn between the moon's phases and time of birth or bleeding crises during surgeries??
Mr. T tampon case. Hellz to the yeah.

Kim Stolz in STL

2011-05-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

I like this because I'm from St. Louis.

Former America's Next Top Model contestant Kim Stolz stopped by the STL, and while doing so, had a semi-candid discussion with gals at Six Flags about their periods. (Sponsored by Kotex.)

MTV Shows

Cool, I guess? I'm always glad when women aren't shy about discussing menstruation, I'm just more skeptical when it's on a mega-corporation's agenda to do so.

h/t to Riverfront Times

Buck Angel's his-terectomy

2011-05-01T01:56:00.000-05:00

Are you all familiar with Buck Angel, The Man With A Pussy?

Briefly, from his wikipedia entry:

Buck Angel is an FTM Transsexual and adult film maker. He received the 2007 AVN Award as Transsexual Performer of the Year, and works as an advocate, educator and lecturer.

I'll admit I don't know a ton more about him, but I understand that's he's a pretty vocal advocate/educator in the trans community. One of my facebook friends pointed me to this entry on Buck's tumblr (careful, pictures NSFW) about getting a hysterectomy.

So many people have been asking me why I am finally getting this operation, and why I haven’t already had it.
Well I never felt like I needed to do this. The chest surgery was way more important for me. I never felt like my uterus and ovaries made me feel less of a man. I never saw them, and the testosterone shut them down. Also my doctors in the USA said that unless something was wrong, I did not need to remove it. I had regular check ups and they never saw any reason for me to get this surgery.

Until I got an infection in my uterus! What happened was that the use of the testosterone over 15 years started to make my cervix and uterus atrophy. The cervix basically closed and so anything inside my uterus could not get out.

...So here I am now going into surgery because of the fact that the doctors basically had no idea what long term use of testosterone does to the reproductive system!

...I always said that there was no reason to get a hysterectomy. Well now I am saying something different. I don’t think you need to do it right away, but if you plan on staying on testosterone longer than 5 years, I would recommend looking into getting this done just to eliminate the chance of this happening to you.

There's so much [unnecessary] focus in our society about the body parts of trans people, but it seems that there hasn't been a lot of consideration for those parts that are on the inside. It's scary to think of all the unknowns that come with hormone replacement therapy. I wonder if this is an issue that affects a lot of trans men who are taking testosterone long term.

The surgery was a few weeks ago, and Buck has posted an update since then, saying that everything went well.

What's the worth of natural disposable products?

2011-04-28T13:16:00.013-05:00

I was cleaning out my desk space and found this ad that I meant to post about a long time ago--I wish I could remember in which magazine I found it. For some reason, I want to say Time, although this seems like a potentially bold ad for them.

"Not cotton? My pads and tampons aren't 100% cotton? Introducing Organyc, the brand with the unsurpassed advantages of 100% cotton. It's surprising when you find out your tampons, pads and panty liners aren't 100% cotton. Introducing Organyc. No brand offers better natural absorbency than Organyc. And you get 100% organic and biodegradable cotton. What else would you want so close to you?"

Anyway, it's an advertisement from Organyc, which sells disposable pads/tampons/panty liners made out of 100% cotton. I like this ad because it's straight to the point, without any stupid euphemisms or talk about being free. I also like that it draws attention to the fact that "mainstream" brand products are in fact not made of cotton (they're a strange blend of plastic and low-grade wood pulp leftovers).

However, I've always had a bit of trouble getting behind organic disposable products. Sure, they are a better option than most other brands. The cotton biodegrades, meaning less trash in landfills, and I imagine they're more comfortable to wear. But the pads are also much more expensive than mainstream products, so they're only an option for buyers with higher incomes.

I looked around online to find out how much a pack of Organyc pads would cost. At target.com (not sure if they're available in the stores or just online), you can buy a case of four boxes for $19.99, a total of 40 pads. Each pad would cost about 50 cents each. When I compared this to data from the workshop I put together a few years ago, this is more than twice the cost of Always brand maxi pads (which where about 22 cents each).

However, I was surprised to find that the price of Organyc tampons is similar to the price of Playtex tampons. Four boxes of the tampons is also $19.99, which is a total of 64 tampons. Each tampon then is roughly about 31 cents, and again, comparing that to the data I used for my workshop, that's only about three cents more than buying Playtex tampons from Walgreens (at least in 2008).

But beyond cost, the thing that's never made complete sense to me about disposable natural products is the way they appeal to buyers' ecological awareness. It seems to me that someone who's in tune with helping the environment by reducing waste would be even more interested in reusable products such as the DivaCup which produce virtually no waste at all, so biodegradability or organic source materials kind of becomes a moot point.

Anyone care to shed some light on this?

Menstruation Play

2011-04-28T09:24:00.000-05:00

This blog post is about something that happened in my personal/academic life.

So, I have a drama class, and our final project is to write and produce a play. I had a really hard time thinking of a good topic for the play. I had two male actors and one female actor. After much debate, I came up with the idea of writing a play about menstruation. I thought that using the male actors to discuss menstruation in the ways we discuss it when it first happens to us would not only be funny, but also would shed light on the ridiculousness of the ways in which we discuss menstruation in our culture.

However, I have met people before and realized this might not go over too well, so I also wrote a back-up script. I took both scripts to the meeting between my group, after having emailed them the menstruation script. They were all mad, including my teacher. They said that my menstruation script was offensive. When I asked how it was offensive, they basically told me that nothing I said was offensive, it was the topic of menstruation. I argued for quite a while, and tried to explain my vision, but no one was buying what I was selling. So I pulled out my back up script which they rejected simply on the basis that it was "bad". So now, I have had to write three scripts for this group project.

I think it's really too bad that menstruation seems to be such an offensive subject. We are all grown-ups in the class, and we should be able to talk about things that we maybe couldn't if children were involved. One thing I said to my drama teacher was "I menstruate, you menstruate, every woman in this classroom menstruates, why is something our bodies do something we shouldn't talk about?" There was no real response. I can assure you all that I will be going to the department head, and discussing the issue with that person. It's ridiculous that I should have to do three times the work of anyone else in the class.

Good journey!

Shameless Self-Promotion

2011-04-25T12:18:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to draw to your attention my zine that I wrote while I was still in the beginnings of this blog. It's called Menstruator Extraordinaire, and it's again available for purchase in my etsy shop.

Satisfied readers have said:

This is officially my new favorite thing everrrr in the world. I can tell you put great effort forth and I really appreciate being able to enjoy the product of your hard work.
I teach a Young Feminisms class, and needed recent zines to show them. Your work is amazing, and I hope it inspires my class to do some zine making of their own.
Great zine! As a fellow menstruation academic, I will put it to good use.

We're actually in the middle of a special where if you buy two or more zines (I have a bunch), you also receive a free bonus thingy, so why not get yours today?!

Dr. Toilet

2011-04-23T08:51:00.003-05:00

I'm a little behind on this, but has anyone heard of the Intelligence Toilet?

Actually, we're up to Intelligence Toilet II. It's a Japanese toilet that measures a variety of vital signs while you do your business: heart rate, blood pressure, weight... Apparently these are things that IT I did, but IT II is also able to keep track of your menstrual cycles. All of this info is sent to your computer and organized into presumably nifty-looking charts. I'm seeing similarities between this and Menstruation Clock.

I'm pretty impressed that this is possible, but I feel like this could be information overload for me personally... I'm satisfied with my limited amount of toilet activities. Yet it's pretty amazing that a toilet can be capable of so much though! This could be awesome for someone who needs to monitor all those numbers/rates on a regular basis.

