Celestial Arts

The Uterine Health Companion: A Holistic Guide to Lifelong Wellness

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:44:00 +0000

In The Uterine Health Companion, Eve Agee brings her training as a medical anthropologist and as a holistic healer to bear on the subject of life-long uterine health. She begins the book by explaining both holistic health and the structure and function of the uterus to her readers. Then she outlines a plan for optimal uterine health, with chapters on emotional/spiritual and mental health, the power of nutrition and the importance of a strong body.

In part three, Agee discusses what she calls “Uterine Health Conditions” and these span from menarche to menopause and beyond. This is a book for women at every stage of reproductive life. This is also a book for Western women specifically.

Agee’s training in Africa has led her to question the disproportionate distribution of uterine maladies from a global perspective. Without ever insinuating that western women have their menstrual woes all in our heads (so common to masculinist approaches to women’s reproductive health, as I’m sure most of you are aware), Agee asks why it is that PMS, endometriosis and hot flashes (to name some examples) are so prevalent in the west but comparatively minimal in the non-western world. Agee indicates that dominant western attitudes about women’s bodies and women’s reproductive systems and abilities have actually contributed to menstrual, reproductive and menopausal illness in the western world. I found that to be the most interesting thing about her book.

I can’t say I learned much about the nature of uterine health conditions or about things to do for optimal uterine health, but I’m a reproductive health geek, so I came to the book with a fair amount of knowledge. Still, the reminder to eat my orange and red veggies was a good one and encouragement to keep up on exercise is always appreciated. The part I just couldn’t do was the holistic bit: I just couldn’t bring myself to do the guided visualizations. Certainly, that had more to do with my own comfort zones. Still, I just wasn’t prepared to enter my uterus and talk to the people/things I met there (though it was fun to tell my mother do to so).

Agee’s style is engaging and easy without being overly simple. A quick read, enjoyable and timely.

Written by: kristina grob, July 1st 2010

The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:51:00 +0000

By Dossie Easton, Janet W. Hardy

Celestial Arts

They say that life doesn’t come with a handbook, but the authors of The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures would disagree. Their new and improved text on how to manage your relationships is an excellent guide to running your sex life.

The authors, Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy, released this updated text a decade after the first edition came out, and the reader is very aware of this passage of time. The authors write in a very personal, pop psychology voice and point out additions and edits along the way. The most significant one is the addition of exercises scattered throughout, so the reader has an opportunity to reflect on their own relationships and feelings alongside the authors'.

Clearly intended to serve as a soapbox for two women celebrating their sexual prime, there are hints of age and longing for times gone by peeking through. There’s an otherworldliness to it, as if they recognized the need for the update, but failed to break the barrier they laid for themselves.

The content itself is sound, almost motherly advice about communication and honesty—all of which is an excellent reminder of how to treat a lover like a person. Sometimes it spells things out a little too much; I sporadically had these “duh” moments. Then again, there were times when I completely commiserated with the authors and would hang on each and every word. It strangely depended more on the circumstances when I picked up the book than the specific content.

One thing that annoyed me, though, was the frame of reference they chose to continually come back to, simply because it is their own. For a guide on polymaory relationships, it seems slightly ridiculous to use examples from one style of relationship (having a primary partner and other lovers) over and over again. The limited perspective took away from the feeling of openness of the piece. It was as if they were saying that you can have lots of partners, but only if you maintain a primary partner (and fulfill the heteronomative niche).

This aside, the book makes for a great emotional refresher on building happy, healthy relationships and as an added bonus serves as window into the lives of old hippies. What more could you ask of a couple of ethical sluts?

Written by: Nicole Levitz, June 7th 2009

Girls Speak Out: Finding Your True Self

admin — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:38:00 +0000

By Andrea Johnson

Celestial Arts

Founded in 1994, The Girls Speak Out Foundation for girls ages 9-15 is the brain-child of Andrea Johnson and Gloria Steinem. The second edition of Girls Speak Out: Finding Your True Self incorporates the interactive exercises, vignettes, poems, short stories, etc. brought to you by budding feminists who have participated in the program. The scheme of this program and of this book is two fold. One objective is to amass stories of soul searching of a group of girls, while the other is to inspire more girls to magnify their struggles and triumphs in a heteronormative world. In this book, girls "speak out" about topics that are traditionally "reserved" for adulthood. These young women exercise their girl power as they challenge male supremacy and the latent subjugation of women instituted by marriage, motherhood, religion, and education. The strength of this text is the juxtaposition of its language and subject material—accessible to the targeted age group but sophisticated and readable enough for women of all ages. This book may not stand out on the shelves without purposeful exhibition, but hopefully, Girls Speak Out will make its way into the hands of young girls around the globe with the help of veteran feminists. The content of the book is piecemeal and Johnson and Steinem could stand to use a work like Our Bodies Our Selves as a paradigmatic design for subsequent editions. In the forward and introduction, Steinem and Johnson allude to their hopes that mothers, "other mothers," aunts, and older sisters will pick up this book, review it and pass it along. Girls Speak Out covers a broad range of topics from women’s global history to maintenance of self-esteem within sexist social systems. Johnson provides a useful annotated bibliography at the back of the book. This list incorporates a culturally diverse set of authors that some young women may never encounter in public school. Look out Girl Scout leaders of America! The young women of The Girls Speak Out Foundation have seized the torch of feminism from Johnson and Steinem. Peddling cookies is not on the agenda.

Written by: Aaron Nugua, December 20th 2006