GladRags Gab

I stumbled upon the GladRags website about 2 years while 'mindlessly' looking up cloth diapers on google.  I don't even have kids yet, but I grew up on cloth diapers, and want my kids to do the same.  Even though I had always known diapers were bad for the environment, I had never even thought about how pads were just as bad!  I had also started boycotting tampons around this time b/c one of my friends who is a pediatric nurse had a patient with toxic shock syndrome and it freaked me out.

Once I started using GladRags (1.5 years ago), I never looked back…I love them!  Maybe it's just in my head, but I think having a completely cloth pad feels so much cleaner b/c my skin can breathe, as opposed to a disposable pad that has the plastic-like lining that sticks to your underwear.  They have cute designs, prettier flowers, etc…I feel great when I wear them!  And all of my friends are getting hooked on them too…!

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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

"Nothing in our society-with the exception of violence and fear-has been more effective in keeping women in their place than the degradation of the menstrual cycle." -Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup

"On approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grass withers away, garden plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits." -Pliny, 636 A.D.

"Without menstruation and the sciences of measurement women developed from watching first the moon and then the stars, there would be no clocks or watches, no astronomers, no mathematicians or physicists, no astronauts, none of the architecture and engineering which have been born from exact measurement and proportion." -Blood, Bread, and Roses by Judy Grahn

"How might your life have been different for you if, on your first menstrual day, your mother had given you a bouquet of flowers and taken you to lunch, and then the two of you had gone to meet your father at the jeweler, where your ears were pierced…and then you went, for the very first time, to the Women's Lodge, to learn the wisdom of the women? How might your life be different?" -Circle of Stones by Judith Duerk

"Suppose that society is a lie, and the period is a moment of truth which will not sustain lies." -The Wise Wound by Penelope Shuttle & Peter Redgrove

-Michelle

Michelle Singer is a freelance journalist currently living and working in Montpelier, Vermont. Former GladRags employee and menstrual enthusiast, she is also a great lover of books, hiking, and wrestling with the continual confusion of feminism. She lives in a multi-generational home with all her most important fans-her parents, husband and two truly adorable children.  

There have been many discussions on the internet recently surrounding a campaign of Always pads entitled, "Have a Happy Period".

Right off the bat, what do these words mean to you?

Are you excited by the idea that your period could be a happier thing?  Are you mad that someone is telling you to have a happy period when it couldn't possibly be happy, what with cramps and irritability and all?  Are you suspect of a marketing campaign?  Are you inspired by a forward thinking corporation?  Are you indifferent? - gosh I hope not!

Well, many women are pretty upset with this campaign.  Apparently, Always prints this slogan on the plastic wrapping of their pads so women can read the words as they change their pads.  Women are appalled at the gall of a company that tries to say that a woman's period could be a happy thing.  There is even a letter circulating among blogs that a woman apparently wrote to the company in disgust over the slogan.

Something we like about GladRags is that they not only help the environment, are great for women's health and save women money, but they also often help to improve a woman's perspective on her period.  The comfort of an all-cotton pad and the act of washing and caring for GladRags put women more in touch with their bodies in a healthy way.  We have written in the past about PMS and how we regret how it always has to be such a stigmatized thing - women are overly emotional and unreasonable during these days and therefore crazy.  We simply do not agree with that.  We have talked about how menstruation does not have to be a curse.  It can be a time for quiet, for reflection, a time to appreciate the gifts of menstruation.  In essence, we too at GladRags hope all women are able to have a happy period.

It is a shame that many women cannot take this approach to their period, but I think that many of these women are taking issue with Always because they don't feel like Always really understands them.  The company is simplifying what a woman experiences during her days of menstruating into urges for chocolate, being angry at anyone she comes into contact with, and feeling ugly.  They're riding all of the cliches, embracing them really, instead of reinventing them.

In order for women to be lead into a better perspective on their periods, I say, let's reinvent!  I used to be frustrated at how reflective I was and emotional during my PMS days.  Now, I appreciate the insights that I come to when I am literally forced into reflection by my body.  I take time out to absorb those insights and perhaps to make changes in my life based off of my new information.

Menstruation is a powerful and nuanced experience.  I hope that more and more women are able to understand and respect that rather than resent it.  And I hope that a marketing campaign doesn't push women who could benefit from a reinvention into resenting their periods even more.

Would you like GladRags Gab to cover a specific topic?  Interested to hear what other GladRaggers think about something you have recently been mulling over?  Well, go ahead then and write a blog entry topic (or two!) in the comments section below.

Hey, thanks - we'll do our best to cover your particular area of interest in the upcoming blog entries.

I'm venturing into very personal territory here, bloggers, so hold onto your hats. However, in the spirit of universal experience, I'm wondering something…

Is it just me, or are the delicate tissues of my vulva even more delicate after having given birth two times? Since having my kids and getting my cycle back (although this didn't happen right away) a day or two into bleeding my vulva begins to feel rather…raw. What is this about?

I will admit, in all my years of frankness about menstruation, I still find myself shy to talk about my vulva (especially on the internet). But I do believe that that this is one of the few forums I might be able to venture this subject. Also, many people do experience vulvodynia, which simply means vulvar pain, much like I am describing, but if I am correct, pain caused by vulvodynia is more constant while mine seems to be associated with bleeding. There is also contact dermatitis, which is also irritation of the vulva, but usually because of contact with soaps, detergents, deodorants, etc. Again, my irritation seems linked to blood, when I use internal products, still wearing my skivvies and clothes, I'm fine.

Could my blood be irritating my skin, and why would it do that? Is the tissue of my vulva more sensitive now after giving birth two times?

I hope to hear from any readers with insights, and also to open the door for people who do experience vulvar pain and find relief in natural menstrual products like the ones found here. It's not something we get the chance to talk about but I'm sure we have a lot of experiences to share. Let's talk, we've got to take care of our girls!

Michelle

Michelle Singer is a freelance journalist currently living and working in Montpelier, Vermont. Former GladRags employee and menstrual enthusiast, she is also a great lover of books, hiking, and wrestling with the continual confusion of feminism. She lives in a multi-generational home with all her most important fans-her parents, husband and two truly adorable children.