Bread and Roses

Happy International Women's Day.

So much more work to be done. Get involved.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: What Judy said.

While no doubt thousands of women and men will still join together to celebrate IWD and in some cities still go into the streets, there is little question that the women’s movement is a shadow of its former self. The strategy of second wave feminism was firmly rooted in the welfare state. Women’s equality depended on social programs like social assistance, women’s services and child care. The neo-liberal turn begun by Brian Mulroney in the 1980s and continued by every government since put not only the women’s movement itself but almost all the policies we had fought for under attack. It was no accident that the National Action Committee on the Status of Women was the first organization to protest Mulroney’s neo-liberal turn towards free trade.    NAC saw that the turn represented by the Free Trade Agreement with the United States would impact disproportionately on women, through loss of jobs and attacks on social programs.   Women political scientists like Janine Brodie and economists like Marjorie Cohen have documented the impact of free trade and  corporate globalization on women’s economic and social equality. 

Please read the whole thing.

The Dark Ages

Ohhhhhhh, now I get it. The Harper Theocracy doesn't care for contraception or women's reproductive rights because these are pagan, pre-Christian concepts. (Anybody else notice how miserable everybody was back when the Church was in charge?)

Which brings us to this nifty new website, 4000 Years for Choice. 

4000 Years for Choice visualizes the ancestral traditions passed down for millennia by lineages of mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. The rediscovery of these practices is deeply transformative when one considers “the right to choose”, especially for those who have been exposed to the “abstinence until marriage” and “anti-abortion” rhetoric.

A sample from the timeline, which proves that women have long battled for control of their bodies.

300s BCE – A colony in northern Africa called Cyrenne became rich from exports of silphium,  a plant well-known for its abortive and contraceptive qualities.  It was said to be a gift from Apollo. After six-hundred years, overharvesting drove it to extinction.

300s BCE – Soranus, a Greek physician and medical writer, wrote about the silphium plant. He suggested that women drink the juice once a month because “it not only prevents conception but also destroys anything existing.”

300s BCE – The birthwort plant was craved into the background of an Egyptian vase found in Thebes and was known for its abortive and contraceptive properties. Ancient Greeks also knew of birthwort. Dioscorides, the Greek physician suggested birthwort be put in a suppository with pepper and myrrh to provoke menstruation or to expel a fetus.

300s BCE – The Greek philosopher Plato commented on population in the Roman Empire. He wrote, “There are many devices available. If too many children are being born, there are measures to check propagation.”

300s BCE – Aristotle wrote that people should produce more abundantly if the city was too small, or use birth control measures if it was too large.

400s BCE – The Hippocratic Oath remained the standard medical oath until the 1970s. It stated, “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.”

1500s BCE – The Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medial text, listed a recipe for a spermacidal plug made from the acacia plant, lint, and honey. This combination produces a lactic acid similar to that found in modern spermicides.

1850s BCE – The Petri Papyrus, a medical text from Ancient Egypt, listed three different contraceptive methods; gummy substances for the cervix and vagina, honey, and sodium carbonate,  and a crocodile dung vaginal suppository.

2700s BCE – Emperor Shen Nung of China, who laid the foundation for traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, wrote some of the earliest recipes for contraception and abortion, many of which were quoted well into the 16th century.

3000s BCE – The Royal Archives of China hold the earliest written record of an abortion technique.

We've come a long way from crocodile dung and pepper suppositories.

But, the way the HarperCons think, we may one day have to revert back to them.

Image: The poster for 4000 Years for Choice is by Heather Ault.

H/t I am Dr. Tiller

Women on the edge

Back in Montreal. Dunno for how long.

Until I can return to regular blogging, please follow the fantastic posts put up by my sister Fringers on our Proud to be a Member of that Left Wing Fringe Group called Women Facebook page.

Don't let the Harper government get away with this latest outrage.

OTTAWA -- Missing and murdered women in Canada will be remembered Sunday in memorial marches across the country.

But the occasion may become a memorial for a government-funded research project that put a spotlight on the hundreds of aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in this country.
Federal funding for the Sisters in Spirit initiative of the Native Women's Association of Canada runs out March 31, and the federal government will not give the group any indication whether it will extend its mandate.

"We haven't heard anything," said Sisters in Spirit director Kate Rexe. "The government is silent on the issue."