How to eat three tampons in one minute

2011-04-21T22:45:00.001-05:00

The internet makes many things possible for us. We can collaborate with others around the world; we can build communities of online friends; we can search seemingly limitless amounts of information at the touch of a button.

Also, we can share with each other videos of this guy eating weird things. wtf?

I can't put my finger on it exactly, but something about this gives me the creeps.

h/t to BuzzFeed

Sexy period

2011-03-26T20:14:00.000-05:00

Apparently there is a movement toward the idea of "period panties". Not just panties that you have in your drawer that you bought at Wal-Mart for $2, but panties that are actually helpful during your period. I think that this idea is awesome. However, my biggest issue with them is that it doesn't seem like I could wash them along with the rest of my laundry. Even with homemade re-usable pads, I can just throw them in after a good soak, but these have to be taken care of very carefully. Also, they are only back up. I don't know about everyone else, but when I know my period is coming I wear underwear that it would be okay to stain. What I do like about them is that it seems like this might be a way to help women in general be more confident during their period. I wear granny panties anyway, so wearing granny panties during my period is not really a huge switch, but I know it is for some women and makes them feel less sexy. I am all for feeling more confident, and if this a way that works for you, I say go for it.
This is why I am all for the idea of thong shaped pads and pantyliners. At first I thought the idea was dumb, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that if it helps make women more confident then I say "YES!"

Experiential birth control

2011-03-13T21:41:00.000-05:00

Although lately I find myself more interested in the thought of having children, it's videos like this that cause me to menstruate instantly:

Good lord.
h/t to STFU Parents

Is there a killer inside YOU? Let's find out!

2011-02-27T21:32:00.005-06:00

Lately there's been lots of bad news coming around regarding abortion. There's the US House of Representatives voting to defund Planned Parenthood, racist propaganda billboards, and a variety of bills being introduced in South Dakota, Iowa, and Georgia with frightening grey area surrounding the basic human rights of abortion providers and women in general. There is much to be said about all of this, but I will refrain because others have already said a lot much better than I could.

What I want to post about here is the campaign launched by Devery Doleman in reaction to a bill being proposed in Georgia. In short, Georgia Representative Bobby Franklin has sponsored a bill that would require all women who suffer a miscarriage to prove that the miscarriage included "no human involvement" (whatever that means). This is of course in addition to outlawing abortion, which Rep. Franklin chooses to re-frame as "pre-natal murder".

Devery has posted her letter to Rep Franklin at Tiger Beatdown, in which she writes:

Dear Representative Franklin:

I need your help. I need your Uterine Investigatory Crime Unit and every bit of biological lady-part know-how your degree in Biblical studies and Business Administration from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, can bring to my case. I’m scared, Representative Franklin. Because I think – I think there is a killer inside me. The killer is MY UTERUS. Help me stop it before it kills again.

...I’m trying to do everything right: I have the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor. I stand on my head after sex. I even wore a red muu-muu while we did it with a picture of Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy taped to the headboard! And then there’s that period of suspense when I think I am with child: the metallic taste in the mouth, the dizziness, the rage out of nowhere, the yen for a salt lick. But turns out it was just hateful old PMS. The killer has struck again.

...Your proposed law declares that “[prenatal murder] does not include a naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a ‘spontaneous abortion’ and popularly as a ‘miscarriage’ so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event.” I’m so confused, Bobby! Don’t you see? The event is happening inside me which would seem to indicate that this particular human, aka ME!, no matter what happens, no matter what I eat, breathe, say or do, is deeply, deeply involved!

...I can’t take this uncertainty any more, so if it’s okay with you, I’d like to start sending you evidence right away. There’s still a bloodstain on our mattress pad, I have a bunch of old period underwear, and I’m happy to bag and send you my tampons next week if the killer strikes again. Usually I go through an OB Super once every 2 hours the first couple days so there will be ample material for your lab to analyze to determine what in the hell is going on here and to help bring the relevant parties to justice.Help me, OB-GYN Kenobi – I mean, Representative Franklin. You’re my only hope.

Her idea is taking off within the blogosphere. Jill Filipovic at Feministe has posted her own letter, which includes:

As I’m sure you know, more than 50% of fertilized eggs –Georgia citizens! — naturally don’t implant, and are flushed out of the body during menstruation. I am personally concerned that my own murdering woman-body may have flushed out some human beings, and I may have flushed them down the toilet without knowing that I was disposing of Georgia citizens in such an undignified way. This must be remedied. I would like to be sure that I am not killing any more Georgia citizens — and that if I am, they are able to receive a proper funeral and not a burial at sea, and that our state police can dedicate valuable time and resources to investigating their deaths.

To that end, I attach a picture of my latest used tampon. I am preserving this tampon, as well as all of my other tampons, pads, feminine hygiene products and soiled panties from my current menstrual cycle, so that the Georgia State Police can come collect them as evidence. I would also be happy to drop the specimens off at your office, should you want to examine them yourself.

Please let me know if I can make an appointment to give you these items. Or, since I appreciate that you are a very busy man, please let me know when the police will be by my home to collect them, as my next cycle is rapidly approaching and they are starting to smell.

The campaign therefore encourages women to send evidence of so-called potential pre-natal murders to Representative Franklin to be investigated. This evidence is best presented in the form of used tampons and pads, as many miscarriages present themselves in the form of a heavy period when the ~~murderer~~, er, woman in question hasn't even yet realized she was pregnant.

If you would like to submit your evidence (just pictures! As Jill says, "we can’t actually send used tampons through the mail — sending bio-hazardous material to an elected official can get you in BAD TROUBLE, so don’t do it"), here is Representative Franklin's contact information:

Rep. Bobby Franklin
401 Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Phone: 404.656.0152
Fax: 404.656.5562
bobby.franklin@house.ga.gov

I will say that my gut reaction to this idea was very positive, as it appeals to the punk-rock vulgarity of my youth (ha), and is a bold statement. Even so, I gave some careful thought to posting about it here. This is arguably pretty vile and disrespectful, but you know what? So is the bill.

Vulvovagial Attitudes and Health Survey

2011-02-23T19:49:00.001-06:00

I found a link on Twitter to a study being done over people's perceptions of vaginas and vulavas.

Access the survey here.

I like the idea of this study, especially women's attitudes about their genitals. We're often taught by society that our private parts are not to be discussed or even something to be ashamed about, so it will be interesting to the results of the study and see if people's attitudes have changed.

Real quick round up

2011-02-16T16:17:00.001-06:00

Uterus pinata featured on regretsy. Oh, the symbolism.
Tampon cat toy made by Meowadays. Just the name Meowadays makes me smile.
Follow Period Piece on twitter!
This year, the Vagina Monologues will debut in Armenia.
Bust's ob tampon retrospective, recapping ob commercials from the last thirty years. My favorite part of their analysis: "OMG my vagina is just so small and tight! I can't use regular tampons!" It's like selling extra large condoms.

One more reason to stay away from tampons

2011-02-10T10:35:00.000-06:00

As if we needed a reason beyond TSS, there's a study out about dioxin.

If there were one thing I could say to tampon manufacturers, I think it would be: "Stop putting shit that kills us in your products that go into our most sensitive of areas!"

Softcup Update

2011-02-02T13:38:00.000-06:00

After my last post about Instead Softcups, I received an email from Tracey Croughwell, Evofem's vice-president of marketing. She confirms what I was thinking about their new look!

