honestly, a lot of the comments on this article give me the creeps. i'm perfectly fine with it if my boyfriend doesn't want to have sex because i'm on my period. i think the whole "quit yer whinin', we're gonna bone whether you like it or not" would be absolutely rapey and terrifying if the genders in the situation were switched.
surely the underlying cause of why men are afraid of vaginas and what they do every month is worth exploring. but in any healthy sexual relationship, you should respect your partner's comfort zone. that compassion will be returned. nobody should ever be forced into sexual activity they don't feel comfortable with.
My boyfriend was the one who taught me how to put in tampons. My mother never stocked them in the house (only pads), due to a highly embarrassing failure incident in the 1970s. But, I was over at my new boyfriend's house, and he wanted to take me swimming... and I blushingly admitted that I couldn't because I was on my period (I always assumed that people just abstained from swimming during their periods; I needed better high school girlfriends). He then raided his sister's bathroom and left me alone. And I couldn't figure out how to use the plastic thingybob without a diagram; I had to call him back and he had to show me how it worked!
This story is why I can forgive him for being grossed out when he found my diva cup boiling on the stove. #periodsex
@Breamworthy: Not gross and yes it would be awful to use it month after month. Just disconcerting to find something like that boiling on the stove if you aren't expecting it. #periodsex
My theoretically enlightened boyfriend (who probably wouldn't mind buying tampons for me, if it ever came to that) is fine with period sex (thank you, Instead!), but really disappointed me last night. I tried to talk about this article over drinks last night. He almost turned green and basically begged me to change the subject. "You even have a DRINK in front of you and you can't talk about it?" Sigh. Yeah. Disappointing. #periodsex
I know that the point of the post is to try and get people to be more accepting of their bodies natural functions. I just feel like this is yet ANOTHER thing that I'm supposed to do or not do, regarding my body and my refusal or consent to some people is like I'm either making a feminist statement or aligning myself with the patriarchy. Which is ridiculous. People's choices are made for lots of reasons, and I'm tired of being told that not only do I need to be a skinny, white, large breasted, tiny waisted woman girl who shaves and likes anal and gives blowjobs and has sex all the time but not on her period and uses scrunchies and is SEXXXXY while also being a virgin (otherwise, I'm a whore), on the other hand I have to also like having sex, and masturbate, and love my body for all its flaws, and not use tampons, and not shave, and think that porn is degrading to women, and be totally ok with my period, and love my womb, but use birth control and be responsible with sex until I'm finanically/emotionally ready to have kids, and be ok with having sex on my period , otherwise I'm not being a good feminist. It all just makes me want to scream. My body is my body and my choices I make regarding it are mine alone. Unless I come up to people and ask "Hey, what do you guys think about this...do you think this is a feminist choice/reinforces stereotypical gender roles? And does that make it good or bad?" then it isn't anyone's business.
I think your frustrations are shared by plenty of women, self-identified feminists or not. It's just another part of the 'superwoman' myth, only you've done a good job of showing that it exists well before women are expected to juggle kids and a career. Personally, I say to each her own, but in an ideal world 'pro-choice' (in everything from birth control to waxing) would be shorthand for 'pro-informed choice.' Women shouldn't have to apologize for every choice they make, but they shouldn't pretend they're making them in a vacuum. #periodsex
To be fair, I think most of us would FREAK OUT if we woke up covered in blood like that when we weren't expecting it. There are quite a few people who have phobias of blood, and he might be one of them. #periodsex
@geekgirlliz: I would kind of liken it to a guy coming in my mouth without any warning. You give a person a heads up (no pun intended) about body fluids. It's just common courtesy! #periodsex
@bklyn155: Once again, there's really no way to know if the woman involved even knew she had started her period (or remembered she was on it, if they were that wasted). And I'd liken it more to a guy coming on a woman's chest rather than in her mouth, because that's where the blood was. #periodsex
[...]if they really prefer to abstain until a woman is ritually pure, that's up to them.
Is that really fair? Some women aren't comfortable with their own menstrual blood. I agree that guys should be taught about menstruation early on, but the fact of the matter is that they haven't. It's different and frankly is kind of gross, just as a lot of bodily fluids are. Waking up covered in blood doesn't sound too great for either party, really, and that's what the guy should consider. Being grossed out about and being understanding of it are two different things. #periodsex
While I wouldn't advocate kicking a guy to the curb just because period sex isn't his favorite, I would wager that someone for whom menstrual blood triggers "post-trauma flashbacks" may not be a keeper.#periodsex
@Pandorasvoicebox: No, I didn't miss that part, I just found "ritually pure" to be a little abrasive and snarky to guys and/or women that don't like period sex.