With a grant of $5 million, Sisters in Spirit spent the last five years compiling a database of more than 520 women who have disappeared or been killed over the last 40 years. The group prepared tool kits for families and police to use when a woman goes missing and developed policies and programs to help stop the cycle of violence.

Rexe said the Sisters group is prepared to begin implementing policies and community programs aimed at three specific areas -- the justice system, child welfare and poverty. But that's been on hold for months because Ottawa won't say if it plans to keep funding the work.

"It's unbelievably frustrating," Rexe said. "We have all the knowledge, the momentum. We can actually start to implement change, but we don't even know if we can keep planning."

A year ago, Status of Women Minister Helena Guergis said she was working on extending the project. "I want you to know, I've already engaged in the process of what Sisters in Spirit Two would look like," Guergis said at the Status of Women committee meeting Feb. 12, 2009.

But a spokeswoman for Guergis would not say Friday whether funding for Sisters in Spirit is forthcoming, and said in an email Ottawa has asked NWAC to share its database with police

More here.

There's an action plan on the Fringers page.

Don't just hold the fort. Take (back) the hill.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: This letter was sent to the Star's Public Editor Kathy English, about the image accompanying this post. I reprint it here, unedited:

Good afternoon,

 The following link came to my attention today, which takes an article published in Saturday’s Winnipeg Free Press regarding the fate of funding related to the research, education and policy initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada called Sisters In Spirit, and attaches an extremely offensive photo of two topless Aboriginal women.

 http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2010/02/women-on-the-edge.html

This photo is not only offensive, it is a colonizer’s portrait of Aboriginal women which is sexualized and arguably trying to create the image of the “savage” woman, denying dignity and respect for the true place of Aboriginal women, who are historically the givers of life, central to communities as nurturers, caregivers, educators and leaders. To connect this photo to a story about Native women’s leadership on the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls is disrespectful and only goes to further devalue the lives of Aboriginal women and stigmatize their place in Canadian society.

 The response from one of my staff I think says it best:

 “Honestly though, I would like to see a newspaper article that talks about missing and murdered Aboriginal women with a photo of happy (or just normal) young, Aboriginal girls accompanying it. THESE are the women we’re talking about who are at risk of violence!!! And this photo proves a point we’re making in the research paper that Aboriginal women have been dehumanized through colonization. And Canada thinks it’s progressed?”

 I’m looking forward to the day when the media begin to treat Aboriginal women in the same way we do the stories of Tori Stafford and Jessica Lloyd – innocent victims of violence who are honoured for their lives, and not marginalized, dehumanized, or sensationalized for social stigmas or the circumstances surrounding their death. Sadly, this day will be a long time coming when supposedly “progressive” media outlets like The Toronto Star are posting photos of Canada’s shameful history as an image of Aboriginal women today. 

I ask you to please take this image down immediately.

Thank you,

Kate

 Kate Rexe, B.A. (Hons), M.A.

Director, Sisters in Spirit

Native Women's Association of Canada

You know, I actually don't disagree. Which is why I chose the image. Perhaps i should have been clearer about my intentions. It is precisely because Aboriginal women have been treated as disposable objects, ever since European men set foot in the Americas, that we have arrived at this place in modern history where our government not only does not care, but actively turns its back on the problem of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

The photo, however, is not unlike other photos I have run with other blogposts about women being violated both here and abroad. Whether I am talking about the murder of Jasmine Fiore, whose highly-sexualized photos filled the media, or the acid attacks on Afghan girls, or the rapes of women in the Congo, none of the pictures are pretty.

And aren't all of these women colonized, not quite in the same way of course. But colonized none the less.

Why we need Women's Studies

Awesome video -- despite its historical shortcoming at the end  -- done on ordinary notepads and with ballpoint pens by an art student, I'm guessing somewhere in the UK.

But something's missing.

Can you guess what it is?

Breast-beating

It's no secret that male and female brains are hard-wired differently. 

Years ago, I saw a documentary that showed a couple having sex in an MRI or similar scanning machine.

While the man's brain was red hot in one segment of his brain, the woman's brain was various densities of pink all over. This was interpreted to mean that men's brains are more specialized -- ie. with different sections responsible for different neuro- or motor functions -- while women used more of their brains, or at least greater parts of them.

