menstruation

Cuntastic

andrea — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

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. Radical doula Laurel Ripple Carpenter is one of these few remaining idealists (however, a blog version of her zine does exist at blog.cuntastic.org).

As the name would imply, Cuntastic deals with “all things cunt,” meaning anything related to reproductive health, pregnancy, sexuality, etc. As Carpenter is both a doula and a mother, the zine has a large focus on pregnancy and children. The premiere issue, focusing on pregnancy and placentas, delved into multiple women’s experiences of being pregnant, including Carpenter herself. Carpenter shares her own pregnancy journal, giving an honest account of the concerns, fears, and elation a new mother faces. Another new mommy also gives an account of using a midwife assisted birth as opposed to a hospital birth, noting her reasoning behind her preference. As someone who has never been pregnant, or contemplated pregnancy, it was fascinating to read multiple graphic descriptions of the experience of being pregnant and giving birth. The zine also deals with the squeamish issue of new mothers taking placenta pills or eating their placenta, offering instructions both for tablets as well as meals meant to complement the inclusion of placentas.

The second issue, the menstruation issue, deals with women’s’ experiences with their menstrual cycle and alternative menstrual products like cups (i.e The Keeper) and sea sponges. The zine explores menstrual related traditions such as “menarche parties” for girls who receive their first periods. (There is also a humorous story from a male writer on his first time having sex with woman during her menstrual cycle.)

The third issue, the radical parenting issue, deals with feminists (and other left wing folk) becoming parents. The issue asks such key questions as how to not gender condition a child, how to go without disposable diapers, and generally how to raise a child while sticking to your ideals. It is fascinating to see the issue of motherhood explored by feminists as this was often a murky issue for the movement in the past. It is inspiring to hear about women using their feminist ideologies to raise their children. Within the issue, Carpenter also details her experience going into labor while at a DNC protest.

Overall, Carpenter has created a compelling and likable feminist zine with Cuntastic, in which she answers such questions commonly discussed by feminists (menstruation) and questions that need further exploration (motherhood and pregnancy.) I hope to see future issues of Cuntastic soon and hear more about Carpenter and her new life as a feminist mother.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, December 12th 2010

New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation

brittany — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:00:00 +0000

By Chris Bobel

Rutgers University Press

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. Watch ‘Target Women: Your Garden’—in which she exposes commercials that dare not name ‘lady parts’ and you’ll understand why I thought of her and now, after reading New Blood see in her a great representation of the contemporary feminist movement.

In New Blood, Chris Bobel, an associate professor and chair of women’s studies at the University of Massachusetts and the author of The Paradox of Natural Mothering, shines a timely and important spotlight on the small menstrual activist movement. Borne out of divergent feminist leanings that shape contemporary menstrual activism, it is based on the effort to speak openly about menstruation, the bleeding body, and to rebel against the notion of period as a ‘dirty little secret’ as well as to act against negative campaigns and build an environment in which alternative, environmentally sustainable and body-positive feminine health care is mainstreamed.

Bobel’s research for this book brought her in contact with two strands of menstrual activists: feminist spiritualist who celebrate the inherent female experience of menstruation (think: red-tents, menarche rituals at moonlight); and the radical menstruation activist who, choosing the term ‘menstrator’ to replace ‘woman’ to free themselves of the sex/gender dichotomy and resist the exclusivity of static gender identity. Bobel calls them ‘revolutionary’; (think: radical cheerleaders; anti-corporate rallies, eco-warriors, and dressing up as Tampons to cause stir in campuses across the US).

Though Bobel spends much time on charting the development of today’s menstrual activism, she also reviews the history of menstrual activism, its manifestation and different approaches (i.e. working to lobby the FemCare Industry and government to improve the safety of disposable products rather than today’s radical menstrual activists, who have turned their back on such products and the corporations completely) during the 1970s and 80s in the times of the ‘Toxic Shock Syndrome’ scare. Furthermore, Bobel’s underlying message goes out to all those of today’s 'Third Wave Feminism' to not dismiss its ties with the ‘Second Wave’ (of the 1960s, 70s and 80s), whose tactics and some messages and efforts were very similar.

