#menstruation
having a lot of feelings re: menstrual politics/poetics
because there’s so much essentialism around talking about periods (yr a woman because yr body does this thing) and there are girls who don’t have periods, and boys who do, and everything that’s About Periods in the world of scholarship uses the language of woman completely unthinkingly. and i don’t want to participate in that, i wanna be called out, hard, if i participate in essentialism. on the other hand i totally believe there are a zillion ways to talk about periods and other gross/awesome things bodies do without invoking gender essentialism. i am interested in the body as a site of excess, an inability to be contained/controlled; bodies defying capitalist logic, of the emotionality of bodily processes, of the ways people scratch new meanings over top of culturally constructed ones.
last night my menstrual blogger post was reblogged by someone posting about how feminists need to stop staying up all night thinking about their periods (linked with the statement: seriously, fuck gender politics sometimes)(see, this is what i’m talking about, the person said)
1. calling someone a feminist to get them to stop talking is really gross and misogynistic 2. OVERSHARE IS QUEER PRAXIS. 3. criticizing people for talking about their bodies sounds to me a lot like shaming.
i will keep thinking and talking about my oozing body and i encourage you to do the same.
menstrual bloggers: we out here
PERFECT MAN. PERFECT HETEROSEXUAL (I’m assuming here) MALE SPECIMEN.
1. Ginger
2. Not afraid of menstrual blood
3. witty
4. facial hair that isn’t stupid/ironic
call me :-*
Put down a towel, shit, what are you, new?
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the first image taken, to our knowledge, by a fan with this blog in mind. panties off to you, anonymous fan, and keep the submissions coming/flowing!
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Reblog in memory of every expensive pair of underwear destroyed beyond salvation by period blood.
Let’s talk Menstrual cups!
Now I have been using a menstrual cup for about 4 years now, and I will never ever go back. But I remember when i first heard of them, I though “omg that is weird, won’t you like see the blood?” But honestly, I see less blood using the cup than i ever did when i used tampons.
Think about it, a tampon is a cotton sponge, bleached with chemicals that absorbs your period. The Average tampon holds what 5mls of blood? so you have to change it every few hours (and you want to because basically a tampon is the perfect environment for bacteria) A menstrual cup? well mine (Diva cup 1) holds 30mls… Now let that sink in.
That’s 6 times the amount of a tampon, it also creates a suction seal so that oxygen and bacteria can’t grow, so basically you can leave this baby in 12 hours (all day or all night) without it overflowing. You don’t need to change it in a public bathroom, you can just do it when you get home..
Heck even a few times i’ve completely forgotten I’m on my period all together because it is just so… comfortable, convenient and lovely.
Now when I say I see less blood than when i used tampons, it’s because i don’t really track or measure how much I bleed, but if you wanna do that, you can TOTALLY do that because most cups come with measurement lines and if you track when you put it in vs when you take it out you can roughly come up with which days are heavier and how often you REALLY need to change it. (but really just change it every 10 or so hours, maybe more on heavy days)
Now onto the environmental benefits, How many tampons do you use during your period? a whole box a month? now think about how much that is a year, how much that is in landfill and waste. (picture infograph above for figures)
What about the bleach and other toxic chemicals.. if they are asking you to wear gloves when bleaching your floor why are you putting that stuff straight in your vagina? Thinking about that just makes me cringe!!
And then of course there is the fact that tampons are the perfect environment for bacteria and that tampons absorb all your GOOD bacteria and unbalance your vaginas PH!!!
And how much do you think you spend on tampons each month? $5? maybe more? so that’s about $60 a year right, a cup is about $35-50 and lasts up to 10 years. you just saved yourself $500.
Now you might be thinking, but wow, some of those cups are huge and why are there so many different ones and different options. HOW DO I CHOOSE?
Well there are lots of guides online, I will link some below, but basically it depends on you. It depends if you want a black cup, have an allergy to silicone, it depends if you have a low cervix or if you want a pink collapsible one, it depends if you have had children, or if you have a really heavy flow, or if you want a really soft cup or a hard one. There are so many variables that’s why there are so many options!
Eco-friendly family - which menstrual cup is right for you
Menstrual cup wordpress - which is honestly the ultimate guide to cups
Menstrual cup guide
Menstrual cup reviews
How to choose your first menstrual cup - video
Which cup is for you - Quiz (hilarious i just tried it and the cup i use came in DEAD LAST on my quiz hahaha)
I think doing your research is important and i really do encourage anyone thinking about it, to just take the plunge! It is so worth it =D
Love this information.
For anyone nervous, you do see a lot less blood than with tampons.
I’d recommend any woman who can afford this to get a cup.
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Just felt relevant, might make it into a sticker idk
FINALLY. You’ve been asking, we’ve been working, and now Eve’s in the Play Store. D-d-d-download time!
Glow is 2! That’s right. We just had a big b-day. There was cake cake cake. And while riding the sugar high, we took a deep dive into our epic data set to see what we could find.
Turns out, we’ve collected a lot of interesting tidbits! We just had to spill. Et voilà—check out what we can show the world after two years of getting it on :)
