Each month for a good chunk of her life, a woman will pay out wads and wads of cash to deal with her period. Buying pads, tampons, menstrual cups—whatever products you choose—is pretty much a nonnegotiable for menstruating women. On top of the baseline fees, however, most countries around the world, including the U.S., charge what’s […]
Menstruation and Menstrual Equity
When You’re Homeless and Menstruating
The following is a reprint from the latest issue of Ms. To get the entire magazine in your mailbox or inbox, subscribe now! When you think of survival items a homeless person may need, menstrual- hygiene products probably don’t immediately come to mind. The reality is that pads, tampons and liners often aren’t readily available to women […]
8 Period Anthems for Surviving “The Curse”
The next time you’re curled up in a ball, holding a heating pad in one hand and a milkshake in the other while a wolverine ravages your uterus, don’t resign yourself to watching Nicholas Sparks movies for the week. Menstruation is no reason to feel bad about yourself, so cheer up with this Ms. Blog playlist […]
The 5 Biggest Myths About Menstruation
Whichever way you look at it, menstruation is still a taboo—and that taboo is affecting women’s lives. Many women have to hide their pads and tampons (should someone—shock, horror!—realize that they are on their period) and some girls are unable to attend school, practice their religion or prepare food for 20 percent of their adult […]
Can Menstrual Products Mess With Your Birth Control?
Reprinted with permission from Bedsider. Ever since I got my IUD last year, I’ve been pretty much in love, especially when my period comes around. Yes, I just said that. Getting to use my DivaCup with my ParaGard IUD is possibly the best thing ever. So you can only imagine that my world stopped a bit when a few […]
We Heart (and Question): New Commercial from Always
Last week, Always released a new commercial that challenges the notion that doing something “like a girl” means anything less than doing it well. The ad first features people who are supposedly auditioning for a commercial. When the director (who is a woman) tells them to “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl,” […]
Is PMS Overblown?
If PMS is a myth, then what on earth can we blame for all the lady-rage? You may have seen the article in The Star or The Globe and Mail or The Atlantic about the recently published research review by a team of medical researchers who assert that “clear evidence for a specific premenstrual phase-related […]
Britain’s Femfresh Takes a Kick in the Euphemism
When I moved to England, people asked if I knew what I was getting into. You could take the girl outta Brooklyn, etc. But I settled in just fine. Still, the average Brit of any gender still has the reputation stateside of being able to keep calm and carry on and requiring a stiff drink to breach taboos […]
If Men Could Menstruate …
The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) current exhibit, Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects, in New York, concerns itself with the communication between people and things, featuring objects that have a “direct interaction” with their users. One object with a very direct interaction should be particularly intriguing to feminists: the […]