December Monthly Friend: Michele A.

Age: 26

Current Location: Brooklyn, New York

What she does: She is a performative story teller and a kinesthetic monologist. “They don’t have words for what I am.” she says. And, oh yeah, she’s also a waiter.

Dreams: “I wanna have a dream!” She guesses that right now her dream is that her friend, who is due to give birth sometime next week, has a healthy baby. Another dream of hers is, “That someday I will chill out and realize that I am not in control of the whole universe, and to let things just happen to me.”

How long she has used menstrual alternatives: Probably for about 9 years, starting around the age of 17 or so. Michele said that she stopped using tampons and pads at this young age because she realized that conventional products were inconvenient, expensive and uncomfortable. Around that time she was validated in her ideas while reading the book Cunt by Inga Muscio and realized “Wow! Other people don’t like those either? Awesome!”

Reason for switching:  “Back then I wasn’t about to use a pad (they’re like diapers!), and just forget about tampons! So I just started to bleed all over myself.” Eventually she started innovating -  she would stick a sock in her underwear, or just whatever soft fabric was around. After a while it seemed right to do something more intentional, making her cycle more hers.  She started collecting rags for this purpose and after a while she had her “bag o’ rags”. In a culture such as ours where bleeding is hidden and forgotten, this enlightened young woman was celebrating hers.

Michele once had an assignment in her ritual dance class, in which she had to find something she did with intention, and create a dance about it. Her dance was about the ritual she had cultivated of “reading” the period blood on her rags. When she had to change or refold her rags she would ask ask the universe a question and then apply what she saw in her blood in whatever way seemed right.

As an ending note and as a great plug for us, Michele would also like to say how much she loves her GladRags, and how dainty and lady-like it makes her feel to use her beautiful, soft, lovely Rags.

We’re heading into cold season, why not spare your nose and the local landfill the pain of scratchy tissue? GladRags carries super soft reusable hankies made out of organic undyed cotton, and right now they are on special for 15% off their regular price. Yet another simple way to reduce your impact on the planet. This 3-pack is also a great stocking stuffer for anyone with a nose!

We like to hear of women doing awesome stuff in the world. It is just icing on the cake when they happen to enjoy the comfort of GladRags alternative menstrual products at the same time! Here’s a testimonial from one group of adventursome GladRags devotees:

We’re Rachel, Carla, and Jess, three botany field interns at Death Valley National Park. We plot vegetation throughout the park and spend most of our time in the wilderness. The menstrual cup makes our lives easier.
After spending a week or more in the field, the idea of carrying around our bloody disposable products in order to pack them out of pristine wilderness areas seems unpleasant. There’s the smell, which is not only foul for us, but also attracts animals like mountain lions and coyotes. We already have compost stinking up our gear. With cups, we don’t have to carry around a period’s supply of disposables in our already limited space and we don’t have to triple bag the used items with more disposable things to take home and add to our local landfill. As far as comfort goes, in the harsh desert climate the cup makes the most sense. The desert’s dry already, we’re glad we don’t have to shove dry tampons up our ‘ginas. Gladrags, thanks for offering us a great deal on menstrual alternatives. You’ve certainly improved our lives for the better!

Name: Tracy P.

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

Age: 22

Profession: Vocational support staff for adults with developmental disabilities

Interests: Knitting, spinning, music, bicycle rides, friends, coffee, animals, reading, etc

Dreams: In first grade, my teacher had my class all create pictures of ourselves performing our dream jobs. I drew myself in overalls, boots, and a floppy hat standing at an easel and painting a portrait of a nearby pig. It was captioned “Farmer/Artist.” I think I’m still pretty into that.

Number of years/months using (appreciating) menstrual alternatives: About a year and a half using alternative menstrual products. Much more than that wondering about/appreciating them.

Reason for switching to alternatives: It makes so much more sense! Better for the environment, better for my body, better for my bank account.

Favorite thing about alternatives: Reusable menstrual products required me to get to know my body in a way that disposables can’t. I’ve gained a greater appreciation of my menstrual cycle since using GladRags and the Moon Cup.

Funny anecdotes?: Never chop up a big pile of jalapenos with your bare hands. Especially if you’re going to have to empty your moon cup any time in the next 24 hours.

When possible, the GladRags team loves to make donations. Jessica Morell contacted us because she uses our book, Passage, as part of the curriculum in her work as a sexuality educator. In this case, we were able to donate quite a few copies of Passage. We’re very pleased to hear that GladRags plays a positive role in such important work. Thanks for the kind words, Jessica!

