The photograph at left is the work of artist Ingrid Berthon-Moine. It is part of a series of pictures that show women wearing the blood that was only recently inside their bodies on their lips. If you think this is gross, Germaine Greer has some choice words for you: "if you think you are emancipated, you might consider the idea of tasting your own menstrual blood – if it makes you sick, you've a long way to go, baby," she wrote in 1970. Berthon-Moine doesn't create these images to gross us out, but rather to show "what you usually don't see—tampons, blood, all that."

As the Guardian reports, Berthon-Moine is only one out of many modern period activists. Kira Cochrane also cites Cella Quint, the creator of a zine titled "Adventures in Menstruating," Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, author of My Little Red Book, and former Jezebel editor Moe Tkacik for her disgustingly illuminating narrative about exactly what happens to a tampon stuck inside a body for 10 long days. It seems like periods are suddenly hot shit. Cochrane writes:

It seems that menstrual activism (otherwise known as radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, or menarchy) is having a moment. The term is used to describe a whole range of actions, not all considered political by the person involved: simple efforts to speak openly about periods, radical affronts to negative attitudes and campaigns for more environmentally friendly sanitary products. (It is estimated that a woman will dispose of 11,400 tampons in her lifetime – an ecological disaster.)

Cochrane also humerously mentions the Moon Cup-ers: the extremely vocal group of sanitary-product devotees that have got us reconsidering the cost (both environmental and financial) of tampons.

It's probably no surprise that we think this new found openness is pretty great. Despite the weird name, Menarchists are trying to do for periods what Oprah did for pooping. Periods are sometimes gross, somethings funny, often uncomfortable, but they shouldn't be taboo. I'm not going to trade my lip-gloss in for the au naturel look favored by Berthon-Moine, but the more people talk, write, and think about periods, the better.

It's In The Blood [Guardian]

Related: Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon

Most educational films about menstruation were either antiseptic and formal or eye-rollingly cheesy, and definitely have their place in the YouTube canon, but this 1974 filmstrip called Linda's Film About Menstruation manages, in less than twenty entertaining minutes, to cover everything from ancient tribal taboos to the different types of tampons (including a kind I'd never heard of that no longer exists — the "stick tampon") in a way that is way more self-aware than I thought anyone but Woody Allen was in 1974. In chapters with titles like "The Missing Wastebasket" and "Judy's Nightmare," a 15-year-old named Judy educates herself and her (disturbingly older-looking) boyfriend about menstruation. In the clip above, Judy introduces herself and her problem: at fifteen, she hasn't yet gotten her period. The video is confusing at first (she's really introducing herself with her bust/waist/hip measurements?) but by the time Judy yells at Johnny "It means blood is flowing out of my uterus!," we realize the jokes are very much intentional. The only way I can describe this thing is if a 1974 version of Sassy Magazine got Gilda Radner to write a menstruation filmstrip. And then got an adorable comic actress (Mady (Heflin) Kaplan) to star in it.

Judy's new friend in the park talks about using two tampons at once (not recommended!):



Judy and her boyfriend head to Staten Island, reflecting on all that they've learned:



It was hard to choose clips from this thing because the whole eighteen minutes is really fascinating. Just those exotic and mystical 1970's accents alone!

Linda's Film On Menstruation (1/2) 1970s [YouTube]
Linda's Film On Menstruation (2/2) 1970s [YouTube]

Related: Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon

(Remember, kids: Don't do drugs!) In this episode, Rich and I answer questions about gayness, gay porn, and Italian cuisine and fashion. Got a burning question? Send it to potpsych@jezebel.com. Or to Twitter. If we remember to check it, we'll answer those, too.

Do I Have To Change My Tampon Every Time I Pee? from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

I really wanted to use tampons, but I'd heard you had to be, you know, ‘experienced.' So I asked my friend Lisa. Her mom is a nurse so I figured she'd know. Lisa told me she'd been using Petal Soft Plastic Applicator Tampax tampons since her very first period and she's a virgin. In fact, you can use them at any age and still be a virgin.

First of all, that ad is from the 90s, which goes to show how hard certain old wives' tales - or cultural backwardness - dies. Of course, back when everybody had hymens - or were supposed to - marketing tampons depended heavily on assuring potential customers that they could stick something phallic up their vadges and still be nice girls. Most of us remember the periodic reassurances Seventeen and its ilk would issue to readers (and apparently still do), assuring young girls that the two had no connection. But the concern wasn't an invention of youth; for decades, many considered tampons suspect.