I joke to my friends that, during sex, guys are focused on the deed while women are thinking stuff like ''Oh God, look at my stomach jiggling''' and/or ''I hope the kids stay asleep'' and/or ''Better remember to pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow'' and/or ''Geez, how did I miss those cobwebs on the ceiling?''

Whatever. These basic differences, the doc explained, could be why women have a better chance of recovering normal verbal or movement abilities after a stroke. Other sections of their brain would take over those functions -- while men were left with gaping neurological deficits because a pertinent part of their brain was wiped out.

I don't know if subsequent research has proven all this or not -- although the fact that there are gender-specific differences has been confirmed. 

I suppose you could explain this all with evolution. Women are generally better multi-taskers because they have to be. Through the ages, they minded the kids, tended the fires, gathered the nuts and berries, made the clothes, and all that other ''work is never done'' work. They also had to, as the weaker sex (at while least pregnant or nursing), be better able to get along with others in order to survive.

Men had to be more single-minded in order to seek and hunt down dinner -- or to fend off the neighbouring marauding tribes.

Following this logic, it would explain why men are more aggressive and/or assertive than women. Survival of the fittest, the biggest, the loudest, the most confident ...

Which brings us to new media wiz Clay Shirky's much-talked "Rant about women'' of last Friday. In a one line summation, to borrow from Chrystal, women ''need to learn to act like jerks.''

[W]omen in general, and the women whose educations I am responsible for in particular, ... aren't just bad at behaving like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. They are bad at behaving like self-promoting narcissists, anti-social obsessives, or pompous blowhards, even a little bit, even temporarily, even when it would be in their best interests to do so. Whatever bad things you can say about those behaviors, you can't say they are underrepresented among people who have changed the world.

<SNIP>

Now I don't know what to do about this problem. (The essence of a rant, in fact, is that the ranter has no idea how to fix the thing being ranted about.) What I do know is this: it would be good if more women see interesting opportunities that they might not be qualified for, opportunities which they might in fact f**k up if they try to take them on, and then try to take them on. It would be good if more women got in the habit of raising their hands and saying "I can do that. Sign me up. My work is awesome," no matter how many people that behavior upsets.

<AND>

Now this is asking women to behave more like men, but so what? We ask people to cross gender lines all the time. We’re in the middle of a generations-long project to encourage men to be better listeners and more sensitive partners, to take more account of others’ feelings and to let out our own feelings more. Similarly, I see colleges spending time and effort teaching women strategies for self-defense, including direct physical aggression. I sometimes wonder what would happen, though, if my college spent as much effort teaching women self-advancement as self-defense.

Gotta say, there's something to that. Instead of women spending so much time on Oprah admonitions to self-improve, maybe they'd be better off acting like it's everybody and everything else that needs fixing -- and they are just the -- irony alert! -- man for the job.

Bet that wage gap (PDF) would narrow really fast.

Fun multi-media extras! Click here for a 1950 CBC Radio forum on pay equity. The struggle continues.

And go here to see if your brain is more male or more female.

Pink stink

Apologies for not feeding the blog beast very frequently this week.

Just as well. That's because something I meant to write about on Monday has seen new developments.

Specifically this:

SAO PAULO–A Brazilian university student expelled for wearing a short, pink dress to class was accused of immorality by the college in newspaper ads on Sunday.

The private Bandeirantes University in Sao Bernardo do Campo said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality."

The institution published ads accusing Arruda – who had been heckled by students – of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment."

Arruda made headlines after the Oct. 22 incident, in which she had to be escorted away by police.

Yes, dear Broadsides reader, a university in Brazil, the land that put the carnal in Carnival and invented the string bikini plus the wax job that leaves nothing to the imagination, slut-shamed a student just for wearing a pink mini-dress to class.

You want to know how bad it was?

Watch:

Yes, I know you probably don't speak Portuguese. But what those students are yelling is ''Puta!'' -- which means "Whore!''

More from Broadsheet's Julia Furlan, who does speak the lingo:

According to one of her lawyers, Nehemias Melo, the university forced her to go through a three-hour deposition, where she was asked super-relevant questions about whether or not she was sexually active.

