all about access

I was reading a magazine once-- I think it was Glamour-- and some woman wrote in to talk about how her boyfriend was creeped out by her "feminine products", and he wished she wouldn't be so indiscreet about them.

This woman kept her tampons in the cabinet under her bathroom sink.

Now, look, menstruation is obviously kind of ooky-- there's blood! And yet, when you compare a woman's experience of bleeding with a man's experience of knowing that sometimes women bleed, I still think that the dudes are getting off pretty easy.

Which brings me to the other kind of getting off-- I just don't think that any guy who FEARS MENSTRUATION should be allowed to have access to non-menstruating vaginas either. If a vagina doing what a vagina is supposed to do every twenty-eight days creeps you out, then you shouldn't be allowed to make nice with vaginas at all. Ever. No matter what time of the month it is. I mean, if a dude was to bleed from the peen periodically, would he ever shut up about it? No, no he would not. Men in our culture are usually taught to revel in bodily function, and the reciprocal disgust with women tacitly admitting to bodily functions by PURCHASING PRODUCTS TO DEAL WITH THEM AND STORING THOSE PRODUCTS IN THE ROOM WHERE THEY ARE USED is what makes me all twitchy with irritation.

If you like vaginas and the process of getting to know them, then learn to like all of them. I have some friends with a few habits which bother me, but I find that the friendship is usually worth getting over those temporary annoyances. I think that is a fair model to follow in this particular relationship paradigm as well.