Although it's thought the ancient Egyptians used some kind of softened papyrus tampon, and Hippocrates talks about a wooden insert covered in disposable lint batting, the commercial version wasn't patented until 1929. Early advertising highlighted the modern notion of "hygiene" and stressed vague medical authority. "Your doctor will be the first to tell you that Tampax is the most natural and the most hygienic method of sanitary protection... accepted for advertising by the American Medical Association," said the first Tampax ad in 1936. As tampon use became more common, the focus switched to the tampon's aesthetic superiority, which by the 1970s seems to have trumped concerns about hygiene or virtue. Take this 1972 varietal:

Dear Sirs, I want to thank you so much for sending me my free Pursettes Purse Container and Pursettes. You see, I tried tampons before, but they were so big and bulky, I was afraid I might break a membrane or something.... But I skate (roller) in competition, and believe me those short skirts & form fitting tights can really make you self-conscious! And who can afford to lose even one day of practice before State Meet? Luckily, your tampons came just in time!

Although these ads still treated a period as something essentially secret, they also implicitly discouraged the idea that a woman with a period was a delicate invalid, and, however problematically, the preponderance of tight leotards and swimsuits in the pictures helped end the notion that periods were inherently unsexy.

In addition to the fear that tampons would rupture the precious proof of virginity, apparently manufacturers and doctors of the era had to assuage concerns that they would cause unseemly sexual arousal in women - a claim some countered by charging that it was pads that would actually cause "the sexual stimulation of the woman by the friction of the pad against the vulva." (Someone inform Katherine Heigl's agent at once! Hijinx will ensue!) Now that the 1980's fear of the Toxic Shock Syndrome caused by super-absorbents is less of a concern, today the concerns are primarily environmental. As such, most brands are espousing their green and biodegradable bona fides as fast as they can print them, and we're buying.

Although the fact that tampon-virginity myths still proliferate on the internet is dismaying, it's not shocking: the notion's pretty rooted in popular mythology. (Although I can't find any actual verification I well remember a friend's aunt - a former nun - telling me that when she entered a convent in the 60's, she wasn't allowed to bring any tampons, just maxi pads.) While for young girls, the notion that they're being forced into a sexual situation before they're ready is of course scary, the fact that we as a culture still need the reassurance that Virginity Will Not Be Compromised speaks to its entrenched fetishization pretty clearly. But, while no one will claim there's anything sexy about a used tampon - and as things like Superbad prove, the period that isn't safely controlled and hidden is still supposed to elicit an automatic guffaw from men - it's obvious that we've come a long way, and some claim tampons have helped destigmatize the "broken hymen" - and are almost on a par with the ancient world.

Marketing The Tampon: "Will I Still Be A Virgin?" [Sociological Images]
A History of Tampons [Sarah Kowalski]

I Use Tampons. Am I Still A Virgin? [GirlsLife]

The History of Tampons [About.com]
Tampons As menstrual Guards [Museum of Menstruation]
Tampons Are Trash! [Resist]

The tampon applicators are reportedly washing up on the shore, much to the chagrin of local residents. "I'm here twice a day with my dogs and you cannot walk two feet on the beach without seeing at least a dozen at your feet. And it's disgusting," says Cindy Schultz, who has set up a Facebook page to ask local women to stop flushing their applicators. Schultz has made it her mission to get tampon makers to create more environmentally friendly products, though she claims that certain companies have been less than receptive: "Tampax came back to me with a statement that was for us to read the instructions. Which I thought was really aggravating and got me even more riled up because to simply say, 'Read a nine-point instruction pamphlet' isn't enough. We're getting rid of plastic bags, why not get rid of the plastic tampon applicators as well?"

Tampon Applicators Flood Canadian Shores [UPI]
Wave Of Tampon Applicators Plagues Halifax Harbor [CBC]

1.) If you have period sex, and then the guy cums in you, how long should you wait to put a tampon in? This is something that never even occurred to me until two months ago when the situation presented itself for the first time. Ejaculate is really thick, and i know when I wipe it off me with paper towels, it just kinda smears around. If paper towels don't really absorb it, how can compacted cotton? And then what happens if you can't get all of the semen out of you, but you put a tampon in, and it doesn't get absorbed? Does it just hang around inside you, stinking up the joint? There were a lot of questions in this one question, I know.

2.) What should you do when you realize you have to poop immediately after you put in a new tampon? I've been mulling over this one for years. Luckily (or, actually, unluckily) for me, my poop opportunities are few and far between, and usually, I empty out right at the beginning of my period. But there are those rare instances when I do get caught with a tampon in and then get the urge to purge my bowels. It's so confusing because I don't know whether to pull out the new tampon, and risk getting all scratched up, or keep it in and risk "delivering" it in the toilet. I usually just spazz out, grimace and remove the scratchy tampon.