<SNIP>

Brazil's Ministry of Education immediately opened an investigation into the expulsion and gave the university 10 business days to explain fully. Quoth the university's legal counsel: "It's not the clothes. It's the attitude that Geisy had, for example of going upstairs and stopping in the middle of the hall, lifting her skirt." University representatives were quoted on Sunday in their best legalese, stating that she "was on the premises wearing inadequate garments," and that "on the day of the event, the student took a longer route [around the school] and increased her visibility."

You mean she prowled the premises like a cat in heat? Or was wearing heels that were a little too high to walk comfortably in?

Oh give me a break.

If Arruda had lifted her skirt -- which she denies doing -- you'd think somebody would have a shot of it, since multiple mobile phone videos of the incident have popped up online. But there is none. Which is why I am inclined to believe her.

Anyway, looks like I am not the only one. The latest news is that the university had to reinstate her

The dean of the private college in suburban Sao Paulo released a statement Monday announcing the reversal, without saying why it had decided to let her back in.

One of Arruda's lawyers, Nehemias Domingos de Melo, said Arruda had not been officially notified of the decision to reinstate her. He said he remained cautious about the prospects of her going back to school.

"She can only return with some safety guarantees," he told reporters.

Perhaps a burka would work for these people?

These boots are made for talking

Noah Cyrus, 9, younger sister of Miley Cyrus, at a Halloween party over the weekend.

Slut or princess. These are your Disney-sanctioned career options, girls.

Someday my prince will come

From the always awesome Sociological Images:

Which gives me an excuse to post this little nugget from The Nation which I have been saving for just this sort of occasion. It's by Barbara Ehrenreich, one of my idols.

Disney likes to think of the Princesses as role models, but what a sorry bunch of wusses they are. Typically, they spend much of their time in captivity or a coma, waking up only when a Prince comes along and kisses them. The most striking exception is Mulan, who dresses as a boy to fight in the army, but--like the other Princess of color, Pocahontas--she lacks full Princess status and does not warrant a line of tiaras and gowns. Otherwise the Princesses have no ambitions and no marketable skills, although both Snow White and Cinderella are good at housecleaning.

And what could they aspire to, beyond landing a Prince? In Princessland, the only career ladder leads from baby-faced adolescence to a position as an evil enchantress, stepmother or witch. Snow White's wicked stepmother is consumed with envy for her stepdaughter's beauty; the sea witch Ursula covets Ariel's lovely voice; Cinderella's stepmother exploits the girl's cheap, uncomplaining, labor. No need for complicated witch-hunting techniques--pin-prickings and dunkings--in Princessland. All you have to look for is wrinkles.

<SNIP>

Seen from the witchy end of the female life cycle, the Princesses exert their pull through a dark and undeniable eroticism. They're sexy little wenches, for one thing.

<SNIP>

It may be old-fashioned to say so, but sex--and especially some middle-aged man's twisted version thereof--doesn't belong in the pre-K playroom. Children are going to discover it soon enough, but they're got to do so on their own.

There's a reason, after all, why we're generally more disgusted by sexual abusers than adults who inflict mere violence on children: we sense that sexual abuse more deeply messes with a child's mind. One's sexual inclinations--straightforward or kinky, active or passive, heterosexual or homosexual--should be free to develop without adult intervention or manipulation. Hence our harshness toward the kind of sexual predators who leer at kids and offer candy. But Disney, which also owns ABC, Lifetime, ESPN, A&E and Miramax, is rewarded with $4 billion a year for marketing the masochistic Princess cult and its endlessly proliferating paraphernalia.

Let's face it, no parent can stand up against this alone. Try to ban the Princesses from your home, and you might as well turn yourself in to Child Protective Services before the little girls get on their Princess cell phones. No, the only way to topple royalty is through a mass uprising of the long-suffering serfs. Assemble with your neighbors and make a holiday bonfire out of all that plastic and tulle! March on Disney World with pitchforks held high! 

Which reminds me. It's the Night of the Living Mini Disney Princesses this weekend.

PS: Coming soon: Disney's The Princess and the Frog ...

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: My Tweep @evinmaria reminds me of this wry but instructive exhibit by Vancouver artist Dina Goldstein. I have blogged about this before but it is very relevant here!

Choo on this

Two items of note today, neither of which I am loathe to reward with attention. But a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

First up, this unbelievably sexist piece of crap. Columnist Ian Robertson Robinson muses on the differences between women on the left and those on the right.

