Mostly, I think our (Western) society views women's coming-of-age (I don't know about Men's coming-of-age at all!) as something that (physically speaking, anyway) we shouldn't talk about much. It's like those tampon ads that say "it's an ordinary day" -- prentend like you aren't on the up-curve of your hormone cycle, or have cramps, or are aroused by the way the bus is jolting, or what-have-you, and No matter what, don't let anybody know!)
There's a book called "Issues of the Blood" that you might be able to get through inter-library loans, or something...
Laws, Sophie. 1990. Issues of the Blood: The Politics of Menstuation. London: The MacMillan Press Ltd.
She's also done a book called Seeing Red: The Politics of Pre-Menstrual Tension which might also be of use. It touches on a whole bunch of stuff, including how we're currantly (in theory, in some instances) telling our daughters that "menstruation is a wonderful thing that should be celebrated -- but it's not actually appropriate to talk about it in mixed company because it's still something that should be hidden away out of sight". What kind of mixed messages are young women getting now?
Oh, hey, random: One of the ladies in my Goddess Salon group did a paper on menstruation, and the nick-names for it are interesting. Names like "the curse" or "the rag" or the other *very* negative ones emerged in the 50s and 60s. Before that, the words our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used were things like "the visit" or "the monthlies" or "Auntie Flo". Stuff that, even though it wasn't celebratory, was much less derogatory and... chilled-out. I think this is interesting. (Any idea why that might be?)
Anywhoo. I think that's about it. :-)
Here's hoping your project goes well (and all my yammering fits into the comment-space available. ;-)
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Date: 2006-05-04 10:22 pm (UTC)Mostly, I think our (Western) society views women's coming-of-age (I don't know about Men's coming-of-age at all!) as something that (physically speaking, anyway) we shouldn't talk about much. It's like those tampon ads that say "it's an ordinary day" -- prentend like you aren't on the up-curve of your hormone cycle, or have cramps, or are aroused by the way the bus is jolting, or what-have-you, and No matter what, don't let anybody know!)
There's a book called "Issues of the Blood" that you might be able to get through inter-library loans, or something...
Laws, Sophie. 1990. Issues of the Blood: The Politics of Menstuation. London: The MacMillan Press Ltd.
She's also done a book called Seeing Red: The Politics of Pre-Menstrual Tension which might also be of use. It touches on a whole bunch of stuff, including how we're currantly (in theory, in some instances) telling our daughters that "menstruation is a wonderful thing that should be celebrated -- but it's not actually appropriate to talk about it in mixed company because it's still something that should be hidden away out of sight".
What kind of mixed messages are young women getting now?
Oh, hey, random: One of the ladies in my Goddess Salon group did a paper on menstruation, and the nick-names for it are interesting.
Names like "the curse" or "the rag" or the other *very* negative ones emerged in the 50s and 60s. Before that, the words our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used were things like "the visit" or "the monthlies" or "Auntie Flo". Stuff that, even though it wasn't celebratory, was much less derogatory and... chilled-out.
I think this is interesting. (Any idea why that might be?)
Anywhoo. I think that's about it. :-)
Here's hoping your project goes well (and all my yammering fits into the comment-space available. ;-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)