Hello and welcome to the newest installment of Menstrual Mondays, wherein we review this week in menstrual news, blog entries, art, activism, and more!

•  The Chic Ecologist brings us an installment of the Environmental Impact of Everyday Things focused on the impact of menstrual products.  She goes into some interesting detail about what happens to the menstrual products that are thrown away and the history of green-washing such products. (image to the left is take from her article)
• Check out this week’s Do Good of the Week from GladRags Guerilla, Marta, who runs Be Good Do Good Yoga.  This week’s segment is all about natural birth control methods and why you should check them out.
• Girl w/ Pen has an impassioned editorial about the state of menstrual product advertising in Pop Goes Feminism: Does Your Period Make You Blue?
• Awesome blogger The Sexist has a hilarious article about the 5 Most Feminine Feminine Hygiene Products (note: they are not all menstrual products).
• Blog a la Cart shares a funny little story about her husband’s reaction to her excitement over first using the menstrual cup.

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Menstrual Monday.  Enjoy!

•  Bianca I. Laureano, on RH Reality Check, writes a very in depth and highly critical review of Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation.  You can read it here.
• You can check out one woman’s journey from disposable menstrual products to cloth pads and menstrual cups here, on nora_charles livejournal blog.
• My Little Red Book is set to come out with second edition with new stories!  Learn about what made the author compile period stories from around the world from women of all ages in this story from the New Haven Resister (the author was a Yale woman).
• Blogger One Day at a Time has a great article on alternative menstrual products and why you should use them.
• One Craftster.org contributor has a great idea for what to do with those extra tampons lying around your house come Easter (see photo to the right).
• The Jezebel community provides us with a wealth of useful information in A Reader’s Treasury of Cures for your Cramps.  Note: there are some less than traditional (read illegal) cures in here.
• And last, but not least you can learn more about the Benefits of Menstrual Cups on Naturally Savvy.

A short and sweet Menstrual Monday post today is coming at ya!

• Sify News presents a great article about artist Ashmina Ranjit.  She grew up in a conservative household in Nepal and now creates menstrual inspired artwork designed to educate and challenge long held beliefs about impurity.  Read more in Woman’s Blood Inspires rebel Art in Nepal.
• Did you know menstrual blood contains stem cells?  You can learn about the latest research in this area in the new article from the Santa Barbara Independent, Stem Cells in Menstrual Blood: They Can Even Become Neurons. 
• Despite the odd name, the chapter called Vulva Care–Keeping Your Kitty Happy actually contains some good advice from Psychology Today.
• Actress Eunice Wong shares her take on switching to alternative menstrual products here.
  

This week’s Menstrual Monday is slightly irregular (pardon the pun) but better late than never, right?  We’ll be back to our regular schedule next week!  And now the news:

• From The F-Word comes an article about the weird (but effective) advertising techniques used by disposable feminine product manufacturers, from blue liquid to tampons with “skirts.”

• Kotex launches a new advertising campaign — watch a video clip and read responses to the ads here and here.  Is this campaign hilarious or obnoxious? Discuss!

• There’s a great conversation about teaching kids about their bodies happening in the comments of Execumama’s post on menstruation.  Go share your two cents or just see what others are saying!

• Get serious about tracking your menstrual cycle with these detailed instructions for creating a chart in Excel.

• Have you checked out our reading list yet?  We want to know which books you recommend, too!

• Find out what experts say about vaginal discharge during pregnancy — and why you shouldn’t use a tampon or douche to deal with it.

• Here’s a great review of reusable menstrual products, including the Lunette cup, from a self-proclaimed Period Proselytiser.

Menstrual Monday is your place for menstrual news, art, musings, and more!

• Mona Eltahawy has collected a variety of very interesting stories and poems about menstruation into five blog posts: Menstruation, Menstruation II, Menstruation III, Menstruation IV, Menstruation V.  If you are looking for an engrossing read, check them out!
• The New York Times shares an amusing and insightful article on what menopause is like, called Fast Forward to Old Age, Please.
• Plasticcupcake has an adorable whale menstrual cup pouch (see picture) for sale on Etsy.  On her blog, Sugar n’ Stitches, you can see other super cute menstrual cup pouches, including a hamster and a fly!
• If you’re feeling crafty yourself, we found this great knit menstrual cup pouch pattern on All is Full of Yarn.
• This article about a Professor [who] Discusses Men’s Roles in Menstruation Ads makes me wish I could take his class at Marymount Manhattan College.  How interesting!  Academics should tackle the role of menstruation in our culture more often.
• Going on a trip soon?  Travel Insights 100 has an insightful article called No Tampons, No Problem: Alternative Products for Female Travelers.
• Wild Mother Arts posted a fabulous article on Moonwise Monday: Washable Cloth Pads.
• Consumer Reports has an article on Tampon Alternatives!