She writes:
I saw your piece on Instead Softcups and wanted to get in touch with you since I work for the company. We are indeed re-launching Softcup with a new look. After many years of being kept on store shelves solely by the will of our extremely loyal customers, we now actually have a little investment to spread the word about Softcups.

You'll probably start to see the new packaging on store shelves sometime after March. March, in fact, will be a great time to stock up, because we'll be putting coupons on the old packaging to try to sell it quickly to get the new packaging on the shelves.

So there's your inside scoop about Softcups for the day.

The resurgence of Instead Softcups

2011-01-30T09:50:00.000-06:00

Only in Bust magazine would an advertisement get right to the point like this:

It seems like I've seen a few ads for Softcups lately. I noticed that they've changed not only their name (marketing it more on Softcup than on Instead), but that the packaging also looks different from when I bought them three years ago. I'd still like to see them catch on.

Menstrual intercourse

2011-01-25T10:21:00.000-06:00

I have this article here. I can't decide if I like it or not. It's a guy writing about having sex during a woman's period. I like it and don't like it at the same time.

Now, I know which side of the fence I fall on on this topic. I do not like having sex during my period. Not only do I feel completely gross (my oil glands go into overtime), I also find that my vagina is much less receptive to any kind of stimulation during that time. However, I think it's great if couple's decide to engage in this act. I can see it as a very bonding kind of act.

The guy writing this article seems to be all for it, and I like that he supports whatever decision a couple decides to make, and even offers alternatives to actual intercourse. I like some of the euphemisms he uses like "closed for maintenance" and "seducing vampires". I like his general attitude toward this whole taboo act.

However, some of the points he makes seem to be towing the line between being awesome, and being a closet misogynist, like this sentence here about blow-jobs "The fact that she completes this act of lovemaking and accepts a part of her man into her body makes her a woman worth keeping (of course, not if you're paying her by the hour)." or this gem "or are engaging in casual sex with the bucktoothed girl that helps you get rid of a load or two every now and again"

Even with these little jabs at womanhood though, I feel like he has a pretty good attitude toward the taboo menstrual intercourse. Most people aren't even willing to talk about it, much less give you tips (I like the diaphragm tip, anybody know if you can have sex with a Divacup in?) on how to enjoy it, even if you think it's a little gross.

So keep on keeping on, Mr. Strovney, but watch how you speak about women a little more carefully.

Call for papers!!

2011-01-20T09:25:00.000-06:00

I just saw that the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research is having a call for papers for their conference in Pittsburgh. I thought that those of us who are academically inclined (either our contributors or our readers) might be interested in this. It's not really my field of study, but I thought I would let you all know.

Likelihood for rape tied to menstrual cycle?

2011-01-19T12:12:00.000-06:00

I think we can all agree that rape is bad. But apparently according to evolutionary biologists, a woman's reaction to rape depends on where she is in her menstrual cycle. Really?

Take that in for a minute.

Apparently women are genetically disposed to fighting back more against rape when they are ovulating, and less likely when they are at other times in their cycle. This seems like a slippery slope to me, and a justification for rape rather than what it is claiming to be, and evolutionary study. If we believe that rape happens for reasons other than the rapist being a rapist then how can we blame rapists that rape when a woman is ovulating. She is just in her most fertile period, and so he is just following his evolution, right?

Wrong.

As human beings we have evolved a little something called reason. This means that unlike our ancestors, who probably did forcibly mate with their female counterparts we can CHOOSE NOT TO. That's right folks, rape is not a product of evolution at this point, but a choice that human beings make. There are lots of different reasons that people choose to rape other people (women do some raping too), but they all come down to a choice that a person makes. We have the ability, unlike other animals, to rise above our biology and instinct and make decisions. That is what makes us human. That is what makes us civilized. That is why we can exist. Human beings have by far the highest capacity for reason, and jugement.

All in all, I think we need to stop looking at weird biological reasons people rape, and instead look at the people themselves, and perhaps the culture surrounding them. I am not an expert on rape, but I do know that even though our cycles DO put off different pheremones, and DO (to a certain extent) change our physiology, biological processes probably have little to do with the act of rape, and certainly can't be used as a justification.

Vitamin E Pill Cures PMS?

2011-01-17T16:37:00.002-06:00

I found a link to this article on Twitter about Vitamin E helping ease symptoms of PMS. I've been fortunate in that I have never experienced any really painful physical symptoms around my period, but I know a few of my friends who struggle with it.

Vitamin E pill 'eases pain of PMS by up to two-thirds'

What do we do with the c-word?

2011-01-17T12:26:00.001-06:00

I can't say that I'm really a huge fan of reclaiming words. For me personally, there are always three that come right to mind: bitch, slut, and cunt. (Whore's also a close fourth.) My level of comfort with each word seems kind of arbitrary and based more on gut reaction to the overall aural aesthetic of the word than its semantics and history. "Bitch" usually makes me bristle, even when coming from the friendliest of allies in (at least what they feel is) a genuine attempt at reclamation. "Slut" is okay in very specific circumstances, and even then, only with people who have a very clear, intentional understanding of how the word can be interpreted in feminist circles (for example, in regard to the concept of slut-shaming).

So right off the bat, for better or worse, you can see I have some pretty complicated pre-requisites for certain words. Reclaiming them sounds like a lot of unnecessary work to me personally, since my feelings are so negative to begin with.

But "cunt" is a whole other ball game to me. I like it. I'd never heard of the word except for when hearing that it was the worst insult ever, to be used even more rarely than the [formerly] taboo eff-dash-dash-dash word. (Which, incidentally, is a word that was used much less frequently at the time, but that's a different story.) Cunt was the word you should simply never say. Uh, okay, I guess. There was no explanation why.

The next time I ever heard of it was in porn, then in the Vagina Monologues. When I saw/read/heard it in porn, it was pretty much another synonym for vagina--I never felt like there was any extraneous negative connotation to it (except, arguably, the context of pornography itself, but that's again a different story). And then in the Vagina Monologues, it was back to Reclaiming Cunt, but I still didn't understand who or what exactly we were supposed to be reclaiming it from.

Perhaps it's worth noting here that I've only been called a cunt one time. In a way, it was a little like being insulted with the worst word in a foreign language. I had to stop and interpret, like: "Hmm, okay, he said this because he wanted to say the worst thing ever. I should probably react accordingly." It didn't switch on any anger inside of me the way being called a bitch does.

All that said, I like the word. I like how it sounds. In my opinion, it sounds much better than other words out there for a person's vagina. (Snatch? Ughhhhhh...)

At the same time, I'm well-aware that, even if it is for reasons I don't completely understand, it's a loaded term. It can bring out a lot of negative feelings (not unlike bitch or slut or whore) I think that's important to keep in mind. I like what Sara Gwin is quoted as saying in this essay:

"Women have every right to reclaim the word for themselves or for a particular group. However, there has to be the acknowledgement that this word is still incredibly insulting to many and we have to respect that"

Recently, I've been doing some thinking about the ways I take control in a conversation. I'm a fairly shy person--quite often I've felt like I'm being talked over or blown off--and so I think one of the ways I sometimes gain power or control in a conversation is by talking about topics that tend to make others uncomfortable, and thus shutting them up to give me some space to talk. This would include subjects like menstruation, sexual assault, most things related to women's sexualities, or jokes considered over-the-line gross--things that deliberately make others uncomfortable. I hadn't been aware of this behavior as a tool for conversation domination until the past few months, and I think the catalyst for that realization came from when other people did it to me.

