With a Silver Bow

This post began as a desire to talk about trying menstrual cups. Once I started down that path, I thought about my experiences with pads and tampons. I stopped using pads in high school, which was also the time I stopped doing what younger-me felt girls (and I was a girl, wasn't I?) had to do - shave their legs, wear panties, etc. - and started finding what was comfortable for myself. I've tried to be personal and direct, though not without some conflict. I haven't much talked about intimate things in the past -- they're often not discussed culturally, there's a measure of vulnerability and risk involved, and it erases genital ambiguity, which is something I quite like about the internet. Nevertheless, I found once I started that I had many things to say, including some which I wish my younger self could have known.

( On menstruation, pads, tampons, cups, and gender; likely TMI. )