there's our catastrophe

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY MENSTRUAL CUP

as someone who has used three different brands of menstrual cup (the keeper is completely terrible, the lunette is good, the divacup is good but I don’t like the Cult of the Diva Cup or how it’s become the generic name à la coke) I hereby declare myself a menstrual cup expert.  no hang on a second, what I gotta say is —

it’s a bit unfortunate that the culture around menstrual cups is so uniformly woman-o woo-woo luv yr period! essentialist because I think it alienates some of the people who could most benefit from them, i.e. people who have period or genital related dysphoria or just hate their period for whatever other reason.  this is also something I’ve seen discussed by trans dudes who use menstrual cups.

you have to spend a lot less time thinking about your period and your body if you’re using a menstrual cup.  the smell is less noticeable because the blood isn’t drying outside your body.  there’s no rubbish you have to deal with.  you don’t have to deal with the adhesive-and-clumps-of-dried-blood-catching-on-your-pubes issues you get with pads, or itchy-dry-tampon issues.  you don’t have to worry about running out of menstrual cup and having to make a run to the shops.  actually inserting one takes a bit of practice and I imagine it could be confronting if you’re not often penetrated but if you have no unusual medical issues and it’s correctly fitted you shouldn’t feel it once it’s in; like I said, I am much less conscious of a menstrual cup than a tampon.  one time I forgot that I was wearing a menstrual cup for forty-odd hours.  you’re not really supposed to do that but nothing bad happened.  you have to empty it when it gets full and clean it in boiling water every so often; that’s literally all you have to think about.

I barely notice my period these days and it used to be this huge drama that made me feel kinda gross.  I dunno, I can’t tell anyone how to feel, but it just seems like a sweet deal for people who hate the woo-woo vibes.  I’m not against being super into your period or anything, I just think VARIETY is good here

saltmarshhag:

If it’s transphobic or ableist to have appreciation for one’s own menstruating body, then it’s also ableist to enjoy taking walks, listening to music, smelling flowers, or looking at pretty pictures on Tumblr. 

PERSONAL PROBLEMS. CONSIDER THERAPY.

I agree and I also want to add: the thing with menstruation is that it’s one of those double binds women face. you’re supposed to do it, but you’re also supposed to be ashamed of it. you’re not a real woman if you don’t menstruate, but menstruation is disgusting. 

it’s kind of like sex, I think.  allow me a tangent?  sometimes I feel pretty awkward and inadequate when women with a more active sex life than me talk openly about it.  as a woman, if not many people want to fuck me or if I’m considered a prude then my status is severely lowered.  that’s a real consideration.  there are also definitely times when what’s labelled sex-positivity is just the expectation that you will be sexually available, and many more times when it feels that way.  that’s a real consideration too. 

but so is the dehumanisation of women who have sex.  I basically don’t experience slut-shaming, but most of that is because of multiple layers of image control.  I often wish I didn’t have to be so guarded but trust me, I really do, like many other women.  women talking openly about their sexual experiences are probably not my enemies.  the whole madonna/whore thing is a catch-22, a battle with two fronts, and we need people fighting both sides of it. 

similarly, we need women asserting their right to be considered women regardless of whether they menstruate.  but we also need people who menstruate, most especially women, to assert that our bodies are not gross, that menstruation does not exist for the convenience of men seeking heirs but rather is an essential aspect of our embodied experience, and to place the blame for the disgust for menstruation where it belongs, with misogyny.  they’re not mutually exclusive; rather, they’re mutually necessary, so if they’re pursued in ways that are cissexist or misogynist then we’re going to fail.  and it’s misogynist to pursue the (very necessary) anti-essential project of detaching the expectation of menstruation from womanhood if you do it in a way that doesn’t acknowledge that the widespread revulsion around menstruation is tied to misogyny, that many women menstruate, and that it’s super important and often difficult for them to make peace with their own menstruation in order to feel okay in their bodies. 

and you can even believe all that and still think menstrual art is kind of silly.  it’s amazing. 

(via saltmarshhag-deactivated2013011)

No 2: really?! Oooo-errrrrr

yep!  this really pisses people off.  sorry everyone, if you believe there is a spiritual or metaphysical connection between the moon and your cycle that’s a personal matter, but if you believe there is a literal physical effect akin to the tides then that is factually incorrect because: 

1.  PHYSICS. the moon has only been demonstrated to have a measurable effect on very large bodies of water; do you see the water creeping out of your glass every high tide?   also, tides are caused by a number of other factors (such as the sun’s gravitational force and the earth’s rotation) in addition to the moon’s gravitational force.  moreover, all things exert gravitational force, not just astronomical bodies.  The gravitational attraction between two bodies is determined not just by the mass of each but also by their relative proximity.  in other words, the K-mart down the street brings more gravitational force to bear on your uterus than the moon does.  but I guess that’s less romantic and witchy. 

2.  TIMING. the cycle of the moon is extremely regular and precise, while menstrual cycles are notoriously irregular and personal.  if the moon affected menstruation, most people would bleed at the same time every 27.3 days, barring health problems and similar.  this is clearly not the case. 

3.  ANTHROPOMORPHISM.  all placental mammals experience estrous cycles, most of which do not happen on the roughly-once-a-month basis experienced by the majority of menstruating humans. 

in short: the fact that human menstrual cycles have a timeline slightly similar to the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth is pretty much just a coincidence.  I know, I wanted to believe too.