Probably taking it too seriously, but just bothered me. #periodsex
@cailizma: Except that it is more than just snark, it is based on real, concrete history as well as present day practices in some cultures and religions. Women still aren't allowed to touch certain religious articles or do certain things while menstruating because they are seen as 'unclean' or might taint a(n eternally pure) man's energy. It's hard to believe that this persistent taboo has absolutely no effect on the secular world. #periodsex
@HereComesMyBaby: Correct,but, a religious term used in a snarky manner is snark. It became snark when no other alternative was offered. It was either be all understanding and accepting of period sex, or wait until ritually pure, as if religion were the only possible reason one could be off put.
I for one love my wife's body in all of it's phases and her period bothers her much more than me.
But that particular phrase seemed a little consescending to me as well. #periodsex
@donopolis: Eh, condescending it was, but I wouldn't call it snarky. I think the writer of this post didn't think of the possibility of someone hating period sex for reasons other than religious/misogynist.
But whatevs. Snark, not snark, I'm over it. #periodsex
The funniest thing I ever heard was when my bf said "don't all women get hysterectomies at 45?" because his mom had one. he also used to pronounce "menstruation" like this: "men-iss-tration" He grew up with only brothers in a household where dating was not allowed. I set him straight pretty quickly. Now, we're very comfortable talking about all kinds of body issues, which is nice. #periodsex
Oh god, a story about needing to teach a partner about "down there." (I use that term bc he and I were NOT talking about the same thing).
I had my period, went to the bathroom and put in a tampon and I guess I told him. Then about 1/2 hour later I had to pee so I got up and excused myself to the bathrom. He said "do you need another tampon." I told him that I didn't bc the other one wasn't that old. So he says:
"So do you take it out and put it back in when you finish peeing, or does your pee drip through it?"
... related to the article, I wouldn't surprise a guy with period sex for the first time, especially if we weren't in a swapping bodily fluids other than spit type of a relationship. But the long-term bf (not the one in the story, he's been gone for a loooong time) knows that if he doesn't want period sex, he's missing 25% of his chances.
@gexx: @Anne: I too have encountered this. Seriously, didn't these guys do basic biology at high school? Three holes, people! Three functions! I can draw you a really obvious diagram!
Or you can suggest they try to fit a tampon into their penis.... #periodsex
@Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith: When I was younger, for a long time I honestly thought I was deformed, because we had been shown this picture at school, but not really had it explained, and I couldn't find my urethra... it's not particualrly obvious, and I didn't realise it was so tiny. I always thought the wee came out of the vagina, so when I discovered there were three, I was like.."oh shit! I only have two!"... I thought this for an embarassingly long time.
I think the point is that we actually don't learn enough about our vaginas. We don't see other women's vaginas (except in porn!) and we don't really talk about them (except in porn). Guys wee next to each other, and their dicks are more... obviously out. They know what eachother's dicks look like, and they know how theirs compares with other dicks. I think we need to see more vaginas from an earlier age! #periodsex
@aimeeg: Damn straight. Australian Cosmo had a good go at printing pictures of "normal" (ie, non-surgically fiddled with) vaginas a while back and were told that while a photo of a penis was fine, the vadge required not just a sealed section but also a sealed magazine and restricted sales. So instead they went with an editorial about how a lack of knowledge of what other vaginas look like leads to all sorts of needless anxiety about what is "normal. #periodsex
@jenrobe: Oh yeah totally! There's a programme here, I dunno if you get it there called "embarassing illnesses" - I think the title is pretty self explanatory. Anyway there was a girl on it who thought her labia were too big, she must have been about 15, and the 'doctor' far from showing her that her vagina was perfectly normal, referred her for a labioplasty. It was so bad, because it just re-enforces the idea that unless we have porn star vaginas with no obvious outtie bits (which is also perfectly normal) then we're deformed! Bah.