What struck me most, when reading this book was that there is a dearth in literature that so eloquently combines the scholarly theoretical developments in feminism with the practical, human, and material activism as New Blood does. What I furthermore particularly liked about Bobels material was that she has made a great effort here to question the demographic (overwhelmingly white, middle-class, though in the case of radical menstrual activists, mainly homosexual/genderqueer) of this movement and provides an important and interesting hypothesis that accounts for the absence of larger numbers of women of colour in this movement and the apparent complete lack of trans-identified participants.

Written for an ‘undergrad/general public’ audience, this book is an important and interesting read for anyone who wonders what’s going on with feminism today, wants to know about its relationship with its recent past and has ever felt that ‘bleedin’ is everyone’s business’. Let’s just say that this feminist went online yesterday to buy a Mooncup and not just because it’s all the rage. Last year, The Guardian’s Kira Cochrane said: Menstrual activism is ‘having a moment.’ Lets hope that it is not just a fleeting apparition on the left-wing media landscape but, like Bobel advocates, continues to be used to ‘interrogate the material body and identity, the cultural and the biological, and the social and the individual…to be better equipped to make profound change.’

Written by: Anna Matussek, September 13th 2010

My Little Red Book

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:43:00 +0000

By Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

Twelve Books

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. Like its namesake, The Little Red Book, My Little Red Book seeks to strengthen a cultural movement; in Kauder Nalebuff’s case, away from shame and fear about periods, and towards open dialogue.

The book contains more than ninety stories from a wide variety of women telling the story of their first periods. The women range from teenagers to the very elderly, and their stories take place between 1916 and 2008. They are academics, students, writers, filmmakers, household names (at least in some circles), and directors of NGOs, amongst other things. The women’s first periods occur all over the United States, as well as in other countries (Turkey, Australia, and China, to name a few). The stories are sweet, touching, funny, and sometimes a little baffling. They are as different as are the women that provided them. There are stories of shame, pride, excitement, and terror. Yet within most stories, there is similarity. This similarity is good for universalizing the experience of the first period, but does make the book somewhat repetitious at times.

As a concept, My Little Red Book is brilliant. As a set of stories read one after another, it did not entirely work for me. As I was reading it, I felt it was missing the very dialogue that it is intended to promote. I found myself wishing that the women’s stories within the book conversed with and responded to one another, such as would occur in a conversation amongst friends or a documentary. However, this is a small complaint and does not greatly detract from Kauder Nalebuff’s goal.

At the very least, the book provides readers with the knowledge that no matter what her first-period experience, there is someone out there that has felt the same way. Hopefully, though, My Little Red Book’s readers—particularly those readers who have just experienced or are about to experience their first period—will take the dialogue beyond the pages of the book.

On that note, here is my contribution to continuing that dialogue. My first period arrived a few months after I turned eleven. Like many of the women in the book, I called my mom into the bathroom when I discovered it. Similar to Sarah Rosen in My Little Red Book, who gets her first period during her bat mitzvah, the timing of my first period is interesting to me: it came while I was trick-or-treating on Halloween, a holiday in which there is a rather firm line between children and adults. Although the first period does not have that clear of a demarcation between girlhood and womanhood, it does mark a change in a girl’s life, and it deserves to be discussed. My Little Red Book is a positive step toward that.

Written by: Erin Schowalter, April 20th 2009

Chart Your Cycle and Adventures in Menstruating #1-3

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:49:00 +0000

By Chella Quint

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. So, proactively and deliberately, I asked to write about Chella Quint’s _Adventures in Menstruating _and _Chart Your Cycle _zines to challenge my own views about my cycle. In addition to learning all sorts of useful information about our cycles and depictions of menstruation in mass media, I developed a new appreciation for zines. The unending conversations these have produced with my friends and partner have been hilarious and enlightening, and I’m sort of enamored with Quint and her work.

