(no subject)

[jude.livejournal.com]

on the subject of my earlier comment... how difficult is the topic of menstruation for you to talk about? like, with friends, or relatives, your mother, whomever. i find that, like most things, it's easier for me to discuss in a written forum, and i'm still trying to get up the nerve to IM my mother about this whole tampon conversation that's been going on here lately. it's just not something we ever really talk about... and i'm fully aware of how silly that is, and am working up the nerve to IM her as we speak. it's just an ingrained subconscious thing... it probably has something to do with the fact that both of my parents were raised Catholic (no longer practicing, in both cases, but the habits can be hard to break) and sex, sexuality, and "stuff down there" is just not a topic i think they're that comfortable with.
do other people find this to be true..? how much is it discussed among your loved ones? discuss, please.. i'm interested. :)

Comments

[peekaboo.livejournal.com]

after 3 years of menstural politics discussions with friends and my family i really have kinda gotten rid of all my problems with talking about menstruation. although i know exactly what you are talking about. i too was a little shy at first and didn't know how to word things or if it was appropriate to bring up the topic. but in most cases i solved that problem by taking a deep breath and just diving in. after a while it became second nature.

many positive thoughts to you, i hope that you drum up the courage!

[sweetalyssm.livejournal.com]

For some reason, that kind of topic has never bothered me...I look at it as normal as breathing (and it is). It wasn't that it was a hot topic when I was growing up, but I suppose I had some sense that it was "taboo" in my community. I could never understand that.

Good luck in getting your nerve up.

[afb.livejournal.com]

For me, talking about it is easy. It's making people uncomfortable by talking about it that I try to avoid. If I'm in a group of people that really won't care if I start babbling about how my period is going and why it's better or worse than usual and how cool the new Lunapads I got are, then I can talk my head off (even to men, which is amusing). But there are people who don't even want to think about their *own* periods, much less mine.

how Mom found out I'd started my period

[razz.livejournal.com]

In high school gym class, when I was 14, we'd get these girls-only magazines that educated us on adolescent issues. One issue had a coupon from a bunch of Feminine good manufacturers -- I filled out the coupon, and in a couple weeks, I got a box full of all sorts of free samples. I thought it was pretty cool so I went to show my Mom. She told me to save them because I might need them one day. I told her I'd been using that stuff for a year already.

She and I never talked openly about that stuff, especially because we weren't getting along almost the entire time I was in junior high and high school. Her being menopausal the whole time didn't make it easier.

I can talk to everybody else about it openly, though -- men, women, friends, family -- I just know that the generation and cultural gap between my mother and I won't let us talk about menstruation very comfortably, although I know she'd listen if I asked her to.