(no subject)

[seren.livejournal.com]

Can I just say that I am loving learning all this stuff about female bits. I used to be ashamed of my body and my periods, and I made my mum swear not to tell my dad when I'd started - it was hard enough to tell her. And yet now, I feel all empowered and proud and actually LIKE my periods. Hooray!
I remember when I moved into a shared house in 1999, living with 3 men and 1 girl. I had bought tampons with my grocery shopping and left them in the kitchen. I didn't see that this was a problem but one of my male flatmates seemed shocked and said "aren't you embarrassed"? I wish I'd said something to him now. Silly boy :p That's like, being embarrassed to let anyone see that you'd bought tissues to blow your nose with. Gah.
So there you go :)

Comments

Tampons...

[cookiebeark10.livejournal.com]

I make my boyfriend go buy them for me. He's totally comfortable with it now, but I think it's funny how society makes our periods seem so "dirty". If half of the world's population is female, half of us have them. I live with 5 males and 2 other females. I say, deal with the tampons and mood swings!

Re: Tampons...

[seren.livejournal.com]

Yes dammit! It's only as dirty as going to the loo! :P

Re: Tampons...

[cookiebeark10.livejournal.com]

Couldn't have said it better myself! :)

[either-or.livejournal.com]

i like my periods too! haven't always, but for the past couple years i've realized that (even when i have cramps), they make me feel very...living. like, look, i'm alive! i have blood and organs and they work and such.

yippee!

[ninaf.livejournal.com]

I told my mom not to tell my dad but... they always tell. darn them...

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

I know! I remember I was in the bathroom and they were outside (but the window was open) and I could hear them speaking in hushed voices and the whole thing was just obvious. Although my mum did later deny it, but meh, she must have told him, I would if it was my daughter! :p
It wasnt til I was 15 that my dad started going on about puberty and needing extra iron and bodily changes and wotnot. It was way too late by then of course.. silly men :P

[lionessvalenti.livejournal.com]

I'll say that in the recent months I've gotten more familiar with my body and everything that goes with it. And that alone makes me feel empowered. Like it's not just the thing I live in, it's actually part of me, and I know how it works, and I know what's going on. I love that feeling.

I was never ashamed of my period, but when I was 11 or so, I dreaded it. I wished that it would never happen. And then the next year, when it happened, it wasn't all that bad, but just an annoyance. And now... well, thanks to my BC I don't have much the area of cramps, so I don't mind it much.

When I was in driver's ed, there was this annoying kid in my class, and it was the day before my period and I was PMSy anyway, and he was irritating me, and I ended up yelling at him, and he was like, "Oh what's your problem?" And I replied, "PMS." And he just stared at me. That did lighten my mood a bit. :-)

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

Its great isnt it? :) I cant wait to chart my cycle and find out how everything works. I keep wanting to learn more about it all. I wonder if it's something that could be used in a career, all this fascination for learning about femininity?!
I wanted my period as a kid, I was convinced I'd never get it. Then I did. I'd already had 2 "warnings" over trhe past year but never told anyone, and my mum was quite disappointed when she found out. When I got it, I cried for a day, and it hurt, and I wished I hadn't got it!!
Does anyone remember the torture of telling the PE teacher you couldn't shower after the lesson because you had your period?! I hadnt started by the time showers were sort of phased out, but I was so scared! I was so scared that I wouldnt even change m y towel at school which was gross. I can't believe I ever felt like that :(

[either-or.livejournal.com]

@ my school we didn't have showers after PE, but when girls wanted to get out of swimming, they always claimed to have their period. i never skipped out on it b/c i LOVE swimming. i do remember being really super embarassed changing in PE class in front of all the girls who hadn't developed breasts yet. i wasn't very huge or anything, but my little somethings seemed to make such a difference in a room of little nothings (yet).

i used to have a lot of accidents. it was so irregular for a loooong time and i never knew when it would come and when it came, it really came! argh.

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

Yeah thatg wasnt fun either. I think I will teach my kids to recognise the signs if possible. I cant believe I was too embarrassed to even carry a sanitary towel with me incase a boy found it in my bag :( Thank god those days are over!

my periods used to be bad too - they were fairly regular (sometimes they'd be 3 weeks apart, sometimes more, but they never disappeared for months or anything) - and so heavy, and they lasted at least 8 days. So unfair!!

[katlynel.livejournal.com]

heh, just earlier today I was complaining to my boyfriend about how we're taught to be embarrassed about periods and tampons and stuff. Like, you open up YM or Seventeen and the "terrible horrible embarrassing moments" are things like, "A cute boy asked me for a pen and I opened my purse and pulled out a tampon by mistake!" So, 13 year old girls learn that a tampon is a humiliating thing and no one should ever know that you have them.

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

I remember them! At the time they all sounded so mortifying didnt they?! And why did so many girls send in stories about taking a dump/urinating in the swimming pool - Im sure I have never ever peed in a pool :p But for some reason the pools they were in had this special dye that went navy blue and they always happened to be on a date (ah, for the days when you would take a date swimming without needing to worry about looking fat or something - not sure that those days ever existed for me)

[tropiquena.livejournal.com]

Okay, resolution!

The next time I go to pull out a pen and pull out a tampon, I'll just smile, stick it back in, and go in for a pen! Wahoo!

(I mean, I do that already, but I'm trying to get rid of the 'secret mortification' element. :D)

[either-or.livejournal.com]

better yet, offer them the tampon before you put it away.

Re:

[tropiquena.livejournal.com]

nice! ;D

[either-or.livejournal.com]

i gave my boyfriend a sanitary product tutorial years ago. having both a mother and sister in his house and he'd never seen any of them out of the wrappers!

also, why must they call them "sanitary" with some sort of implication that we'll be unsanitary if we don't use them? we might be messy...but not unsanitary. (i, of course, use them...wouldn't want to mess up clothes, couches, etc., but it's just the idea of saying we're dirty or something)

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

well, it would smell and stuff, so it's only as unsanitary as sweat..