Although to be fair to them they have since launched this website (NSFW WARNING!) [www.channel4embarrassingillnesses.com]
Some of the comments on there are particularly illuminating. #periodsex
But that gallery is fascinating and awesome. And yeah, kind of relieving. Also, good thing I didn't read this at work, because sometimes I see "NSFW" and think, oh, it can't be THAT bad... #periodsex
@jenrobe: Haha :) Quite honestly I don't see why vaginas shouldn't be suitable for work anyway! But I suppose it would take some explaining to your boss. #periodsex
Seriously, as a male may I ask that women immediately dump any guy over the age of 18 who
-Whines about purchasing feminine hygiene products on his own
-Gets "creeped out" by menstral blood
-Does not know the difference between a tampon and a pad
-Turns your sexual advances away because you're menstrating.
-Refers to being exposed to menstrual blood in the same tone or using the same wording as the guy in "The Godfather" who got a horse's head in his bed.
basically, any guy who acts like a complete twit when confronted with the fact that the female of the species ovulates and menstrates as a natural bodily function that is neither "unclean" nor "weird".
Dump them and hopefully if it happens often enough they'll get over this nonsense.
Of the women I've been with, it's about split on liking or disliking period sex. One partner said it helped with cramps, another said it made them way worse. Again, this falls under the "talk to the person you're fucking" catch-all of sex advice.
I have no preference. It does feel different, something like, I dunno, texture? It's hard to describe. And even if it is a heavy flow, you can always hit the showers :)
And it came in like the barking of dogs in your belly,
the lunatic dogs that bark every full moon on the dot.
The clock in you unwound, the little room collapsed,
and the blood trickled out in a thin red ribbon,
licking the white sheets.
They call it a period, but it’s really a run-on sentence
babbling on all week. It’s the definition of womanhood
reduced by repetition to the tedium of tampon commercials,
punchlines, and the day-long math test of cramps
shooting through you like swimmer’s stitches
while you’re in the middle of the river.
And I watch you fight to swim to the other side
of the bed, kicking, gasping hard between gulps of chamomile tea.
But when the blood is calm, it is beautiful
as a bone-handled knife. It dreams, and as it dreams
it drools like a baby. It’s the drip-drip of a faucet
as we go to sleep, it’s a bee beating itself against the glass.
It’s a presence, not like a ghost but like a memory
in your skin, changing the pitch and timbre
of your body to my ear as I pull my fingers across
your belly and you find my lips in the dark like a magnet
and I slip my fingers through your hair as gently as thoughts
and you say,
"Baby, not tonight. I’m on my period."
And I say,
Baby, I will make love to you until we look like a war zone.
Give me the sweet murder of your body
until they string up crime scene tape across the bedroom,
because period sex is awesome.
I will love you like surgery and I will transplant your heart.
I will love you like a horror movie,
’cause it’s about to be a bloodbath in here.
Because I need a hot transfusion of your love, type A-positive
because you can’t B-negative when I’m giving you my O, O, O…
I want to surf your crimson wave,
and invite your Aunt Flow for a threesome.
I want to reverse your curse, because the Red Sox are in town.
I want to make this a "special time."
I want to put my submarine in your Red Sea
and hunt for Red October, and do not hesitate
to ask me to go snorkeling down there.
Because if I’m going to order the finest steak,
I’m going to eat it rare.
Yeah, because I crave the taste of blood,
and I want your nerves raw like a bullet wound valentine.
And whether it’s hard or sweet, we’re going to leave
skid marks on the sheets
and handprints on the walls.
So throw that tampon in the air like a cotton Sputnik, just lob it,
’cause in the end, I want to be bloodier than John Wayne Bobbitt.
Your time of the month has perfect timing
because you open like the elevator doors in "The Shining."
I like some ketchup when I’m dining,
but I want to taste copper like I’m dying.
So let the woman in you make a man out of me.
Let’s get unclean. Because this lovemaking is no less perfect
than the moon rising in you, and this lovemaking is the gospel music
made by the rhythm of flesh and blood and flesh and blood,
and this blood is the closest I will ever be to making love
to your insides, sailing through your veins and arteries.
This blood on my skin is the photograph I take
when I visit your heart.
I live in Plattsburgh and we've been discussing this article all day. If you read the full article you'll find out why, it has nothing to do with disliking sex with a partner who is having her period and more to do with how he describes women.
The article is highly misogynistic and places sexual satisfaction in the world of men. Males should obviously be the recipient of sexual pleasure and women should serve as the vehicles to provide them with this pleasure. He says that if women, or in his words, "lady friends," aren't going to perform anal sex (which he says he understands since "even some porn stars decline the deed") they should compensate men by giving them blow jobs for a week.