Chart Your Cycle was Quint’s first zine, produced in 2005 as part of the 24 Hour Zine Thing. It includes a ten-year chart to track your cycle's ups and down, anatomy diagrams, and resources for female-friendly cycle information and menstrual supplies. It includes a humorous review of a belted pad, as well as an interview with Quint’s mother, the first of an ongoing series of interviews with women of all ages and backgrounds about menstrual taboos and their feelings about their cycles.

Because she apparently had so much fun with the first one, Quint followed up CYC with the Adventures in Menstruating _series, of which three issues are available so far, and frankly, it would be nearly impossible to choose just one as a favorite. The lighthearted, pro-woman take on your period is refreshing and necessary, and I literally screamed with happy laughter while reading each of these. My suggestion: request a copy of all three (or four to include _Chart Your Cycle).

Issue One is packed. Vintage feminine hygiene advertisements are deconstructed, and we receive a crash course in both tampon insertion and imperialism in advertising. Zine #2 includes an interview with Quint’s grandmother about menstruation and pregnancy, and billboards about period products are analyzed a la the vintage ads of the first zine. Quint also does a section called “Product Testing” and reviews Freshelle hygienic wipes, which is both wildly entertaining and completely on point.

My favorite section may have been "Leakage Horror Stories," where Quint and friends detail stories from their youth of leaking in public. Unlike the stereotypical Seventeen-style anecdotes about cute boys and your errant tampon string, these horror stories have an empowering message behind the embarrassment: you’re not alone, and it really isn’t your fault. Did I mention the zines’ hilarious color covers that replicate vintage pulp novels, but have since been Photoshopped to portray leaking, menstrual women?

AiM #3 is the largest to date. It begins with an assessment of feminine hygiene versus war propaganda and the disgustingly similar framework around both. Along these lines, we learn how menstrual pads were born out of the wartime surgical bandage leftovers, prompting the question: how did a bleeding wound come to be equated with our nether regions? Quint goes on to review _Menopause the Musical _(and deconstructs the critical pans while she’s at it) and sanitary disposal units, including pictures! She also discusses inadvertently synching up your cycle with female coworkers and Tampon Crafts.

If you love your period, laughing about your period, or want to hate it less, I wholeheartedly recommend this zine series in its entirety. These handy little booklets have literally changed my entire outlook on menstruation, and they’re a surefire way to spark confessionals among close friends or, if you’re lucky, a stranger on the subway.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, June 5th 2008

Brainscan #22

admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:18:00 +0000

By Alex Wrekk

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. With that said, the zine _Brainscan #22 _ not only discusses a type of birth control called Intra Uterine Device (IUD), but also presents the facts and personal experiences of the use of this device so well that even I took immediate interest in the topic.

In the first half of Brainscan #22, author Alex Wrekk describes what exactly an IUD is and how it works. For a quick overview, the IUD is a small T-shaped device that “is inserted through the vagina through the cervix and into the uterus as a form of birth control.” One type of IUD is wrapped in copper wire and acts as a spermicidal and ovicidal that works for up to twelve years. Another type of IUD is not wrapped in copper wire, “but instead contains low doses of hormones similar to birth control pills. The hormonal one can last up to five years.” The easy-to-understand information presented in this zine comes from all of the facts that Wrekk gathered from different pamphlets, doctors and nurses who know a lot about the subject, and any other information that she got on it while visiting Planned Parenthood for the insertion of her own IUD. After a quick discussion about the political aspects of getting an IUD in the United States, the second half of the zine veers away from a medical description of the IUD, to Wrekk’s personal experience. She describes the occurrence of pain from the insertion, and also the relief from knowing that she was pretty much set on birth control for the next ten to twelve years.

