March 10th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College
Debates about Christianity’s attitudes toward women sometimes focus on Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene and isolated engagements with other unnamed women encountered during his travels. Little is made of a healing scene in the book of Luke(8:43-48) where Jesus had momentary contact with a woman who, in all likelihood, had a severe case of menorrhagia. Here’s how the translation is described in the Revised Standard Version”
“As he went, the people pressed round him. And a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years and could not be healed by any one came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment; and immediately her flow of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you!” But Jesus said, “Some one touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Continue reading...
Tags: Christianity, guest post, Menstruation, religion
Posted in Language, Literature, Men, Menorrhagia, Menstruation, Religion/Spirituality | No Comments »
March 9th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest Post by Amber Steele, University of Cambridge
There have been a couple of stories in the press recently touting a study by Joanna Spencer and colleagues suggesting that PMDD may be genetic. I had a cursory look through the paper and read the article. Changes in dendritic branching of neurons in the limbic system across the menstrual cycle, owing to changes in estrogen, has been well documented in the female mice and rat. Additionally, changes in neuronal activity and accompanying receptor activity is also well document during periods of hormone change, again in the female mice and rat models. Individual differences in how this change occurs and the fact that it can be linked to differences in genes make sense. It seems that Spencer et al., have identified one of probably many genes that mediates these differences. This is not the first time that a gene of this kind has been identified or implicated. For example, Susan Girdler at Chapel Hill has done some interesting work on PMDD and suggests a genetic i.e., differing protein response to a hormone, difference in response to progesterone that might, in part, explain symptoms associated with PMDD.
The fact that Spencer et al., found a relationship to anxious behavior does not say anything conclusively about PMS or PMDD. It only states that if you have this variant then your levels of anxiety may change as estrogen fluctuates.
The news article is exploiting the findings from the Spencer study to construct a simplistic view of varying responses to hormone change within and across women. I suppose the author of the news article thought it might be interesting to examine the debate on whether or not there is a “clinically disordered” state during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in some women and whether it should be recognized officially. While it may do this, it also perpetuates misunderstandings and stereotypes about women’s hormones and their emotional states.
Amber Steele is a graduate student at the University of Cambridge with a biomedical background. She is writing a thesis is on wellbeing over the menstrual cycle and how it relates to hormonal “biomarkers” cortisol and progesterone.

Tags: genetic research, guest post, PMDD, PMS
Posted in New Research, Newspapers, PMDD, PMS | No Comments »
March 6th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Tags: blogs
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010 by Chris Bobel

Tina Turner didn’t sing THOSE lyrics, but what if?
Those that follow re:Cycling may recall-with a grin and a cringe–how Ingrid Berthon-Moine’s portraits of women wearing their menstrual blood as lipstick sent many Guardian and Salon Broadsheet readers to the “icky” place, where unexamined assumptions run amok.
Plenty of folks readily expressed their disgust at the idea of menstrual blood on display (ack!!!on the mouth??) but few were willing to dig into WHY this disgusted them and how that disgust hurts women and girls…..if they dared to really look first, at those blood-smeared lips, and then, at themselves.
Moine’s models, silent and unblinking, issue a challenge. When we meet their gaze and contemplate their deep red mouths, we are forced to look back at ourselves, and at each other.
Why is there a menstrual taboo, anyway? And who and what does it serve? There must be an awful lot at stake when people work so hard to keep it alive.
This week Moine is exhibiting her work in London. Placing her portraits in the context of a V-Day show makes explicit the connections between the denigration of women’s bodies and violence against women and girls. Continue reading...
Tags: Activism, art, Menstrual Taboo, shame, taboo, violence against women
Posted in Activism, Art, Menstruation | 3 Comments »
March 3rd, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Tags: anatomy, art, books, vagina, vulva
Posted in Art, anatomy, books | No Comments »
March 2nd, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Tags: Celebrities, FemCare, FemCare advertising, misogyny, SNL, television, vagina
Posted in Celebrities, Communication, FemCare, Television | 1 Comment »
February 28th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Tags: cartoon, Humor, webisode
Posted in Internet, Media, Menstruation, Objects | Comments Off
February 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Introducing Leak Chic.
Chella Quint celebrates Fashion Week, recently ended in London and New York, with clot couture.
StainsTM. A removable stain to wear on your own clothing as you see fit. A fashion statement that really says something, and that something is, ‘Screw you, Madison Avenue. I’m taking this one back. I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve and my blood on my pants. I’m gonna reclaim the stain, reclaim my blood, and reclaim my period.’ Because people, I’m telling you red is the new black.
Read more at Adventures in Menstruating.

Tags: blood, blood stain, chella quint, fashion, Humor, stain, zine
Posted in Activism, DIY, Humor, Internet, Menstruation, zine | 1 Comment »
February 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Tags: blogs
Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »
February 22nd, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College
Dana Medoro, The Bleeding of America: Menstruation as Symbolic Economy in Pynchon, Faulkner and Morrison, Greenwood/Praeger, 2002. Pp. 198. $98. ISBN 0313320594.
One of the ways the taboos surrounding menstruation find expression is through absence. For instance, until recently menstrual references in American novels were rare. Contemporary writers, particularly women novelists such as Joyce Carol Oates (The Tattooed Girl, 2003) and Erica Jong (Parachutes and Kisses, 1984) and occasional men such as John Updike (The Widows of Eastwick, 2008) and Philip Roth (The Dying Animal, 2001), have more frequently used period reference to advance a plot or to symbolize something or other, but historically the menstrual cycle has generally been off limits. Similarly, literary criticism has tended to ignore or avoid an examination of the social, cultural and psychological significance of the cycle within the literary marketplace. There is, however, in the area of scholarship one significant exception.
In 2002 Dana Medoro published a seminal study of menstrual references and symbolic allusions titled, The Bleeding of America: Menstruation as Symbolic Economy in Pynchon, Faulkner and Morrison.
Here’s the way the publisher describes the book: Continue reading...
Tags: books, guest post, Menstruation
Posted in Language, Literature, Menstruation, books | Comments Off
February 20th, 2010 by Chris Hitchcock
In honour of the fabulous Laurie Anderson (whose Delusion performance I will be attending this evening), I wanted to share a link to her song Beautiful Red Dress from the Strange Angels album. It’s full of powerful imagery, and, as always for her, that bit of strange.
Cause the moon is full and look out baby -
I’m at high tide.
I’ve got a beautiful red dress
And you’d look really good
standing beside it..
I’ve got some beautiful new red shoes
and they look so fine
I’ve got a hundred and five fever
and it’s high tide.
And here’s a nice piece of rich poetry about menstrual cyclicity of mood:
Well they say women shouldn’t be the president Cause we go crazy from time to time
Well push my button, baby
Here I come
Yeah, look out, baby
I’m at high tide
I’ve got a beatiful red dress and you’d look really good standing beside it..
I always love the way she plays with words, and she captures both the power and the double-edge of being a menstruating woman, being a woman at all. What can I say, I’m a fan, and looking forward to tonight. I hope you enjoy it. Continue reading...
Posted in Media, Menstruation, Music, PMS | 1 Comment »
Readers should note that statements published in re: Cycling are those of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Society as a whole.