Blood! Blood! AAAACK! Now run away screaming, please.

[timepiececlock]

At first I was feeling not sure if I should write about this in my journal. A few months ago I did, but I made it friends-locked.

Well fuck that, this is my journal, and I have always felt perfectly happy to inform everyone around me when I'm in physical pain. Why should this be different?

I am in pain.

Hear me! Feel my pain! Chances are it's yours too.

I'm not even going to cut-tag this. I'm a bad, rude woman.

.

So I was sitting in the bathtub listening to my radio stations "Top 104.9 alternative albums of all time" holiday coutdown (I can believe Jack Johnson's on this list, Ugh), feeling sorry for myself, when I started to think.

What do I know about myself today? What are certainties that no person, no man, no corporation or law or religious leader can convince me of otherwise?

I know my blood is red, like everyone else's is. What does it matter what my skin is, if my blood is red?

I know that today, I am not a mother.

I know that some day I could be, if I wanted.

I know I am not alone in the world. In fact, there's 3 billion + people like me in the world.


Then I got to wondering, how many women out there are going through exactly what I am, this very moment? How many women can feel the muscles (fantastic muscles that no one can see) moving, exercising, and exorcising inside them at that very moment?

I tried to calculate it in the bathtub, but I couldn't make my brain do the math without a calculator or some paper.

But here's what I figured.

If every woman averages 6 days menstrating every 28 days, then they go through 13.04 cycles and bleed 78.2 days each year.

There are approximately 3 billion women in the world, and 365 days each year.

Approximately 49,315,069 women bleed their lifeblood out of their bodies on any given day of the year.

That means that, at any given moment it's possible that as many as 50 million women could be having menstral pains at this moment.

Hey, I'm not only not alone in my pain, but there's tens of millions out there who, as I type these words, understand me on a fundamental, biological level. I don't even have to speak their language, they just know.

And even if they can't feel it anymore, they remember after a lifetime.

Yeah, I'm feelin' womanly today.

So, can any of your fabulous women who got this far in reading tell me anything about sea sponges? I read some interesting stuff about them as an alternative to tampons. I'll admit the idea of draining blood into a public bathroom sink has a certain anti-societal-rules appeal to me.

Comments

[caille.livejournal.com]

Great post, O Rashaka, Warrior Woman of the Most Holy Order of Strange and Powerful Mojo Life Force.

I don't know nothin' 'bout no sea sponges, but I beg of you not to be squicked about the unacceptability of GIRL-BLOOD over plain old blood-blood. (It's okay if you feel rebellious about it. Heh.)

It reminded me of a story a friend told me, years ago. For the first time in her life, she was sharing an apartment with a boyfriend (whole new experience for both of them). Well, my friend tended to get nosebleeds now and then, so one day she had one and blotted it up and applied ice and whatnot, wadded up the tissues, and placed them in the wastebasket.

Well, her boyfriend came unglued. He was all, "Oh my God, that is so gross! Can't you take care of your 'monthly visit' better than that? I shouldn't have to... I mean, it's all horrible...."

He finally calmed down enough so that she could explain that it wasn't Mysterious Evil Girl-Blood, just plain old ordinary nose blood. And then he was okay with it.

Perhaps one ought to dispose of any bloody trash in a manner that won't startle someone else, but blood is blood is blood. If you leave the sink clean for the next user, I say BFD.

[octopedingenue]

So, can any of your fabulous women who got this far in reading tell me anything about sea sponges? I read some interesting stuff about them as an alternative to tampons. I'll admit the idea of draining blood into a public bathroom sink has a certain anti-societal-rules appeal to me.

*coughety cough cough*

(Scarleteen rawks my sawks!)

[ljs-lj.livejournal.com]

Hear me! Feel my pain! Chances are it's yours too.

And how! I am the Queen of Cramps, successor to a long line of Cramp Queens. My mother jokes that God must be a man; the existence of menstrual cramps and child birth pains are evidence thereof.

Then I got to wondering, how many women out there are going through exactly what I am, this very moment? How many women can feel the muscles (fantastic muscles that no one can see) moving, exercising, and exorcising inside them at that very moment?

Here I am, to be counted, Sister Moon.

That means that, at any given moment it's possible that as many as 50 million women could be having menstral pains at this moment.

Imagine if we could harness all that energy...A renewable resource...

Yeah, I'm feelin' womanly today.

And more power to you! I don't know about you, but the moment the killer cramps are over, I feel waaaaaayyyy powerful. Powerful and womanly and energetic and giddy (but a little tired, too, 'cause those contractions take a lot out of you). As a witch, I find that that power and energy translates into my spells as well.

I can't say anything about sponges - I had no idea they were an alternative! (Learn something every day.) But speaking of tampons....I recently saw a GYN, someone I hadn't seen before, new town and all, and during the exam she asked me if I what I used. I answered - pads - and she gave me this funny look and continued the exam. Later she said she "didn't think [I] would have any trouble with tampons". It was very strange. Is there an assumption in the medical sphere that all young women automatically use tampons? I don't, and I've actually never tried one. It was almost as if she were pushing me to start using tampons!

Of course, this was after our minute discussion of my sexual history - aka there is none - which I think surprised her greatly. At 23, and especially in a university town, I may be the oldest virgin she's ever dealt with.

Has anyone else ever had a reaction like this? Tampons vs. pads war?

BTW check out the links to scarleteen.com. It's an excellent website.

LJ