"Menstrual feminist activist" article in The Guardian. Is my own brand of feminism a bit limp not to encompass this?

[Lio]

The 'menstrual blood as lipstick' thing made me feel a bit icky.

Menstruation feminist activists link

Am I a prude for not wanting to know very much about other peoples' periods? Or just not a very curious person?

[wahwah]

I find myself nodding in agreement, not that I want to wear the lipstick. Oddly, I have been interested in how hidden menstruation is for a long time and find it a fascinating topic. I could never find much written on it, but I recall 'Psychoanalysis and menstruation' being a bit of a page turner!

[herjazz]

do girls still read judy blume? She made me rabid for my period

[Prunerz]

Yes I had a friend who used to wear 'her own intimate perfume' - she'd read about it in the Joy of Sex.

To be fair, she did get a LOT of action.

Aren't teenage girls generally over the moon to get their first period? I know we were delighted. Twenty-odd years later it has palled a bit, though.

[herjazz]

arf

would love for these to bob up on 'things mn made me do' thread, noddyholder and SGB

[SolidGoldBrass]

I have also heard that apparently dabbing fanjo fluid on your pulse points is a good way of increasing your sexual attraction.

But I am not sure that Eau De UCM would be much of a goer...

[noddyholder]

cervical mucus is a natural alternative to clarins beauty flash balm -apparently

[SolidGoldBrass]

I'll use menstrual blood as lipstick when men start using spunk as hairgel, ta.
I am actually sort of in favour of menarche parties, up to a point - as in, a kind of secular equivalent to a bat mitzvah I suppose, but on the other hand I guess you'd have to have first-wet-dream parties for boys and I'm not sure which of the two sounds dafter or more mortifying for a self-conscious teen.

[serenity]

I use ones with applicators, not because I don't like touching my body, but because having had both a rectal and a bladder prolapse I can't insert any other kind. I'm probably getting defensive (raging PMT this week coincidently) but can we not do the 'my sanitary protection is more worthy than yours' ta. Even the thought of putting a mooncup near my ravaged and scarred vaj gives me cramps (although I think they're fab in theory)

Anyway, definitely not ashamed of having periods, but yes, just a bodily function for me too.

[Chickenshavenolips]

Wow. I wouldn't go and see her in concert.

[hambler]

what a nutcase article

[Chickenshavenolips]

[herjazz]

moonpail perhaps?

[TheMysticMasseuse]

or a mooncup

[herjazz]

the applicator ones are rubbish as well - the expanding lengthways does nothing for me. Little chance of one of them getting stuck now. Or even staying put

nice, fat widthways expansion is what I need

[Pixel]

Though I do still LOL at the Young Ones sketch when Ric finds a 'telescope with a mouse in it' in a girl's bag at a party.

[Pixel]

Dsis uses the ones with 'applicators', goodness knows why. She would die if she saw me rummaging around for my mooncup.

[herjazz]

arf at Mystic. See its not shameful [bush]

Cmon chickenshavenolips - spill yr yarn

I'm all for challenging perceptions of abjection me - I did a little fancy dress turn once when that christina aguilara 'dirrrty' song came out. I was her - dressed in slutty outfit but with big y fronts with chocolate smeared all over them and tampons tied in my hair.

[bodeniites]

LOL TheMysticMasseuse Freudian slip there i think

[MrsSantosisafeminist]

Isn't this just about getting the issue out there - stimulating debate? She's gone for shock tactics - not to my (ahem)taste but preferrable to saying nothing.

I am in my forties and getting my first period was something surrounded in mystery and shame (Catholic education, ta v. much ). Friends and I lived in horror of the stray tampon or sanitary towel which might fall out of a school bag in view of a boy. Seriously, it was a big deal. Yes, teenagers get self-conscious about a lot of things but menstruation is especially stigmatised.

WTF are tampons still sold in faux sweet wrappers and with plastic inserters (because obviously no nice woman actually wants to touch her own vagina )? My neighbour's bin tipped over in some high winds and her rubbish was blown everywhere. I was not impressed that she had failed to bag up her used tampon inserters (in lets-crap-on-the-planet pink plastic) and also worried that my very young kids would see them and think they were toys (same sickly pink as most girls' toys)

[TheMysticMasseuse]

and i still can't get it right!!! ok, deep breath, one more try...

[TheMysticMasseuse]

oh just realised that should have been [blush}, not [bush]

I am LOLling at myself now!

[Chickenshavenolips]

[herjazz]

ratrot - haha. And at the gorge doctor fishing around

think its one of them that until it happens to you, you think its really very daft and unlikely