Though he states that he knows women are more sexually aroused during their period, he's clearly not interested in having a relationship in which there's mutual sexual satisfaction. His words are meant to be shaming, that women should be ashamed of a natural occurrence. #periodsex
I'm finally with a guy who isn't grossed out by period sex. He'll have sex with me, he'll go down on me, I'll orgasm. The only thing that's different is the mickey mouse beach towel that we lay down over the sheets.
I didn't know how to face the period sex issue either, until I watched a pot psychology video where Tracy tells somebody to say "If you don't mind I don't mind" . That's what I did and the guy didn't mind, which made me really glad and comfortable, so I guess a little warning won't hurt anybody. #periodsex
@MissPurrsALot: It's a great catch-all line because really I think a lot of shame and embarrassment is just feeding off *someone else's* shame and embarrassment until it becomes a big Cath 22. #periodsex
11/13/09
surely the underlying cause of why men are afraid of vaginas and what they do every month is worth exploring. but in any healthy sexual relationship, you should respect your partner's comfort zone. that compassion will be returned. nobody should ever be forced into sexual activity they don't feel comfortable with.
11/12/09
11/12/09
This story is why I can forgive him for being grossed out when he found my diva cup boiling on the stove. #periodsex
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
I think your frustrations are shared by plenty of women, self-identified feminists or not. It's just another part of the 'superwoman' myth, only you've done a good job of showing that it exists well before women are expected to juggle kids and a career. Personally, I say to each her own, but in an ideal world 'pro-choice' (in everything from birth control to waxing) would be shorthand for 'pro-informed choice.' Women shouldn't have to apologize for every choice they make, but they shouldn't pretend they're making them in a vacuum. #periodsex
11/11/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
Is that really fair? Some women aren't comfortable with their own menstrual blood. I agree that guys should be taught about menstruation early on, but the fact of the matter is that they haven't. It's different and frankly is kind of gross, just as a lot of bodily fluids are. Waking up covered in blood doesn't sound too great for either party, really, and that's what the guy should consider. Being grossed out about and being understanding of it are two different things. #periodsex
11/11/09
While I wouldn't advocate kicking a guy to the curb just because period sex isn't his favorite, I would wager that someone for whom menstrual blood triggers "post-trauma flashbacks" may not be a keeper. #periodsex
11/12/09
Probably taking it too seriously, but just bothered me. #periodsex
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
I for one love my wife's body in all of it's phases and her period bothers her much more than me.
But that particular phrase seemed a little consescending to me as well. #periodsex
11/12/09
But whatevs. Snark, not snark, I'm over it. #periodsex
11/11/09
11/11/09
I had my period, went to the bathroom and put in a tampon and I guess I told him. Then about 1/2 hour later I had to pee so I got up and excused myself to the bathrom. He said "do you need another tampon." I told him that I didn't bc the other one wasn't that old. So he says:
"So do you take it out and put it back in when you finish peeing, or does your pee drip through it?"
... related to the article, I wouldn't surprise a guy with period sex for the first time, especially if we weren't in a swapping bodily fluids other than spit type of a relationship. But the long-term bf (not the one in the story, he's been gone for a loooong time) knows that if he doesn't want period sex, he's missing 25% of his chances.
11/11/09
Or you can suggest they try to fit a tampon into their penis.... #periodsex
11/12/09
11/12/09
@cait98: uh, seriously? #periodsex
11/12/09
That's the problem with imprecise terms like "down there."
#periodsex
11/12/09
I think the point is that we actually don't learn enough about our vaginas. We don't see other women's vaginas (except in porn!) and we don't really talk about them (except in porn). Guys wee next to each other, and their dicks are more... obviously out. They know what eachother's dicks look like, and they know how theirs compares with other dicks. I think we need to see more vaginas from an earlier age! #periodsex
11/12/09
11/13/09
Although to be fair to them they have since launched this website (NSFW WARNING!)
[www.channel4embarrassingillnesses.com]
Some of the comments on there are particularly illuminating. #periodsex
11/14/09
But that gallery is fascinating and awesome. And yeah, kind of relieving. Also, good thing I didn't read this at work, because sometimes I see "NSFW" and think, oh, it can't be THAT bad... #periodsex
11/14/09
11/11/09
-Whines about purchasing feminine hygiene products on his own
-Gets "creeped out" by menstral blood
-Does not know the difference between a tampon and a pad
-Turns your sexual advances away because you're menstrating.