And why has he chosen this topic? Because clearly he is writing with his pen and not with his keyboard -- if you get my drift -- so besotted is he with Danielle Smith, the new leader of the provincial Wildrose Party.

I cut'n'paste. You decide.

Right-wing women rock.

Not for us the sturdy, honest calves of the New Democrat/Green Party female, honed on eco-tourist rainforest hikes. Those legs are often on unfortunate display, extending from a knee-length tweed skirt as hairy as the legs themselves, and end in a pair of Birkenstocks.

Because, you know, left-women have never heard of wax.

I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women's shoes that didn't look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams.

<SNIP>

The primary reason our womenfolk are at war with the looming spectre of the nanny state is because you can't buy Jimmy Choos in a socialist paradise.

Oh really? Have you been off the ranch and in downtown Toronto recently?

The only sensible footwear you'll find in a right-wing woman's closet are the Nike cross-trainers that go with her gym membership.

And Robertson Robinson knows this because ... he is in closets a lot?

<SNIP>

Left-wing drabs recycle. Right-wing women shop -- and the government measures how much they shop every month to find out whether we're still in a recession. Basically, the world economy depends on right-wing women buying shoes.

<SNIP>

A right-wing woman wants to get elected, she runs for office.

If she wins, great. If she loses ... well, there's always more shoe shopping.

Because right-wing women don't have careers?

Left-wing women burn enormous quantities of fossil fuels to drive across the city to a farmer's market to purchase virtually the same carrot you can get at the neighbourhood Sobey's a couple of blocks from your house for half the price, all in the name of making the environment happy.

A right-wing woman hits the gym, swings past Sobey's and has dinner on the table by the time you get home ... while her left-wing counterpart is still stuck in traffic listening to Sarah McLachlan on her iPod and feeling morally superior about her carrot choices. 

I could go on but this is making me want to toss my tofu cookies.

It occurs to me that Robertson's Robinson's ideal woman must be Sarah Palin.

So how are those book sales shaping up anyway, Mrs. P?

Meanwhile, over here on the almost left middle-of-Canada, we have the National Post's Barbara Kay who, once again, gives Men's Rights Activists and misogynists a thrill with her attack on the Liberal Pink Book, Volume III. (I plan to blog about this but keep getting distracted.)

Now, are there problems with the Pink Book? As a certain right-wing hottie might say, ''You betcha!''

But Kay uses the book to advance her fallacious agenda which is all about discounting the very real problem of woman abuse, discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere, and the lie about why boys are doing poorly in school.

Example:

New ideas include: micro-credit loans of small amounts of money to female entrepreneurs ...

<SNIP>

Why do women wishing to start enterprises deserve government-backed credit more than 
men? Women are as well educated as men in this country, and since they make something like 70% of household purchases, are far better placed to tap into networks and targeted markets than men. Let them get their loans the usual way; if their idea is good, they'll get the loan. If it's bad, why fund hobbies?

Now I know that Kay is old enough to remember a time when a woman could not get a car loan -- never mind a business loan -- without her husband's or father's signature. It wasn't that long ago, believe me.

Sure, we've moved forward since then.

But here's the problem: Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of women have neither work experience, nor property (collateral)  in their name, nor credit ratings. Many of these might be farm wives or stay-at-home mothers or immigrants who were isolated who may have escaped abusive marriages or whose husbands left them or died deeply in debt, maybe from gambling.

You think banks would give these women a loan? 

Hah.

It has obviously escaped Kay's notice that women form the bulk of the poor in Canada -- and, even when they're not poor, they make less than men because they are largely responsible for childcare, eldercare and other domestic concerns. As a result, many work part-time jobs which give them fewer or no benefits, and make it harder for them to collect UI when laid off.

But what would Kay know of any of this?

After all, while she's out shopping for her Jimmy Choos in Westmount, it's unlikely she'll step over any poor lefty women.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Some vintage kicks from Pale.

Blood simple

Today's treeware, about how the period is having a period. With bonus links and videos!

Bloody hell! So now we have "menstrual activism."

Two weeks ago, Britain's The Guardian kicked off the inevitable series of trend pieces with a story illustrated by a photograph of a woman with bloodstained – literally – lips.