I was completely unfamiliar with the IUD prior to reading this zine. My friend who works for a feminist healthcare clinic read the zine and said that most of the medical information was right on, with a few variations in detail here and there. But the overall honesty of Wrekk’s experience, the simple language used to describe what an IUD is and why anyone would want one, as well as the appealing layout and concise gathering of information, makes this little zine a strong packet of good and accessible information. I only wish that _Brainscan #22 _could become available at every gynecologist’s office across the country.

Written by: Chelsey Clammer, February 9th 2008

Wash 'n' Wear Pads

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:32:00 +0000

By Pleasure Puss

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? Will it be gross and leaky?” I was worried about the absorbency, and if I felt like I would be wearing a diaper and constantly checking for leaks. Not so. The cloth material means no bunchy or sticky plastic to get all twisted out of shape, and the absorbency was far above what I have experienced with any store-brand pad - no leaks or wet feeling. No fancy gels either; Pleasure Puss pads are all natural and come in cute colors and designs (mushroom tartan!).

You can clean them by hand or in the washing machine in cold water. The pads wash easily and thoroughly. You can put them in the dryer, but I sat them in the sun and they dried in about 2–3 hours.

On the Pleasure Puss website, I calculated that I would be saving roughly $5,000 from now until menopause on disposable menstrual items! Reusable cloth menstrual pads are not just financially wise, but it is heath-wise not to put the strange chemicals in the ‘super absorbent gel’ or ‘cotton-like lattice’ - blablabla - next to one’s delicate parts, or to hand those substances off to mother earth when the garbage gets hauled to some landfill.

Written by: Lillian B., August 10th 2007

Original and Compact Ragtotes

admin — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:34:00 +0000

By 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. The Compact appealed to me more, and I packed it with three minis, giving me a sense of reassurance.

The hand wipes are the best! Cute and functional, these things rock. Ever the trooper, I loaded my totes - one for my purse, one for my knitting bag - and hit the world. Funny thing happened, my audacious Original Ragtote became one of my essentials.

I always hated how my pads would slide around in my purse getting tainted with blush. I hated rooting fruitlessly, realizing I was all out of napkins. My sequined companion told me I was covered. Since it only carried one tampon at a time, it had to be filled, or I would leave it out of my purse.

Imagine to be never caught out again empty-handed. Never to search for quarters to feed evil, broken feminine hygiene product dispensers. The Curse has ended! Long live the Tote!

Written by: Regina Raiford Babcock, July 4th 2007

Sports Ragtote

admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:52:00 +0000

By Ragtotes

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. Despite all the abuse, no cracks, splits, chips, or breaks developed.

Another perk of the Sports Ragtote is that it floats, which means there’s a chance for recovery if it ends up in a river, creek or ocean. The Sports Ragtote is waterproof too. Everything I put into both the main compartment and the bottom area designed to hold pills stayed dry, even after being held under water. The caps screw on to the container and snug up against a rubber ring designed to keep water out. The website says the caps are “guaranteed to last through 100,000 open/close actions.”

I managed to squeeze four long tampons into the Sports Ragtote. I estimate at least twice as many short ones would fit into the 1¾-inch diameter main compartment. Since I don’t use tampons anymore, I checked out the Sports Ragtote’s compatibility with other menstrual products. Two rolled up super long, ultra thin pads fit in snuggly, as did my folded Diva Cup.

Maybe I’ll carry pads in my Sports Ragtote, but it would also make a great travel first aid or sewing kit or could easily hold cash, lip balm and house keys. The Sports Ragtote is a good carrying case for any small items that need to stay clean, dry and intact.

Written by: Chantel C. Guidry, June 12th 2007

The ‘07 Lunar Calendar

admin — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 18:21:00 +0000

Edited by Nancy Passmore

Luna Press

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.

Written by: caroline tigeress, January 27th 2007