• Super Green Girl wonders Does Green = Inconvenient? and what’s wrong (or right) about inconvenience?  This is a great article about things most of us try not to think about.
• This One’s for the Girls: Green Your Period from the Greenest Dollar presents some good reasons not to use disposable menstrual products along with multiple options.
• Fabulous website and post: The Zero Waste Home: Zero Waste Bathroom.  She thinks of everything!
• Learn how to crochet a (non-usable) Moon Cup (see photo) using this handy guide.  This website is slightly naughty, so don’t visit this link at work!
• We are featured in this month’s Mothering Magazine!  Pick up a copy today for a great article about reusables.
• Hilarious: Girl Welcomed to Womanhood with 4-page Pamphlet from The Onion.

Check out the View tomorrow (3/9) for more period talk with the authors of Flow:The Cultural History of Menstruation 11am EST.

Menstrual news, art, entertainment, activism, and more!  It’s a short one today.

• Learn what your vagina thinks of the tampons or menstrual cups debate in Tampon vs. Keeper: One Vagina’s Story on youtube in which “A vulva puppet learns the difference between standard and reusable menstrual products.”
• Sarah Haskins & Friends Talk Periods, Pads, And Poop at what looks like a very interesting panel discussion with Susan Kim (who you might know as the co-author of Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation) and  television producer Allison Silverman.  Check out this Jezebel article for videos and commentary.
• Simple Organic has a great article on Green Goal Setting, Part 1: Personal Life in which the author sets out a number of goals to consider for the coming year including switching to reusable menstrual products.  This has inspired us to create some green challenges of our own.  Look forward to joining us in our GladRags Green Goals in the near future.

Joni Christine has won the Moon Cup Kit contest by posting a comment on last week’s Menstrual Monday blog entry.  Please email us by the end of the week at orders@gladrags.com to receive your prize!

Hello!  You have reached GladRags’ Menstrual Monday.  You’re one stop shop for all the newest menstrual news, art, politics, musings, and more!  Let’s get right into it and see what we have this week.

• Dr. Machelle Seibel writes about vaginal pH and how different events and items can effect it.  He notes that tampons can absorb the natural fluids that vaginas need to maintain pH.  Read his very interesting and short article if you need another reason to not use tampons.
• The Diva Cup commissions a fun informative video about why eco-conscious ladies should use alternative menstrual products in Eco Menstrual Innovations: Diva Cup Give Pads and Tampons the Green Boot.
• Animal New York brings to light what happens When Men Create PMS Ads (see photo) shows us some confusing imagery and targeting techniques.  Apparently, a Chilean ad campaign for a midol-type product is attempting to market their product to men to buy for their female significant others.  What do you guys thing of this ad?  Funny?  Disgusting?  Sexist?  All three?

Bonus: Truth Be Told blog is hosting a GladRags giveaway and review.  You can win a color pad sampler pack!  Find out the many ways to enter here.

Welcome to Menstrual Monday!  Not to many stories for you today, but all good ones!

• Ascics shoe company comes out with a running shoe that changes shape based on where a woman is on her menstrual cycle.  Read more about how our arches change here.
• Blogger Stumptown Crunch has a great article on why the Diva Cup is so awesome!  The article include some striking visual aids (see photo).
• Frugal for Life reviews GladRags and offers Color Sampler Pack giveaway in a recent post!
• Crunchy Chicken discusses a new product, the glass menstrual cup.
• More menstrual humor (this time from a woman!) in the video Aunt Flow from Let’s Talk….Period from humorist and blogger Bern This.

• Occidental's Feminist blog heralds the arrival of the Vaginal Monologues on their campus with a delightful article on the benefits of using menstrual cups.
• Blogger Crunchy Chicken shares with us her Sex and Sustainability seminar slides (woo alliteration!) from a recent talk she gave in Eugene.  She discusses eco-friendly menstrual products, toys, lube, and more! PS: Think twice before opening this one at the office.
• If you are in or around Chicago be sure to check out the lecture tomorrow (2/9) on "Sanitary Technology in Nepal: Menstrual Cup Adoption and Effect on Education" by Emily Oster, Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.  This talk looks really interesting and makes me wish I was in Chicago!  If you go, please tell us about it.
• A writer on the staff of The Pitch, Kansas City's News Blog, has found an old copy of Cosmopolitan in which the article "Are Woman Troubles Out of Style?" appears.  Anthropological hilarity ensues here.
• One Green Generation takes on Greening Your Menstrual Cycle in one of their latest articles.  The author surveys all the different types of alternative menstrual products in this great review.
• The blog A Month Without Monsanto gives GladRags a shout out in Monsanto Out of My Panties!
• There was sure a lot of "humor" about the new Apple iPad, unfortunately it was mostly at the expense of women.  Following are some great article addressing the issue:
  • "The iPad: A Product from the He-Mans Woman-Hater's Club?" on Bust Magazine
  • "It's the subtle things: iPad edition" on Feministing
  • "The Guy with a Good Attitude Toward Menstruation" on Re:Cycling
  • "Misogyny's Last Frontier: Feminists and the iPad" on Gourmet Goddess an open Salon blog
  • The image is from Jezebel's "Graphic Humor with Apple's New iPad"