-Refers to being exposed to menstrual blood in the same tone or using the same wording as the guy in "The Godfather" who got a horse's head in his bed.
basically, any guy who acts like a complete twit when confronted with the fact that the female of the species ovulates and menstrates as a natural bodily function that is neither "unclean" nor "weird".
Dump them and hopefully if it happens often enough they'll get over this nonsense.
Of the women I've been with, it's about split on liking or disliking period sex. One partner said it helped with cramps, another said it made them way worse. Again, this falls under the "talk to the person you're fucking" catch-all of sex advice.
I have no preference. It does feel different, something like, I dunno, texture? It's hard to describe. And even if it is a heavy flow, you can always hit the showers :)
11/11/09
You can see him preform it on youtube here:
[www.youtube.com]
Bloodbath by Christian Drake
And it came in like the barking of dogs in your belly,
the lunatic dogs that bark every full moon on the dot.
The clock in you unwound, the little room collapsed,
and the blood trickled out in a thin red ribbon,
licking the white sheets.
They call it a period, but it’s really a run-on sentence
babbling on all week. It’s the definition of womanhood
reduced by repetition to the tedium of tampon commercials,
punchlines, and the day-long math test of cramps
shooting through you like swimmer’s stitches
while you’re in the middle of the river.
And I watch you fight to swim to the other side
of the bed, kicking, gasping hard between gulps of chamomile tea.
But when the blood is calm, it is beautiful
as a bone-handled knife. It dreams, and as it dreams
it drools like a baby. It’s the drip-drip of a faucet
as we go to sleep, it’s a bee beating itself against the glass.
It’s a presence, not like a ghost but like a memory
in your skin, changing the pitch and timbre
of your body to my ear as I pull my fingers across
your belly and you find my lips in the dark like a magnet
and I slip my fingers through your hair as gently as thoughts
and you say,
"Baby, not tonight. I’m on my period."
And I say,
Baby, I will make love to you until we look like a war zone.
Give me the sweet murder of your body
until they string up crime scene tape across the bedroom,
because period sex is awesome.
I will love you like surgery and I will transplant your heart.
I will love you like a horror movie,
’cause it’s about to be a bloodbath in here.
Because I need a hot transfusion of your love, type A-positive
because you can’t B-negative when I’m giving you my O, O, O…
I want to surf your crimson wave,
and invite your Aunt Flow for a threesome.
I want to reverse your curse, because the Red Sox are in town.
I want to make this a "special time."
I want to put my submarine in your Red Sea
and hunt for Red October, and do not hesitate
to ask me to go snorkeling down there.
Because if I’m going to order the finest steak,
I’m going to eat it rare.
Yeah, because I crave the taste of blood,
and I want your nerves raw like a bullet wound valentine.
And whether it’s hard or sweet, we’re going to leave
skid marks on the sheets
and handprints on the walls.
So throw that tampon in the air like a cotton Sputnik, just lob it,
’cause in the end, I want to be bloodier than John Wayne Bobbitt.
Your time of the month has perfect timing
because you open like the elevator doors in "The Shining."
I like some ketchup when I’m dining,
but I want to taste copper like I’m dying.
So let the woman in you make a man out of me.
Let’s get unclean. Because this lovemaking is no less perfect
than the moon rising in you, and this lovemaking is the gospel music
made by the rhythm of flesh and blood and flesh and blood,
and this blood is the closest I will ever be to making love
to your insides, sailing through your veins and arteries.
This blood on my skin is the photograph I take
when I visit your heart.
c. Christian Drake 2005 #periodsex
11/11/09
The article is highly misogynistic and places sexual satisfaction in the world of men. Males should obviously be the recipient of sexual pleasure and women should serve as the vehicles to provide them with this pleasure. He says that if women, or in his words, "lady friends," aren't going to perform anal sex (which he says he understands since "even some porn stars decline the deed") they should compensate men by giving them blow jobs for a week.
Though he states that he knows women are more sexually aroused during their period, he's clearly not interested in having a relationship in which there's mutual sexual satisfaction. His words are meant to be shaming, that women should be ashamed of a natural occurrence. #periodsex
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/12/09
11/12/09