Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged menstruation

Cuntastic

With the popularization of blogs and personal websites in the past decade, there has been a sharp decline in the zine phenomena. I have longed for the days when the magazine rack at independent bookstores was lined with photocopied feminist zines, daring to say the things mainstream magazines cannot. Thankfully, there are still some zinesters willing to invest the time and money needed to undertake the taxing task of putting out a zine.

New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation

When I first picked up New Blood, I immediately thought about Sarah Haskins, the feminist comedienne who does the segment ‘Target Women’ (on Current TV), in which she uses humour and sarcasm to draw attention to ridiculous media representations of women and female stereotypes.

My Little Red Book

When something is already a little bit scary, feeling like you are alone in the experience or that it is something you should not talk about makes it all the more terrifying. Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s My Little Red Book seeks to demystify and universalize one such potentially scary experience: the first period.

Chart Your Cycle and Adventures in Menstruating #1-3

I’m one of those women who has never been terribly fond of her period. I spent years trying to escape my own bodily functions and wrote my undergraduate thesis on suppressing menstruation by using birth control pills. More recently, I’ve discovered that my lifelong migraines are linked to my cycle. My period and I have come to an understanding, so while I don’t make up funny nicknames for it, I use cloth pads and organic tampons whenever possible. But I have never been overly fond of my menses and to say my feelings about menstruating are conflicted is quite an understatement.

Brainscan #22

As a lesbian with an incredibly regular menstrual cycle, I generally don’t ever really think about birth control. It’s not something that affects my life, and other than the random conversations about birth control that I have with my friends and loved ones who do use it, I don’t usually find literature on the topic particularly interesting.

Wash 'n' Wear Pads

You’ve got your period. You start digging through your stash and - what? - no more pads! Do you make a last minute dash to the store to sift through new and expensive gimmicks? Perhaps you’ve thought, “There has got to be a better way!” There is. I tried the small, medium and large cloth menstrual pads by Australian maker, Pleasure Puss. The design of the cloth pad is quite simple: absorbent cotton, adjustable snap and closure wings. Like most women, I thought “Is that for me?

Original and Compact Ragtotes

Having been raised to refer to periods as “The Curse,” and plagued by years of heinous female problems, I have never been one to celebrate my menstruation. The Original and Compact Ragtotes are bejeweled, appliquéd plastic celebrations of the flow cheerfully announcing their use in a wavy font. First problem: I could not get them open. Angrily, I finally popped the latch. Next, they seemed small. I am a backup woman. The Original fits one regular-sized tampon exactly.

Sports Ragtote

The Sports Ragtote is a six-inch long hard plastic case marketed as a tampon holder. It comes with a snap clip for attaching to things, and it’s made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The company website asserts that it “will support 200 lbs. of weight” and is “crush-proof under most circumstances.” I squeezed the container as hard as I could, stood on top of it and even hurled it against a wall.

The ‘07 Lunar Calendar

A very interesting calendar, arranged by moon phases. It's a great idea, if a little confusing, but I feel in many ways it's really how our calendar system should be arranged. Bold, crisp, easy to read graphics, great artwork and much pro-earth text make this a really nifty calendar. My only caveat is that there's no space to write appointments and things of that nature on, a few lines in the corners might be the only improvement I'd make. An excellent purchase (just $23) and well worth perusing for that special gaia-loving person in your life.
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