3.) Exactly how long do you have to leave a tampon in to get Toxic Shock Syndrome? One of my friends left her tampon in for 10 friggin' days, and even had sex with it up there, and she's just fine. Do women even get TSS from tampons anymore?

Earlier: Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon
Jezebel Crashes The Tyra Show's Vaginas Episode

As Tracie wrote in her post about period dramas, blood makes people uncomfortable. TV commercials are gleaming, clean shiny things where no one bleeds or poops (ever see the All-Bran commercial where bricks stand in for crap?) Especially not women. The new Tampax commercials feature "Mother Nature" giving a woman her "monthly gift," which is a red present. Not bloody jelly blobs coming from her uterus, but a neatly wrapped box that might as well have a cashmere sweater inside. I'm not saying that I want to see blood in tampon commercials. I don't know what I want to see. And it seems like the ad execs don't know either. When it comes to period ads, what would you like to see? Have there ever been any ads that you thought were well done?

The Libra commercial:

A Touch of Feminine Hygenius [AdAge]
Earlier: The Importance Of Being Able To Change Your Period Products In "Public"
Leave It To Beaver

Of the dudes I polled for this post, most of them had the same answer: "If I'm into her, that stuff doesn't bother me." Which is the right attitude to have, although when asked if it was more intimate to insert a tampon or remove it, they all said they'd be less bothered by witnessing insertion. One guy actually said, "You know I'm a little crazy about blood and HIV and all that." HIV!!! On a tampon!!!

So when in a relationship do you cross that barrier? For some of us, it's not really a choice. When I was 17, I changed my pad at my boyfriend's house and his dog found it and tore the shit out of it and got it all over the upstairs in his house. We were at the movies at the time, so his brother-in-law had to clean it up. I was mortified and actually, looking back on it, they were kind of asses for telling me about it, just to embarrass me. The silver-lining to that is that period stuff has never embarrassed me at all since then.

Anyway, I've always thought it is bizarre and unacceptable when guys who like anal sex are weird about when girls talk about pooping. It's like, you know what? That hole was actually made for poop to come out, not for your dick to go in. And I think it's equally bizarre and unacceptable when guys are weird about their girlfriends changing their period products in front of them. I understand that the need for a level of mystique to keep things sexy, but it's almost impossible to sustain throughout the course of a relationship: it's exhausting. It's also damaging: trying to mask the reality of our bodily functions from men simply reinforces the idea of women as sex objects, not human beings.

Earlier: How Do You Break The Poop Ice With A New Paramour?

• We agreed we would lie to our kids about our debauched pasts. There will be fewer than eighteen of them, trust.
  
• You could do a lot of debaucherous damage with these crazy underoos from the International Male folks.
  
• We didn't just talk about International Males, we discussed international and race relations, and vowed to try harder.
  
• We also gave some real talk about sex writing.
  
• More real talk: forgetting there's a tampon in your twat.

• We got to know virgin-hoarding cult leader Michael Travesser and his band of wack jobs.
• We got some LOLs out of douchefessionals John Fitzgerald Page and Paul Janka.
• We said goodbye to our own Jennifer, who is departing for greener Polo pastures. She will be missed!
• This weekend, pour one out for all the white wine drinking, on-the-toilet phone talking, track suit wearing mommas out there. Happy Mothers Day, moms; we love you!

Earlier: Period Sex: A 'Do' Or A 'Don't'?
Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon

[Image via Oh! My God! I Miss You]

• The official Gossip Girl blog declared Jezebel as heroine Serena van der Woodsen's special friend.
  
• 35% of you would not ask a man to marry you! 40% say you wouldn't rule it out, but it's not at the top of your to-do list. Only 15% would ask in the future, and 9% already did. Fascinating!
  
• Who cares about marriage?! We made chocolate penises!
  
• We liveblogged the snoozy Oscars and declared fishy to be fabulous when it comes to red carpet fashion.
  
• We snooped with Harriet M. Welsch.

• We learned that 74% of women in their 30s are very or extremely willing to marry for money, and that Lindsay Lohan wears a diamond-encrusted cross.
• We discovered that Bret Michaels and George Bush have a lot in common. No word on how George Michael fits into the military industrial equation.
• We giggled at black hairstyles from back in the day. Jheri curl!
• We did not take dumps in front of dudes.
• But we did flush our tampons down their toilets.
• So go get your seven-year-old a a mani-pedi and enjoy your freedom, you fucking dykes!