The Period Party
I'm sorry to say that the majority of the adolescent females that I meet and work with agree that getting their periods is a sign that they are "FAT" (which translates directly into "Bad, Unloveable, Shameful, Ugly, Unacceptable and Worthless in our current cultural climate).
A majority of them are pleased if they lose their period as a result of their eating disorder. Amenorrehea (loss of menses) is a serious health problem. The implication is that you are not well, your body is in a weak, vulnerable, sickly position and it can sense that you need to conserve nutrients and precious energy so that you can go find an adequate food supply and survive yourself, much less a pregnancy. The implication is your body is shutting down in reaction to how you are mist-treating it.
If someone were to induce amenorrehea in someone else, we would consider that to be abuse.
Your menstural cycle is not your enemy. Getting your period does not mean you are fat.
Your menstrual cycle is something that connects you to all of the women who have lived before you.
It connects you to the moon, it attunes you directly to nature and ties you through time to your ancestors.
It is a beauty that only the female possess, it is our secret.
Not getting your period is serious.
Not getting your period is not some kind of cool birth control (and be warned, little nymphs, you can still get pregnant, as your cycle might start up again and you don't know it, so please please protect yourself...). Not getting your period means calcium will be taken from your bones, so your beloved bones will weaken before their time.
Not getting your period means your hormones will not be flowing according to Nature, so your moods and feelings and interest in the world will not be naturally induced.
Not getting your period means you are putting yourself through Early Menopause, it does NOT mean that you are staying a child.
You can only age upwards, and amenorrehea will speed up the aging process, not rewind it.
A majority of my young clients have beat me to Menopause.
What if models over the age 13 or 14 or even 15 or 16 were required to get their periods in order to work as female beauty models/representatives as they are??
We have to challenge that the beauty ideal is a female body that isn't fully female because it is a body that is not likely menstruating.
This has meaning. Women that we hold precious and beautiful need to be WOMEN and getting your period is a part of being a woman.
Challenge any negative thinking hard, please...
because I don't think it's a "minor" deal that the majority, if not all, of the adolescent girls I work with fear, loathe, hate and want to banish their periods.
This has got to be one of the biggest, scariest cultural statments ever made by young females.
Ironically, if the beauty ideal is for the males, they, without knowing it are going to be drawn to menstruating women in the world. That is how it is possible that we're all still around, loves. Ultimately, without your hormones operating you will not be a great girlfriend or lover or object of desire anyway, so worshipping the pre-pubestant female body is ridiculous. Men love our breasts so much... and they are a symbol of being able/ready to have babies, and to FEED babies, nonetheless!!!
And don't tell me that P.M.S. is some glich in the system... instead of looking at it like that one time in the month when she's moody, she's blunt and outright and assertive, but it'll pass, because it's "just" her period... how about we all (male and female) realize that when we are menstruating we are MORE in touch with Divinity, the Earth and Nature and we can see CLEARLY the state of the world and so...
yeah, she gets upset, gets assertive, speaks up, but that's because the state of the world IS upsetting... and the rest of the month she is not as much "in tune" and so she will tolerate things that aren't really okay.
We can not just eliminate our periods. And by suggesting that periods are "dirty" and "unsightly" (as suggested in our advertising media, with the ohh, shhh, hide your 'secret' and keep it clean, be discreet and don't talk about it because it's a 'curse')... we are destroying what is a divine birth-rite for girls.
And by teaching each other that getting your period is somehow an indication that the female is "FAT" is such a sick, terrible lie. It means the female cannot relax, enjoy or celebrate her body as it is NATURALLY.
What would the Goddess say to my clients?
What do I say to them?
And What we will tell our daughters?
Your period is a direct inspiring link to The Goddess.
It is Beautiful.
This page is a collage put together by Lisa Arndt,
Words by Lisa Arndt, with Reaction to it by You!
Quote on Poster reads:
"All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, He's merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, He does to himself." -Chief Seattle 1854