All this came to mind when I read a blog post from one of my favorite zinesters, venting about complaints generated by the jewelry she makes bearing the word cunt. I agree with Amber on most things, and her zines are by far some of my favorites (do yourself a favor and read as much Culture Slut as you can), but I was kind of put off by the way she chose to respond to those who were offended, opening with: "The title of this listing is 'Reclaim The Words That People Use To Put You Down'. I guess it went over your head." Eek. It's made me think more critically about what it means to actually reclaim a word, and if it's even possible on a large scale.

As I mentioned before, cunt is a loaded term, and not everyone's interested in turning around into a positive. (It could perhaps even be argued that most people are uninterested in reclamation? I'm not sure.) So what does that mean when you're wearing cunt jewelry or preaching about pussy power? I really feel like it puts you in a tight spot (ha), because you're very much in the danger zone of making people too uncomfortable and shutting them down to any type of message you might have, controversial or otherwise. But, like Amber also says, if this is a word that's being used to put you down, there's something to be said about being bold enough to turn it around. I guess my question is, how do you balance boldness with tastefulness, that is, how do we achieve reclamation without alienation?

Hormonology

2011-01-14T19:27:00.000-06:00

While messing around on the internet, I came across this.

With all the hubbub about the astrological signs changing I guess there's been a push toward other ways of predicting your day, and this is one that I found.

Unlike astrology, however, this one actually makes sense to a certain extent. Now I'm not saying (as this woman seems to) that our hormones account for every aspect of our behavior. Sometimes I feel like crap during my period, but other times I feel very productive and happy. It just depends. I do think that it's probably more reliable than looking at the stars and using those.

Everyone's body does go through a cycle though. I think that in lieu of this kind of generalization, it might be better to pay more attention to the cycles of our own bodies. I have always had to pay very close attention to my body in general (due to some medical issues) and there are things that are more likely to happen, though not for sure in any way.

However, I like this site if for no other reason than it seems to me that if you want to predict how your day is going to go it makes more sense to look inward rather than to the stars. Though it walks the line between useful, and being a gross generalization of the kind that I feel like women have to fight about their periods all the time. And it seems to me that this is only acceptable because a woman put it together rather than a man.

The lesson? Pay more attention to your body, and less attention to the movements of the heavens if you want to predict how you may react to things.

Baby Not On The Way blog

2011-01-10T11:59:00.001-06:00

I'm interested in how women interpret their periods differently. It can be an annoyance, a relief, a surprise, and it can also be a disappointment.

One of my friends has kept a blog over the past year or so about coping with infertility. I just met her a few months ago, so learning about the ups and downs she's had with trying to conceive as well as trying to adopt has been really eye-opening for me. While reading, there was one post in particular that stood out, titled The Monthly Reminder of My Failure:

I think any woman who has dealt with, or is dealing with, infertility can agree that the day your period comes is one of the hardest days of the month. Not because of the bloating, the cramps, or the crabbiness; but because of what it symbolizes--another month gone by without the prospect of a baby. For me, it also serves as a reminder of my failure. And, while I know that my ability to get pregnant isn't in my control, I still feel as though I have somehow failed.

Even now, when we are no longer receiving infertility treatments, and we are moving towards adoption, I still feel a bit crushed when my "monthly visitor" arrives. It's like somehow there's a part of me that's still holding out hope--believing that maybe my body will decide to begin working properly and "Aunt Flo" won't come for a visit again. Logically, I know how unrealistic this is--I know you can't get pregnant when you don't ovulate--but still, once a month, I am crushed.

I had never ever even thought of this before. Actually, Megan's blog has made me think more carefully about a lot of topics about babies. In another post, she lists some of the best and worst things you can say to a couple who is dealing with infertility. She also writes about the anxiety she's felt surrounding other people's baby showers.

What I personally am reminded of through reading Baby Not On The Way is 1.not to jump to conclusions about others, and 2.there are always new things to learn.

The Potatoes!!

2011-01-09T19:42:00.000-06:00

So, this is more a personal anecdote.

When I was about twelve or so I came across (or possibly dreamed since I have not been able to EVER find the information again) some piece of something informing me that Russians (at least in my mind, maybe the Irish or the Swedes, again, remember I can not find this information again) used to use potatoes as tampons. At this impressionable age I thought "If this was effective at one point why not go back to it?", and my little brain started to run with the idea.

I drew diagrams for a thing that ultimately looked like the end of a pasta maker that's purpose was for easily cutting potatoes into a shape that would easily fit in someone's vagina. And I spent a lot of time thinking about the project. Marketing, production, advertising. Sadly for me, I had none of the tools necessary to make this product for myself much less market it, and so the idea died.

After being asked to work with my blog the idea resurfaced, though now I think that that would be silly. I don't know that vegetables would make the best tampons because of their instance on rotting. But we do need to keep our minds open to new alternatives. Anyone else ever come up with crazy ideas for menstrual products?

Live Long and Prosper

Blob

2011-01-01T17:20:00.003-06:00

Koit, "man of many faces", made a short flash animation that I meant to post a long long time ago.

Screen cap

Happy new year--please enjoy this small chorus of uterine droplets. (FYI, you have to scroll down past the ads at the bottom.)

8 Myths About Washable Menstrual Pads Dispelled

2010-12-14T11:16:00.005-06:00

I found a link to this article on Twitter by Emira Mears about the reasons why some women aren't willing to try reuseable menstrual pads. I think it brings up a lot of good points.

Eight Myths About Washable Menstrual Pads Dispelled

It may only be funny to me...

2010-12-07T17:45:00.000-06:00

..but here's a screen cap from my facebook livefeed, courtesy of my favorite boy-cousin and one of his friends:

Vulva Love Lovely

2010-12-04T13:38:00.001-06:00

Hey ladies! I am so excited to be joining the Period Piece team! To initiate my contributions I thought I'd share and interesting shop I found on Esty recently. This artist makes pillows, accessories, soaps, sculptures, and more all based on lady parts. She also makes custom portrait pieces (you have to send her three pictures of your vulva area) that are really cool.

Pink Orchid - Yonic Vagina Necklace, mature -- $58.00

I was interested in her reasons for making all things vagina-related. If you read her bio, you'll see that she has turned her painful past into a celebration of her vagina. I love that she used art as a way to prove her own beauty to herself, and that now she shares her talents and positivity with other women.
I also think it's great that she makes washable, cloth menstrual pads to promote economical, healthy, and environmentally friendly living.
Here's a link to her homepage: http://www.etsy.com/people/VulvaLoveLovely
There's a significant lack of love for the vagina, vulva, and menstruation and I think people like her are spreading a truly great message.

Advertisting humor (?)

2010-12-03T08:48:00.000-06:00

So, in my journeys I came across this website which has "funny" tampon ads from around the world.

I really like the painted ladies one, not for it's humor, but for the fact that those women are very artistically painted. The rest of them I only find mildly amusing, but you should definately look at the painted ladies.

Also, FYI I have finals next week, and thus you may not hear from this particular contributor.

May the Force Be With You.

"Tyrrannical Toilet Rules"

2010-11-30T19:59:00.002-06:00

Real quick: An [unknown] boss in Norway has recently required his female staff to wear red bracelets during their periods to explain why they use the bathroom more frequently.

This seems to be the final straw in a broader series of invasive bathroom-policing policies:

66 per cent of managers made staff ask them for an electronic key card to gain access to the toilets so they could monitor breaks.

Toilets in one in three companies were placed under video-surveillance, while other firms made staff sign a toilet 'visitors book', the report by the Parat union said.

