What's that tampon doing next to your penis?

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.

Obsolescence?

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.