Jezebel
period pieces
Posts Tagged “
menstruation
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period pieces
rants
Flushing Your Tampon Should Be An Inalienable Right, Period.
I dated a guy once who cared a lot about the environment. "I hope you don't use those awful plastic applicators," he told me once when I was on the rag. And I don't, because you can't flush plastic applicators, but I broke up with him anyway, and I would probably extend this policy to anyone who told me not to flush my tampons because of the environment or the pipes or whatever. In modern society our sewage systems should be equipped to handle whatever fluids we secrete on a regular basis, in addition to whatever amount of paper is required to absorb said fluids, and if that isn't the case, well, that is why it is great to be a plumber during a recession. The whole point of tampons is that you can flush them, and there is nothing more irritating to me than the male housemate who exclaims, once the first backup occurs, "Oh my god you've been FLUSHING YOUR TAMPONS?!" More »
clips
Annuale: The Birth Control Pill That Will Grow You A Second Vagina
Those who are creeped out by Seasonale — the birth control pill that enables women to menstruate just four times a year — will enjoy this parody from last night's SNL. It's a commercial for Annuale, the pill for women who only want to bleed once a year and don't mind side effects that include axe-wielding, binge-eating, and bestiality, among other things. (At the end of the fauxmercial, a voiceover warns potential consumers: "Do not take Annuale if you plan to ever become pregnant, as it may turn your baby into a firemonster... Notify authorities in your town when your period is imminent as they may want to incarcerate you preemptively like a wolfman.")
Earlier: Is Menstruation A Girls-Only Gift Or A Modern Inconvenience?
the crimson tide
Is Menstruation A Girls-Only Gift Or A Modern Inconvenience?
Menstruation usually sucks, except when you think you might be accidentally up the stick. But take the annoying physicality of expelling uterine tissue out of your vagina, add in cramps, bloating, headaches, mood swings, ruined underwear and the occasional odor and you've got a recipe for a major monthly headache. But would you ever want to eliminate your periods entirely? Salon is just the latest media outlet to pose that question, motivated by the sales pitches accompanying Lybrel, a pharmaceutical intended to allow women to avoid menstruating altogether. (Seasonale, a birth-control pill that reduces a woman's periods to 4 times a year, became available to American women in 2003...with Sex And The City writer Candace Bushnell as spokeswoman). More »
Period Pieces
There's a Flickr group called Not So Fresh Feeling created to collect pictures relating to menstruation. The offerings run the gamut from art projects, to vintage ads, to a picture of a discount douche, to a pair of uterus earrings, to a photo of a Pee Wee Herman doll sitting on a store shelf among boxes of Kotex. [Flickr]
There's a Flickr group called Not So Fresh Feeling created to collect pictures relating to menstruation. The offerings run the gamut from art projects, to vintage ads, to a picture of a discount douche, to a pair of uterus earrings, to a photo of a Pee Wee Herman doll sitting on a store shelf among boxes of Kotex. [Flickr]
period pieces
Let It Bleed: A Look Back At Period-Related Advertising
Why is it that menstrual products like tampons, pads, and PMS meds are always marketed to us in the campiest way possible? It's almost as though everyone's so embarrassed about what periods really are that cheesy-ness, euphemisms, and blue liquid are used as distractions from the fact that vaginas actually, you know, bleed. (To paraphrase Alice Cooper.) Up top is an Australian ad from the '80s for Tampax with applicators, starring Naomi Watts, who bemoans all of life's hassles, particularly "that one you don't talk about." But you know how we do: We talk about it...and talk, and talk, and talk. Jeez, you'd think we couldn't get enough of our periods sometimes. Anyway, after the jump check out the gallery of vintage period commercials and print ads we compiled. More »
period dramas
Doth Not A Mentally-Ill Popstar Bleed?