Thanks to Jezebel and TheUndomestic.

Obsolescence?

2010-11-29T21:19:00.001-06:00

The Moon Inside You is a documentary by Diana Fabianova about menstruation and what it means. I have not seen this, but the trailer looks amazing! (Unfortunately, the other clips on the website are not in English.)

What stood out to me in the trailer is the brief discussion about periods being/becoming obsolete. Thanks to modern medicine, it is now possible to eliminate having a period at all. One of the [male] doctors in the trailer asks out loud, "Is menstruation natural? Is menstruation normal?"

The question of it being natural or normal doesn't sit right with me. What would be unnatural or abnormal about it? To me, it seems much more unnatural to load yourself up with synthesized hormones.

I'll be honest, the idea of having no period freaks me out and I have difficulty accepting that it could be healthy. But, I also recognize that as someone who has relatively drama-free periods (negligible cramping, very predictable timeframe, no outrageous hormonal mood swings), I don't have as much to dread. Not that I get head-over-heels excited about it, but I actually kind of like having my period.

I can see why women would want to skip their periods, but I feel like some of that dread comes from our culture. If you see your period as embarrassing or disgusting, why wouldn't you want to escape all of that? But if we as a culture just saw it as something that happens without all this negativity, do you think there would be such a push to get rid of it? Perhaps I would feel more comfortable with discussing the idea of eliminating menstruation if there wasn't so much unfair cultural baggage to unpack around it.

I think it's Karen Houppert in her book The Curse that compares menstruating to having a runny nose. When you have a cold, stuff comes out of your nose, you get a Kleenex, you take care of business, and that's that. It's the same as having a period. Stuff comes out of your vag, you deal with it, even if it's not necessarily sexy or exciting or glamorous, and life goes on. I can't imagine there ever being a movement for medication to eliminate boogers, questioning whether or not they were normal.

Great post on menstrual cups

2010-11-28T10:29:00.005-06:00

A friend of mine put up a great post yesterday on menstrual cups, including pros & cons as well as an instructional video: check it out!

Victorian Menses

2010-11-23T10:33:00.000-06:00

I have been taking a Victorian Literature course this semester, and this quote appeared right after I was asked to contribute to this blog:

"Arabella approached the time when in the natural course of things she would have to reveal the the alarm she had raised [of being pregnant] had been without foundation" (Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure p64)

I realized that this was the first time in the entire class that menstruation was mentioned, and even then, more alluded too. The Victorian Era was a time of repression in general, and it made me wonder about what menstruation was thought of at the time. This kind of goes along with my final project for the class and I thought I would share my findings with all of you.

I have done a mild amount of research, and have so far come up with a big fat nothing, so I guess really what I'm saying is:

Thank you Thomas Hardy for having the guts to say SOMETHING about menstruation.

As a side note, Jude the Obscure is Hardy's last novel, and it was considered quite racy (it's not by today's standard) and I have a feeling that part of the raciness was this allusion to menstruation. You would think with the emphasis on science brought about by the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species the Victorians would be a little more up on scientific things like the fact that women have a monthly cycle, but they didn't really like to talk about anything in too much depth.

A Bloody Mess

2010-11-20T20:47:00.004-06:00

Hello all! This is my inaugural post to the blog.

One of the things I hate the most about that time of the month is how messy it can get. No matter how careful you are or how often you may change your pad, somehow most of us end up eventually staining our favorite pair of sweat pants or our brand new bed sheets.

Most of the time it's nothing that a good trip to the washing machine won't help, but me being the clean freak I am can't stand all the faded stains on my underwear.

So what's the solution to a mess-free period? I tried a Google search to see if I could find any helpful tips, but most of the results were about how not to make a mess if you have sex during your period. Which is an entirely different topic for another day.

Some people might suggest just wearing a few older pairs of underwear during your period so it doesn't matter as much if you stain them. Which is a reasonable enough idea, but you also can't always tell when you're going to start and still may end up staining one of your good pairs.

I'm a big fan of Lunapads and have been looking into maybe ordering a pair or two of their Lunapanties underwear. No need to worry about staining them because that's the whole purpose; just put them on and you're good to go!

What about you? Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to avoid big messes during your period? Or are we doomed to always make a bloody mess?

Life Clock and Menstruation Clock

2010-11-20T00:45:00.000-06:00

Check out this art from Brigitte Coremans. She's got two different things going on here.

The first, Menstruation Clock, records a woman's daily temperature and records it on a seismograph-like chart each day. The result is a pretty neato fertility chart.

The second, Life Clock, is a series of beads. Each bead represents another egg that could be potentially fertilized. Each month, a bead moves from one side to the other. There are 500 "eggs" in this project--the colors change as the series progresses to show the gradual change from young to old, in a way.

Says Coremans:

"During the embryonic development of a feminine fetus, the egg cells are formed. In the twentieth pregnancy week there are approximately seven million eggs. During the further development in the uterus, a robust number goes lost, through which by the time of birth 'only' one million eggs remain. At the moment a women starts menstruation there are 400.000 left. Each menstruation cycle around 400 eggs die and only one (or two in case of a twin) will be released and can be fertilized. This process will repeat itself for an average of 40 years. "

Why I Love to Freebleed (and how!)

2010-11-18T11:47:00.000-06:00

I am a freebleeder.

At least, I want to be. However, it is simply not practical for me. I have long days away from home (some days from 6:30-8) in which I am constantly doing something that prevents me from going to the bathroom to see if I have stained my clothing. Which is the other reason it's inconvenient for me. I am a poor college student/single mom and am mostly still wearing clothes I wore in High School, with a few exceptions. I cannot afford to buy new clothes if I stain them, and until there is a stain remover that removes menstrual fluids, is cheap, and doesn't wear holes in the crotch of my panties, there isn't much I can do.

Being reasonably poor leads me to cut quite a few corners though, and spending money on either tampons or clothing constantly seems like a waste. So I devised a strategy to allow myself to (kind of) freebleed without these money issues. Saves money on tampons, saves money on clothes, saves time in general.

First, I have a few pairs of underwear designated for "that time". These are pairs of underwear that I specifically purchased with the intention of ruining them (they were initially post-partum underwear). Second, I only have 2 or 3 heavy bleed days. On these days, I use tampons. After the initial release, I let the rest of my period peter out with no interference.

I like this ending with free bleeding for a few reasons. Number One: My vag gets dry after a day or two with a giant piece of cotton soaking everything up. Number Two: I only use a few tampons a month this way which makes my wallet happy and makes me feel (slightly) better about my menstruation waste in landfills (I do plan on buying a Diva Cup after I get a real job, but right now it's hard to find $10 to put gas in my car, so it's a little lower on the list right now). And Number Three: Although I like tampons a billion times better than pads, they are still a giant hassle, and I do so love cutting hassles out of my life.

I understand that this method is not practical for everyone. Everyone's cycle is different, but for me a few blood stains on the inner seam of my jeans (so far you can't see it on the outside!) is completely worth it. I feel more comfortable through most of my period, and actually it seems to help with cramping.

FREEBLEEDING POWER!!!!

2010-11-17T21:07:00.003-06:00

saw this on a random tumblr & had to share (there was no photo credit given)

the second 'R' (re-use!)

2010-11-17T12:07:00.002-06:00

I did a quick search and didn't see any major posts on reusable pads, so I thought I'd include a few links to sewing tutorials and/or places to purchase them online.

