Two weeks ago I reported information about
a menstrual cup sent me by Finney County Historical Society, Garden City,
Kansas (U.S.A.) (left, a photo of the cup, courtesy of the Society, and
somewhat altered by Harry Finley) . Someone in the Society's neighborhood
found it in an old storage room and donated it to them.But Keeping in Mind Dainty-Maid Enema-Bag-Selling Parties, Please Pause For an Outburst From This Writer
America, the paradox.
As an example, we have conservative elected officials in a country that is so terrified of sex now putting the most salacious material imaginable on the Web, for the second time - the SECOND time! - all in the name of - hmm, what?
These people once were determined to protect your children and you from the same material on the airways.
But this material is so terrible - sex is so terrible! - it's best to put it all on the Web so that advanced first graders can study it and, I earnestly hope, question their parents and teachers about it.
Would these congressional parents please write up their own sexual experiences, if they have any with each other, and put them on the Web? Oh, all right, use extramarital acts if that's all you have to offer.
After this current material is online, of course, let's go back to censorship of other material and the pursuit of anyone caught looking at it in cyberspace, in the 7-11 or in Cincinnati. Sex is OK only if you're lynching a president.
The same people object to explicit sex education. What in the world are these documents and tapes but the most drooling sex education, the stuff kids snicker to each other about and that mortify parents?
Hatred conquers all, I guess - a most un-Christian attitude in this Christian nation. Isn't that what the same people screamed a couple of years back, that America is a Christian nation?
There must be something in the Bible about hypocrisy.
Congress shames me and itself.
Hello,
You can order Instead from Akcess Pacific and have it mailed to your home.
I was getting very nervous, since my period is coming and I am down to my last Instead cup, and I can't find them at my local stores at all. So I called the offices of Ultrafem and got a recording instructing callers to call Akcess Pacific to order Instead. I called them right away and ordered some. The phone number is 406-542-3185 (U.S.A.). I hope to receive it soon; since my first experience with Instead, I REFUSE to use anything else!
Harry,
I enjoyed visiting the Lydia Pinkham page.
I am from Massachusetts, and the legendary Lydia Pinkham's company was in nearby Lynn -
Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin
you never come out
the way ya went in
and a few years ago, Yankee Magazine did a feature on Lydia Pinkham:
A baby in every bottle
or so the jingle ran
but the FDA continues to say
you're gonna need a man.
I am truly humbled by your incredible site. This is such a very, very important subject. It is without question one of the major jumping off places for research into a female deity, male fears and female psychology.
I applaud and honor your efforts to expand our knowledge and herstory regarding this subject. My personal studies include pre-menstrual syndrome.
I believe that a woman's cycles are one hundred percent connected to the lunar cycles, and I sincerely believe that women who are severely affected, emotionally, physically and mentally by these cycles are "out-of-work priestesses." The visions which can come with cycling as well as the deeply spiritual and philosophical insights which result from such cycling are truly part of a god/dess head and a fundamental aspect of human religious thought.
Please, please continue this work.
She is Returning,
[name]
I read Kathleen's explanation in your page last month [see the letter about halfway down the page].
Kathleen O'Grady is right about Muslim respect for the Torah. However, there are many practices mentioned in the Torah that are very different from the practices prescribed in Qur'an [also written Koran] and from the examples given by Muhammad, the messenger. (I have to stress the word messenger. Just yesterday I found out a friend thought that Muslims worship Muhammad.)
These are the differences:
1. Anyone who touches a menstruating woman will be unclean until evening. (Leviticus 15:19)
In Islam people do not become unclean if they touch a menstruating woman.
2. Anything that a menstruating woman sits or lies on are unclean. Anyone who touches any of those things must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and that person will be unclean until evening. (Lev 15:20-23 and 26-28)
There is no such prohibition in Islam. A bed or a chair does not become unclean just because a menstruating woman has used it. You can share the same bed, the same chair, blanket, etc. with a menstruating woman, and they won't make you unclean. You don't have to bathe after you touch them.
The use of the term unclean in Leviticus 15 does not seem to mean physical uncleanliness. If it does, then there should not be any reason why after cleaning, they are still considered unclean until evening (this is my humble opinion).
3. If a man touches the monthly flow he will be unclean for seven days, and his bed will be unclean too. (Lev 15:24).
I think this, once again, shows that the term unclean in Leviticus 15 is not about physical cleanness.
In Islam, if anyone touches menstruation discharge, he just washes it away, and he is clean. One does not need to wait until evening to consider anything that has been soiled by menstruation discharge clean. They can use them right after they wash them clean.
4. When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days. When she is cleaned from discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. (Lev 15:19, 28)
In Islam, the period of your menstruation lasts as long as your menstruation. If it is three days, then it's three days. You don't have to wait seven days. You do have to take a ritual bath at the end of the period to indicate the end of your menstruating period. After that, vaginal sex is allowed (on menstruating days, sex is allowed, as long as there is no vaginal penetration).
Menstruation is a vulnerable condition for a woman (Arab: Adhan, see a good translation of Qur'an 2:222). The only thing she is excluded from is the mandatory prayer, which she can resume after the end of her period (not necessarily seven days, but her actual menstruation period). I always think of it as a period God gives us to rest.
5. On the 8th day, the woman must bring two doves to the priest to sacrifice (one for sin offering, one for burnt offering). (Lev 15:29-30)
There is no such practice in Islam. And there's definitely no burnt offering for whatever reason. Islam does not believe in blood offering/sacrifice.
So, the practice concerning menstruation in Qur'an or Islam is very different from what is prescribed in the Bible/Torah.
Sincerely,
ida udur@omni.cc.purdue.edu
I have been using the INSTEAD cup for about a year now. When I first started using it I felt foolish about throwing it away after only a few hours. Plus it was expensive. A box of 14 sold for around $9.00 here in Hawaii. So I started reusing them. Washed it with an anti-bacterial soap and then dried it.
I have a pre-teen daughter that I would love to teach to use these. But I cannot find them anymore. I have a box left and after reading your Web site I plan on being even more careful with how often I use them. Mostly because I may want to save them for times when I really need them.
I am a teacher and I play soccer. The INSTEAD is great. What can we do to keep this company in business?
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.