At 4:53 p.m., we received an email from Henry Seltzer at US Weekly informing us that the magazine had confirmed that in the event that Britney Spears dies, the Associated Press had an obituary written and ready to ship to the tens of thousands of news organizations that subscribe to its service. A few minutes later I IM-ed Anna, suggesting we sponsor an obituary writing contest, daring you readers to humor her while she was still alive with the type of false dignity and imagined significance she would no doubt be awarded posthumously in the pages of the Times. And about ten minutes after that Anna called me with some odd news: that the photo agency X17 had just posted a gallery of photos of Britney, labeled "EXCLUSIVE: BRITNEY SPEARS NOT PREGNANT" wherein a close-up of her crotch — clad in white panties and ripped fishnets — was displayed. The white panties were red with menstrual blood. More »
the crimson tide
Is Anyone Still Scared Of Toxic Shock Syndrome?
Helena Holmes, a 17-year old girl from Hull, England, came down with a devastating case of Toxic Shock Syndrome and subsequently went bald. But while bald, Helena was spotted by a modeling agent, who then signed her to a 3-year contract. (Thanks, Tampax!) Here's a question: Although most of us born before 1985 were duly warned about the dangers of TSS with regards to tampon-use, we haven't heard about it in years, nor known a woman who has suffered from it. (Apparently there was an outbreak of cases in the 80's, but things cooled down after that.) Anyway, in the interest of public service — and because, well, today is a reeaalllly slow news day — we've decided to ask the question: Does the fear of Toxic Shock Syndrome send you running to the Always aisle? (Side note: Maybe the easiest way to avoid TSS is to acquire a fashion-industry-mandated eating disorder and stop menstruating altogether!) Let us know after the jump. More »
Floor-Surfing The Crimson Wave
Frustrated that your mom gets you socks every year as a stocking stuffer? Well at least she's giving you something originally meant for your feet, not your cooch, unlike the author of this email: "My dear friends, Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting an annual bonus and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making [maxi pad] bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes. You'll most likely agree that it's a splendid idea...I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the nifty slippers for yourself. Awaiting your response. It's crucial that I get the right size for each one of you." Dude, we know money is tight, but you could just make your friends cookies. Just sayin'!
Frustrated that your mom gets you socks every year as a stocking stuffer? Well at least she's giving you something originally meant for your feet, not your cooch, unlike the author of this email: "My dear friends, Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting an annual bonus and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making [maxi pad] bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes. You'll most likely agree that it's a splendid idea...I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the nifty slippers for yourself. Awaiting your response. It's crucial that I get the right size for each one of you." Dude, we know money is tight, but you could just make your friends cookies. Just sayin'!
bloody hell
What Should Be In A First Period Kit?
The first time they get their periods, many girls are simply unprepared. Which is why Kathy Pickus and Terri Goodwin, sisters from Seattle, created Dot Girl's First Period Kit. Kathy's period debuted during a family vacation, and even though their mother was a nurse, Kathy hadn't yet been given "the talk." "I honestly thought, 'OK, I'm dying,' " Kathy says. "It took a full day to tell my mom." Terri didn't have a dialogue either — their brother died in a car accident the week before she started menstruating and her mother was too grief-srticken to communicate. Now Kathy has a daughter of her own, and the sisters launched Dot Girl last December. The $18 kit is a zippered bag with an information booklet, a menstrual calendar, a gel-filled heat pack to ease cramps, hand wipes and three sanitary pads in two sizes. It comes in two colors: Sky blue and (the more popular) peppermint pink. More »
what nature can do for you
Would You Sacrifice For Science?
Did anyone else ever rent their body for science experiments in college? Those of us who did probably now wish we'd gone to UCSD, where their Center for Medical Cannabis Research recently came out with a study showing that moderate doses of pot can relieve moderate pain. While my preferred method of menstrual cramp relief has always been a hot pack, 3 Advil and a bottle of wine, I certainly wouldn't mind getting paid to find out how effective this method might prove — though, naturally, they seem to be more interested in, like, cancer and stuff. Don't they understand? Oh, wait, never mind. This is why we need more women in the sciences. [Washington Post, CMCR]
the crimson tide
Period Sex: A 'Do' Or A 'Don't'?
