..."the love is unconditional, Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable Your position is pivotal"

Dear Christmas time,

your rampant consumerism, and hyped-up nostalgia about love and family really is terrorizing me. my ideology of a holiday does not have to be based on more stuff, big families and over-zealous dinners, its based on the agency I possess and the possibility that exists within me.

So Christmas time, I'm refusing to partake in this overly nostalgic and capitalist holiday! screw you and your presents wrapped in ancient forest, screw you and your love, and fuck you and your privlidge! You make trying to get by without a home, without a dinner, and without a love that much harder.

"Work 'til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
We commute to computers
Spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors
We survivalists, turned to consumers
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Ask Him why some people got to live in a trailer, cuss like a sailor
I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer
Me Abuela raised three daughters all by herself, with no help
I think about a struggle and I find the strength in myself" ...

Menstruation Theory

I know we have spoken a lot about menstruation, but there is always more to say. Jenna (talia) picked up a book from the library about menstruation the other day, and I borrowed it because I was absolutely fascinated by the article titles that grounded menstruation in many contexts within religion, mythology and history. (I was particularly interested in the articles about vampires, which covered menstruation and sexual taboos. )

However, the most interesting article I found was “Masking Menstruation” which covered the invention of disposable “feminine hygiene products” at the beginning of the 20th century. Menstruation became something we could hide, and thus we must hide it. Suddenly women were purchasing pads, making menstruation a part of the consumerist culture.

I was fascinated by how “the modern woman” navigated menstruation. Menstruation became unclean, it was a hygiene problem for the masses, and it was a matter of civilization. Modernism promoted the idea of progression, and the progressive woman did not need her period to rule her. The modern woman must maximize her body; she must control it and manage it. While no one wants to be ruled by their bleeding, that kind of obsession with control of the body seems a little unhealthy to me.

What was also interesting was the marketing technique connected with the early feminine hygiene product market. They were co-opting feminism, because a woman who can control her body, a woman who is free from the cycle of her body is truly free. More than being simultaneously free and in control of their body these women could pass as “normal”. Because a normal woman doesn’t bleed?

How much of this is relevant to this day? Should we have to pass as not bleeding when we in fact are?