“Thank you to GladRags for the excellent design of an ancient technology! As an early self-awareness/sexuality educator it is wonderful to be able to share with young women a safe, eco-friendly and cute-as-a-button option. The middle school girls love the fun colors and environmentally safe design. I appreciate having such a sane choice to share with them as they learn all about the magical mysteries of their cycle.” – Jessica Morell, MiT the RISE workshop Reproductive Information/Scientific Education

all of the world’s most important seeds.

In an effort to preserve crop diversity in the face of a mounting environmental crisis and monoculture farming, The Global Crop Diversity Trust has created an Arctic seed vault that will store millions of seed samples.  These seeds are the foundation of our world’s agriculture and their preservation is important for continued food production.

Ok, there is a slight freakout factor with the existence of such a facility.  It means that we have brought our world to such a precarious state that we need to take precautions like ensuring we don’t lose our food sources and have to manufacture all of our seeds in a laboratory.  However, this is a very pragmatic approach to preparing for the future even if it does seem “doomsday”-esq.  The fact is that our world is in such a state and we might as well act accordingly.

Another important organization is Seed Savers Exchange.  I just donated to them because I pictured being forced into eating food from a laboratory just to survive and having to take up meat eating for lack of anything else to consume.  Yikes!

I hope that our united efforts reinvigorate heirloom seed preservation and guarantee a world free of genetically engineered agriculture.

Save the Seeds!

Diana

I was recently made aware of this new site, sponsored by Procter and Gamble, to market the Gillette Venus Breeze, a razor for women.  They call the site, the manquarium.  The premise of the site is as follows: you are a girl and you want to find a man.  The manquarium website will help you build the perfect man.  The site asks you to pick a body of a guy in swim trunks (animated of course).  You can scroll through man “types”, like the geeky but cute one with glasses, or the person of color with corn rows.  Ok, so now that we have picked our man, we answer some questions about ourselves, like where we want to go on a date or what the best compliment would be.  We put all of this into the site and what we get back is an animation of our man swimming telling us things that the Proctor and Gamble team thinks we want to hear.  Like if you input that you want him to think you are smart, your man will tell you something like your intelligence is hot.

Ok P and G, what are we saying here?  I glean from this website the following…

• women should be looking for a man

• they should pick a man based on how he looks

• clearly we need to shave to find a man

I mean, that is the bottom line.  This is an ad for a razor.  So we are all heterosexual women who need to snag a man.

Shame on you procter and gamble.  Shame on you…

I think one of the biggest problems confronting us today is media consolidation.  The implications of having only six or seven corporations who rule the airwaves and media outlets does not bode well for anyone beyond those who own those corporations.  Dissenting voices don't get heard and big business just gets to further its case.  As with most important issues, it's complicated. Here are some links to understand more.

Now with Bill Moyers (always a common sense voice of reason).

Media Channel (they watch the media) and this link takes you to Michael Copps dissenting statement on today's ruling.

 Seattle Times Editorial

The other day I was listening to an interview with Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and, more recently, The Shock Doctrine.  I like her creative and clear perspective on the waves of capitalistic thought that have struck the US.  She goes up against Milton Friedman, a die hard free market enthusiast whom I think took the concept a bit too far in its unmitigated simplicity, and whom Klein echoes as she states her case that the current free market ideology uses the tactic of shock to further its agenda.

So, I'm not much of an economic thinker, but it can be argued that economics effects everything we do in this society, all with which we interact.  Read the Democracy Now! interview for Klein's crash course on Friedman's economic thought and her interpretation of how it has shaped our country here.

Klein also created a video clip that introduces the viewer to her theory.

Trying to keep my wits about me,

Diana 

Information is shock resistance.  Arm yourself.

Endless hours can be stolen from our days as we search wikipedia for answers to any lingering query that we can possibly recall (or concoct) – what IS baby corn anyway?  Is it really just the younger version of grow-up corn or is it a different breed all together?  Does it grow in the midwest or Southeast Asia?  Can you make fuel from it, just like its bigger cousin?  Does it have to be husked?

Now, wikipedia has its place (wonder no longer, the answer is here) but maybe there are questions out there that you didn't even know you wanted the answers to.  Maybe there is a greater Internet guide that offers true browsing fulfillment.  A guide that doesn't just provide answers to the questions that we have, but to the questions that we should have.

Maybe that guide is StumbleUpon.  StumbleUpon is a browser supported and sculpted by users just like you and me.  If you come across the coolest site ever (like this blog) then you will just want to give it the StumbleUpon thumbs up so other users check it out.  That way, when they want to kill some time at the office, they can click that 'Stumble!' button and perchance happen upon GladRags Gab.  I already found this site and now pretty much want to stay in a tree house in Cave Junction, Oregon.

Pardon me, did I stumble?

Paz,

Diana