Yesterday we decided to get "surprising" and poll our buddy list as to whether they believed in God. Now, that's not the sort of question that you ask our sort of buddy list without couching it in something totally smutty and gross, which is why we phrased the question, "Do you believe in God? And what about period sex?" Our inspiration was the August Cosmo, wherein we found a story that professes that periods and sex actually go together like um, Catholic school and plaid skirts.Not only can climaxing relieve cramps, but the concentration of blood down below can trigger extra-intense orgasms for women.More »
shocking revelations
Women Who Bleed More Likely To Wear Dark Colors
There's a new pill that will end your period forever! Goodness we hate that smelly blood.In a presentation by Lybrel's maker, Wyeth, to investors and analysts last October, Dr. Ginger D. Constantine, the company's therapeutic director for women's health, laid the groundwork. Citing company-backed studies, she reported that menstruating women feel less effective at work and take more sick days. Not only that, but they don't exercise and they wear dark clothes more often, she said.God, don't you just wish all women were marathon-running workaholics who never took sick days and possesed the confidence to wear bright colors all the time? It's really too bad all those MBAs are destined to die out.
Final Period [NY Times]
broadsides
Stilettos: Bad For Feet, Bad For Exercising In, Bad For British Newlyweds
- Talk about bridezilla: A just-married Scottish woman attacked her husband with a stiletto on their wedding night. [DailyMail]
- Research shows that, well, along with their emotional states, women's physical performance declines when they're premenstrual. [Guardian]
- Men who cower in the delivery room while their partners give birth by C section need to get over it: Tests show that babies born by C-section and quickly cuddled by their dads after birth cry less and fall asleep more quickly. [DailyMail]
- Asian women who eat Western diets with large amounts of meat, white bread and milk may be at a higher risk for breast cancer. [BBC]
the end of womanhood
Someday We May All Be Bloodless, 60-Year-Old New Mothers
More on the issue of new technologies that delay or do away with menstruation altogether. Writing in today's USA Today, Kim Painter reports on the opposition to period-less womanhood, singling out health experts, a documentary filmmaker, and a SF-based artist who has created paintings made of her menstrual blood ("I wanted to make something beautiful out of something that is usually thought to be disgusting," says Vanessa Tiegs). More »
an opening between my legs
This one's a little long, but if you fast forward to, say, 3:00, you might find yourself pretty amused (or disgusted, depending on how prudish you are). You may also find yourself curious: How can these people talk freely about menstruation but shy away from, oh, the word "vagina"? More »
We Promise: This Is The Last (But May Be The Best) Of The Maxipad Videos
This one's a little long, but if you fast forward to, say, 3:00, you might find yourself pretty amused (or disgusted, depending on how prudish you are). You may also find yourself curious: How can these people talk freely about menstruation but shy away from, oh, the word "vagina"? More »
old skool
An alert reader has just clued us into yet another maxipad video, this one a clip from a 1968 instructional film called "It's Wonderful Being A Girl!". Two questions and one comment. Question one: Why did actresses working in the years before, say, 1970 talk in that weird cadence? Did they teach that at drama school? Question two: Isn't this girl a little young to be getting her period already? Lastly, we would just like to say thank god women don't have to wear belted maxipads anymore. Or even, you know, menstruate! More »
Another Maxipad Video (Minus About 40 Years)
An alert reader has just clued us into yet another maxipad video, this one a clip from a 1968 instructional film called "It's Wonderful Being A Girl!". Two questions and one comment. Question one: Why did actresses working in the years before, say, 1970 talk in that weird cadence? Did they teach that at drama school? Question two: Isn't this girl a little young to be getting her period already? Lastly, we would just like to say thank god women don't have to wear belted maxipads anymore. Or even, you know, menstruate! More »