I first learned about the concept of reusable menstrual pads from the book Cunt by Inga Muscio (see here for a post by Jamie with an awesome quote), which I read in high school. It blew my budding little feminist mind: Not needing to spend money on pads all the time? Reusing my old flannel pajama pants or New Kids on The Block pillow cases for something useful? Sold! I made my first ones by hand without a pattern in my dorm room freshman year of college... they weren't pretty, but they worked.

Since then, I have used patterns from the internet and bought ones from small shops on etsy. This website has a huge list of patterns that you can use for making your own. Some have wings, some have instructions for snap or velcro closures, and others are just regular ol' rectangles of various thickness. These might be my favorites, just because they look incredibly comfy and well-made. I love being able to choose what materials and how many layers to use -- super thick and terry-cloth for night time, light cotton/jersey knit for easier days, etc.

If you're not crafty-inclined or simply don't have any time to spare, here are a few etsy shops that have listings for reusable pads:
Vulva Love Lovely
Mother Moon Pads
effie the pixie
... and of course, there's always lunapads and the like.

Whether or not you having a sewing machine, I would whole-heartedly (whole-vaginally?) recommend trying some out if you haven't before. Your vulva will thank you and sunshine will spill from your loins. Or something.

Celebrity Endorsements Part 2: Aana Rae

2010-11-15T20:21:00.000-06:00

Continuing with Celebrity Endorsements who I would buy tampons from:

The Women of DC Comics

These women are the epitomy of awesome. They literally were created to do nothing but kick butt and be bad ass. Especially my girl Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman (until recently) has been THE symbol for modern woman power.

Also, for those who aren't clear these ladies are from left to right: Catwoman, Oracle (sitting), Zatanna Zatara, Black Canary, Power Girl, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batwoman (sitting), Vixen, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn

Joan Jett

Because you almost cannot discuss strong bad-ass women without referencing awesome rocker Joan Jett. Joan Jett taught me that you don't have to "give a damn 'bout a bad reputation".

Nichelle Nichols

Because having the first on-screen television bi-racial kiss, as well as being FREAKING Uhura from Star Trek, makes her one of the most kicking women of all time.

Fresh blood

2010-11-15T17:51:00.000-06:00

Dear Reader,

I'm excited to announce that Period Piece will soon have more contributors!

If you are at all interested in being one of said contributors, please leave a comment here or shoot me an email!

Celebrity endorsements

2010-11-14T20:17:00.009-06:00

Sometimes I like to think about how, in a perfect world, not only would commercial pads and tampons be safe and healthy for everyone, but they would also have awesome celebrity endorsements. I don't mean like from standard A-list celebrities like Julia Roberts or Taylor Swift--that sounds totally boring and predictable. I'm thinking of women that might make lady-bleeding seem tough and bad-assssssss.

My short list:

Samus Aran

Samus is tough as shit. Super Metroid has been one of my all-time favorite games for quite a while, and when I found out Samus is actually a lady, it enhanced my fandom 10,000%. Wouldn't it be awesome to swim through lava acid and find a SuperPlus upgrade? (cue upgrade music-you can click number 16 here)

Here's even a picture of her on her day off I found on smosh.com. It made me feel more awesome about my gyno exam.

Xena

I don't even know that much about Xena, but she's obviously bad-ass. I know enough about her to know that I would wear pretty much any kind of tampon she might endorse.

Unless it was made of fire.

Lady Gaga

When she creates this kind of theatrical imagery on her own, do I really need to add much of an explanation?

Anyone you'd recommend?

A Date With Ryan

2010-09-07T21:49:00.003-05:00

New campaign from Stayfree. It's slightly creepy, but also ridiculous enough to make me laugh.

Read better thought-out opinions and watch the other (quite similar) videos at The Globe and Mail.

Adventures of the Wandering Uterus

2010-08-21T19:42:00.003-05:00

I just drew this. I have no plans for it, but I feel good about where it might go.

(Technically, women's suffrage was ratified August 18. My bad.)

Menstruation and alcohol absorption

2010-08-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today, an epiphany.

From Flow:

"Alcohol tolerance also varies depending on where on is in one's cycle. Unlike men, who seem capable of absorbing the same amount of beer no matter what time of the month it is, women clearly fluctuate: they seem to hold their liquor the best during their flow, their worse in the week before."

This explains so much. Perhaps personal investigatory studies are in order...

SHE: Sustainable Health Enterprises

2010-08-08T17:05:00.001-05:00

A while back, I very briefly mentioned a campaign that P&G was doing in Kenya called Protecting Futures, as well as a similar UK-based program in Zimbabwe called Dignity. Period. In a nutshell, theses are corporate campaigns in place to send disposable menstrual supplies to girls in Africa so that they're able to attend school during their periods.

I've recently learned of another program helping schoolgirls, this time in Rwanda, and I actually feel a little more comfortable getting behind this one.

SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises) is an organization that provides microloans to Rwandan women to help them manufacture their own locally-based and eco-friendly menstrual products (they're made out of banana fibers!) I like this approach better because it's not short-term charity from a big globe-poisoning corporation, but is instead empowering women to succeed in their own local economies. And I could definitely see how this kind of commerce would strengthen networks of women in Rwanda.

Here's a pretty slick video about their she28 campaign:

Your tampon's defenses will be helpless.

2010-08-06T21:55:00.003-05:00

I wish I knew who drew this so that I could give her specific credit, but I saw this on I Love Charts.

Eggs are pretty dumb-ass.

Take a seat

2010-08-04T22:46:00.004-05:00

The tricky thing about trying to maintain a blog like this is that many of my post ideas are precariously close to gratuitous TMI posts that I really shouldn't put out into the internet. I think this may be one of those posts.

Okay. So. Toilet seat covers. I don't get it. I don't use them, and I don't get why other people would. The way I see it, public toilets, on a case-by-case basis, fall into one of three categories for me:

1. perfectly fine, perfectly clean toilet--most toilets. I have no problem sitting there.

2. toilet seat with some sort of... um.... we'll say "blemish"--maybe 5-10% of public toilets. These are toilet seats with (a tiny bit of) pee on them, or maybe a rando square of toilet paper, but nothing shocking. I may or may not sit there, but I'm certainly not above hovering over it. It seems grosser to spend time covering up said blemishes with gross tissue paper that you're then going to have to touch again to throw away.

3. toilets/bathrooms where something ungodly has happened--I can only think of a handful of times I've encountered this. And every time, I escaped immediately. There are not enough toilet seat covers in the world that will keep me anywhere that's been smeared with poop. That's all... I really have to say... about that....

I just don't get it. It seems more unhygenic to try to use one, and really, what are you protecting yourself from? It's not like you're rubbing your vag all over the seat... it's just the back of your legs. For like 30 seconds. So wtf? Someone explain.

Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation, by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim

2010-07-25T19:37:00.005-05:00

When this book first came out, I was intrigued, but still feeling a little burnt out on all the menstruation-talk, so I put off buying/reading it.

The other day I found out my local library has it for lending, so I finally started reading it a couple days ago. I wish I wouldn't have waited so long!

I'm not that far into it yet, but so far, I LOVE IT. Flow is the book I wish I had written. It's very fun, but at the same time very informative. I thought I knew it all, but I've found a good amount of information. And the things I did know already, Flow has expanded on more thoroughly.

I know I've said before that I'm not really good at reviewing books/movies/music/etc., but I'll try to get better at it as I read this book so that I can effectively convey its awesomeness.

In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of my cat with the book:

If she knew how to read, I bet she'd be more into it.

Back again

2010-07-21T20:52:00.006-05:00

So... I realize that it's been close to two years since I've written anything here. Consider it acknowledged, and now we can move on.