We've come a long way, baby, since those olden days when sanitary napkin ads never even showed the product nor discussed its purpose.

Now Tampax has pulled out all the stops with its bitchy Mother Nature imposing her little red-wrapped "gift" on white-outfitted women stepping off planes in vacation spots.

We interrupt this post for a commercial message:

Guardian writer Kira Cochrane detailed many of the current efforts by women to bring their cycles out from deep, dark, taboo territory into the open, so there will no longer be shame in discussing everything and anything from PMS to the environmental implications of all those menstrual products in landfill sites.

These efforts include 18-year-old Rachel Kauder Nalebuff's bestselling My Little Red Book, an anthology of first period stories by women such as Gloria Steinem. There's also Chella Quint's 'zine Adventures in Menstruating – plus her touring menstrual comedy show. In addition, British-based artist Ingrid Berthon-Moine's video of her strumming her tampon string to "Slave to the Rhythm" is making the rounds. That's in addition to her photograph series of women with blood-smeared lips.

Not that this is totally new, mind you.

With the second wave of feminism came the period of period activism, including Germaine Greer's admonishments to women who don't care for the taste of their own menstrual blood to poet Judy Grahn's 1993 book Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World.

But now, it seems we have hit a gusher.

"It seems that menstrual activism (otherwise known as radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, or menarchy) is having a moment," Cochrane wrote. " 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.)"

Oh yeah, the impending ecological disaster is our fault – although I would sooner blame non-biodegradable pantyhose myself.

(And one more time, why is there GST – still – on tampons?) Talk about your mental cramps.

That said, there are environmental alternatives such as the reusable cup.

Which brings us to yet another menstrual artist-activist: Vanessa Tiegs, whose recent online exhibit of paintings titled "Menstrala" feature large Masonite boards smeared with dramatic swishes of her menstrual blood mixed with acrylic paint.

They're quite beautiful – despite the initial "ick factor."

As she explained online at spiralingmoon.livejournal.com, "My paintings are monthly menstrual journals. They are a presentation of the only kind of blood that is hidden in our culture, that which is natural, non- traumatic and cyclical."

And therein, she has a point.

Clearly, patriarchal religion has much to do with it. In the church in which I was baptized, there are still all sorts of restrictions on menstruating women.

But we live in mostly secular times.

So why is it that, in our culture, which celebrates blood and gore on screens big and small, we continue to pretend that which half the planet experiences every month for more than half of their lives doesn't happen?

Mind you, when it comes to blood, we don't like any real depictions of it – as those of us who watch the media coverage of war know.

The good news is, menstruation is coming out of the bathroom closet.

The bad news is, we still can't face the implications of the blood we spill overseas.

Talk about being cursed.

A couple of things to add here.

I disagree with Amanda Fortini of Salon's Broadsheet that talking about menstruation is no longer taboo. We're not there yet. My column had to be vetted by a senior editor, just in case, you know, I stepped over the line while talking about a perfectly natural function.

What's more, as one commenter on the main Star site says,

I've always been frustrated with the way menstruation is treated in popular culture. To me the problem is not that it's an unspoken experience- there's a lot of talk, but unfortunately most of it's negative & shaming. Calling it 'the curse,' ads that show women happy, beautiful & active until they have their period, when all of a sudden they become dumpy, 'w'itchy, smelly, dirty & gross... why do we accept these labels? Look around you any day & you'll see dozens of women who are happy, beautiful & vibrant and yes, they are menstruating. Let's grow up a bit, shall we? Menstruation used to be revered as proof of fertility. You don't have to follow that line, but teaching girls that they're dirty & bad for their natural cycle? Enough.

However I am in total accord with Fortini's assertion that

Menstrual activism thus seems like an overreaction to a taboo that has mostly dissipated. People don't need to see menstrual bloods on lips -- a PETA-ish gimmick -- to shock them into recognizing a hostility they don't feel. At a time when Tampax is employing menstrual humor, guerrilla tactics like this seem sour and antiquated and out of place. And while some activists must surely be fighting important menstrual-related battles (advocating against dioxins in tampons, say, or for the environmental benefits of multiple-use products) might not the energies of those playing their tampon strings like a guitar be more effectively utilized if applied to any number of feminist causes such as, I don't know, equal pay or domestic violence or human rights abuses committed against women?