This week, three things have happened in a row that make me think I should get back into the game here.

MONDAY: I've been pretty seriously thinking about grad school the past week or so, and decided to revisit my thesis that I wrote with this project as an undergrad. Still fairly awesome, if I do say so myself.

TUESDAY: At my favorite used bookstore (holla!), I found a copy of The Curse, by Karen Houppert, which I immediately snatched (oho, see what I did there?) up.

TODAY: Tonight I got an awesome email from a gal in Portland who's working on something similar for one of her women's studies classes. I get emails from time to time, but for some reason tonight's convinced me to title myself Radical Menstruator.

Other things factoring into my decision to continue blogging:

My zine, Menstruator Extraordinaire, has been reviewed in Brazil, thereby making me an international writer.
Thinking about the Feministing redesign has me all excited about blogging.
Various smarty pants people keep telling me I'm a good writer.
I'm only working like half-to-three-fourths of a job right now, so I've got a good amount of time on my hands.
For the first time in a long time, I'm no longer stealing my neighbors' internets, so I can actually blog without giving myself a frustration brain-hemorrhage when things don't go through right.

Hope this goes well! Feel free to hit me up, because obviously my ego is enormous. :)

Dad's tampon input (no pun intended)

2008-11-11T21:12:00.003-06:00

My dad's been helping me figure out what I should invest my IRA money in.

DAD: You should invest in something you yourself would buy.
ME: Hmmmmmmmm.... I'm trying to think of what I buy a lot of.....
DAD: Tampons?
ME: Heck no! Those'll kill ya!
DAD: Really?
ME: Ohhhhhhhhhhh yeah.
DAD: Toxic shock and all that? That's still around?
ME: Ohhhhhhhhhhh yeah it is.

I will not be investing in vaginal carcinogens.

wtf costumes

2008-10-23T23:25:00.002-05:00

Recently I've been loving some wtf costumes, so when I came across this one, I couldn't not share it:

If you really want to stand out at a Halloween fancy dress party you need a few things;

1: An original idea
2: Craft skills to actually see the idea come to life
3: Attitude to make the costume work

What you see above is all three together but for all the wrong reasons.

Mail bag 2!

2008-10-17T11:58:00.002-05:00

I'm still occasionally getting emails and facebook messages about the blog, which leads me to believe I'm on the right track achieving my dream of becoming some sort of menstrual pop-culture icon. Weird....

Anyway...

Dear Jamie,

First, may I say how much I enjoy reading your blog! :)

I wrote a blog recently on the Always adverts (y'know, the whole 'have a happy period' malarkey), and the blog ended up being about periods generally, and about period pain. I'd love to know your opinion on what I've written, and on the comments that have been left as a result. Here's the link to it...

Thanks! :)

Caitlin

I read your post and all the comments at the end. Things got tense!

I never really know what to say during discussions about period pains. I certainly know that some women have a terrible time with it every month, but fortunately I'm not one of them. So consequently, I really don't know what it's like to be incapacitated for a few days with cramps/headaches/backaches/nausea/what-have-you any more than a man would, I don't think. I understand it's a problem, but as far as physical sensations, I'm largely in the dark.

I do have a feeling that if men suffered from crippling cyclical pains, there would be a little more research on it, especially historically. Buut, I don't really have anything to back that feeling up, you know what I mean? I'll have to think about this a little more.

--Jamie.

Things did indeed get a little tense...it's always more difficult when it's people you know! I agree about the whole not being able to back up that 'feeling' - but I think there is definitely evidence to that effect out there. Take endometriosis, for example - there has not been much research into it, despite the fact that it affects a vast amount of women, and awareness about it is seldom raised - so many women I know had never heard of it before, even though it is a very real issue. People always say 'well what about breast cancer, that's something which affects only women and it has loads of research into it...but I think the very fact that you can only point to one woman-specific illness is very telling.

It is a tricky one though! I can see where the commenters are coming from, even if I disagree with them, and such an argument is always difficult when neither side is especially well-versed in the world of medicine...

Caitlin x

So go read Caitlin's post and all the comments because it is a little something to think about.

Bad ideas

2008-10-07T18:37:00.001-05:00

Today I was thinking about the title "Period Piece" and how I've never really been completely in love with it. I like "Menstruator Extraordinaire" a lot better.

I was considering changing this from P.P. to M.E., but thought that was a bad idea because it's a pain to spell out M.E. (hence the abbreviations).

Then I thought about ways that I could maybe shorten it, and the first thing that came to mind was Mens. Ex.
Mensex.
Men Sex.

That's way hilariously misleading. So bad idea. Any better names?

Clever.... or no?

2008-10-06T01:57:00.001-05:00

Something about this I don't like.
Perhaps it's my general disdain for unwitty slogan t-shirts.
Or maybe it's my unfailing need to over-seriously apply logic to just about every aspect of everything:
How does bleeding for 5 days and not dying make someone untrustworthy?
It logically makes her tough, or persistent maybe. But I see no connection to trustworthiness.
FAIL.

Boobie secrets!

2008-10-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

I know this is more of an "upstairs" accessory and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your monthlies.

So to make a tenuous connection to the blog: The Cleavage Caddy does seem like a great place to tote around your Insteads, or, if you must, your tampons.

There are tons of times I don't feel like carrying a purse, but pretty much all of my dress clothes are without pockets. Unfortunately, I guess the catch-22 there though is that I probably wouldn't want to be seen digging around in my boobies on any occasion I'm wearing dress clothes. Drat.

Halloween costume idea

2008-10-01T23:54:00.003-05:00

Someone be this for Halloween please. (Either the girl or the little bloody characters.) I will give you a dollar.

Transgender Menstruation

2008-09-25T09:03:00.000-05:00

A couple nights ago on MSNBC (I think), I watched a show about a FtM transgender boy and his FtM mentor. It was a touching story. The boy was about fourteen/fifteen. I'm not sure how long he had been transitioning, but one thing he mentioned being terrified of was getting a period. His mom said one day he had one tiny spot of blood and flipped out. I have no idea what that must be like, but I imagine it's very disturbing.

So then I was thinking about what else menstruation might mean to different members of the trans community. A little googling led me to learn about Korean transsexual pop singer Harisu. She got famous by doing make-up commercials, but what caught my attention was the commercial she did for disposable pads.

I can really see how those transitioning female-to-male would want to avoid menstruation altogether, but I wonder how it's viewed from a MtF perspective?

Oh la la!

2008-09-23T01:37:00.002-05:00

I am surprised. Bleeding tyrannasaurus cartoons = genius?

Down in the Menstrual Hut

2008-09-22T08:27:00.000-05:00

Watch this.
Okay, so the music didn't really do anything for me, but I did enjoy the puppeteering.

On second thought...

2008-09-20T19:36:00.003-05:00

My last post was about PMSBuddy, basically a site for men to keep track of the lady-happenings of whatever women in their lives might let them.

But later, I also remembered sites like MyMonthlyCycles, which is a site for women who want to keep track of their periods. I've never used it, but it appears that you can also track other events relating to your body: weight gain or loss, fertility cycles, when its time for breast exams. I can see how this could be really helpful: it creates a very clear picture of what your cycle pattern (or lack thereof) looks like, thereby giving you a heads-up for next time.

Does anyone use a website like this?

PMS Buddy?

2008-09-16T15:35:00.002-05:00

Feministing brought to my attention a new website called PMSBuddy.com. What is it, you ask?

PMSBuddy.com is a free service created with a single goal in mind: to keep you aware of when your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, daughter, or any other women in your life are closing in on "that time of the month" - when things can get intense for what may seem to be no reason at all. ...Saving relationships, one month at a time!

Uhm, alright.

This website is geared towards men who want to keep track of women's magic times with the assumption that said magic time correlates with moodiness.

Firstly, as someone who has never really had any trouble with PMS, I can say that that correlation doesn't exist (in me, at least, and certainly in other women).

Secondly, PMSBuddy says it is "a great way to give people in your life a heads-up of when you might be feeling a bit irritable without having an awkward conversation". So instead of an "awkward conversation" (whatever that means), you can instead sign up for regular awkward emails?

Thirdly, maybe I don't want anyone or everyone to know when I'm having my damn period! This site kind of operates on the assumption that ladies will gladly tell you their bleeding schedules so you can avoid picking up on any social cues about if someone's grouchy or not. And for that matter, it also assumes regular bleeding schedules.

PMSBuddy, I hope, is intended to be a light-hearted joke kind of thing, so I'm trying not to get too analytical about it. Personally, I've never really thought jokes about PMS were funny. Although they're not always offensive (though most of the time they are), they just plain don't make me laugh. So this seems like a dumb idea to me. There are a lot of aspects of the website that annoy me: "During PMS women can feel bloated and unattractive. Show her how you really feel with some sexy lingerie". Ugh. Please don't. Odds are 999 to 1 that this website was made by men.

Thoughts?

Cyanide and Happiness Comic

2008-09-14T19:36:00.001-05:00

Looooovvvvvveeeeee it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello again

2008-09-13T00:23:00.004-05:00

I got my period yesterday and thought of how much I enjoyed doing this project. Then I realized there's really no reason why I can't continue blogging about the vaginal stigmata. And so I will.

PS - I finished the zine in July and it's totally kick-ass. It's called Menstruator Extraordinaire and it is available for purchase through my etsy, http://drygoods.etsy.com .

Get yours today!!

Real-life etsy reviews from satisfied customers:

I teach a Young Feminisms class, and needed recent zines to show them. Your work is amazing, and I hope it inspires my class to do some zine making of their own.
This is officially my new favorite thing everrrr in the world. I can tell you put great effort forth and I really appreciate being able to enjoy the product of your hard work. Thanks. Seriously.
Great zine! As a fellow menstruation academic, I will put it to good use.

From the Honors College

2008-05-13T12:12:00.003-05:00

Congratulations! We have just received the Assessment Form completed by your Faculty Sponsor with your grade for HONR 4000. You should be proud of your accomplishment in completing your project -- and are probably a little relieved as well. We are very pleased to inform you that your $1,000 Research Grant has been posted to your Revenue Account. We want you to know what a pleasure it has been having you as a member of The Honors College. Your participation and commitment to the Program are a positive reflection on the entire Central community and we hope you have found your honors experience a rewarding addition to your undergraduate academic career. Please let us hear from you with each success in your life – we am confident there will be many!

We am confident indeed. I'm doubtful I'll keep up much with the blog anymore, as comments seem to have tapered off, but I am working on the zine, which will probably be finished in a couple months.

Menstrual Blood Shows Heart-Repairing Stem Cell Properties

2008-05-03T01:22:00.003-05:00

When menstrual blood was put with muscle tissue from some rats, it started to form a sheet of muscle tissue, kind of similar to stem cells. This is amazing to me. It's useful because if a woman uses her own blood to create tissue she needs, it eliminates the chances of her body rejecting it. (Men are SOL on this one, I suppose.) I don't know that much about how stem cells work, but I know they're important, so it's pretty cool that menstrual blood can have some of the same properties. Here's a link to the article.

In other news, I turned in my honors project today. Forty pages. Forty pages! I have never written anything nearly as long.

And I've started work on the paper zine I want to print this summer -- get excited!

Women Scholars at Central shout-out

2008-04-15T10:52:00.003-05:00

This morning I was on facebook, looking through all the old pictures from Women Scholars. And I remembered this awesome bulletin board we made last year:

And, my favorite part, at the very bottom:

Lil Obee!

Coming Out of the Menstruation Closet

2008-04-14T16:13:00.002-05:00

"So here's a revelation. Menstruation isn't gross, or shameful. In fact, it's actually kind of boring. It's only "weird" or "should be private" if you think of men as the default human beings and women as some sort of otherworldy creatures with bizarre practices."

Read.

Panty-WAIST?

2008-04-10T21:49:00.003-05:00

The other day I was reading in my soc book something about masculinity and the author used the word panty-waist as one of the terms boys might call each other when someone's not acting masculine enough or whatever.

I've heard this term before of course, but I had never seen it in text. Panty-WAIST? I always thought it was panty-WASTE, as in, the waste inside a pair of panties. What the heck is a panty-waist? Elastic? Boys call each other boys pieces of elastic? It would be much more insulting to call someone a stinky sticky blob of lady-fluids. I think.

I was just surprised. Ohhhhhhhh homophones, you have beaten me again.

The results are in...

2008-04-07T16:27:00.004-05:00

My workshop was kick-ass.

Every single one of my evals came back stellar, with comments like

She was really light hearteed which eliminated a lot of the tension.
Loved our speaker's personality and the word 'vag'.
Jamie was a very good speaker and had fun with the presentation.
Jamie was open and charming and knew her stuff. (To be honest, that one's from my old roommate.)
Thanks for the info!
I felt like the presenter was someone I could really relate to and even be friends with.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about this some more at the Central Scholars Symposium at 12:30. It's somewhere in the Union; I think I'm in 233.

Girlfriend aint had period since she got pregant?

2008-04-01T14:06:00.003-05:00

I dunno if it's authentic or not, but I just had to share this.

Feministing

2008-03-19T21:06:00.002-05:00

Feministing did a post about menstrual products today. Hooray!

Apologies for the sparse posts, but lately I have been too busy working on this paper, my workshop, and the vast multitude of other projects I have been putting off all semester. Not great times.

Workshop: It's Your Body. PERIOD.

2008-03-13T15:44:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone in the UCM area:

We've decided on a date for my workshop!

It's Your Body. Period.
A workshop about the impact of menstrual products on your body, your wallet & the environment
Presented by Jamie Schlote as part of an honors thesis project
Wednesday, March 26, 1:00pm
Union 237B

"That time of the month." "Aunt Flo's monthly visit." "Riding the crimson tide." There are so many ways for women (and men) to talk about menstrual cycles without ever actually naming them. Why is this? This interactive session explores some of the taboos and anxieties surrounding menstruation, from the way ancient cultures interpreted it to how it is marketed to young girls today. Jamie compares typical drugstore products used to manage menstruation to lesser-known alternatives and reveals the hidden costs carried by both - to women's health, to women's wallets, and the environment.

So yeah. Mark your calendars; I can't wait to see you.

Mudslide in Crotch Canyon!!

2008-03-06T11:05:00.003-06:00

While trying to come up with a catchy title for my workshop in a couple weeks, I've come across this list of euphemisms for menstruation. My favorites:

Tomato boat has come in
A visit from Cap'n Bloodsnatch
The kitty has a nosebleed
Dishonorable discharge from the uterine navy
Rebooting the ovarian operating system

Word Count

2008-03-01T16:24:00.003-06:00

My paper has 3,366 words in it right now. Eight single-spaced pages.

Jenn (advisor) says I should spend this next week haulin' ass (my paraphrase) with this thing so that I feel good about it when I leave for Spring Break on Friday. I agree.

I hope I continue to agree throughout the week...