2017 Reading, Week 1: Moon Time

As you may know, one of my New Years Intentions for 2017 was to read at least one book every week.

In order to hold myself accountable for this, I have decided to post a little bit about each book that I read on my blog.

The first book that I read is called Moon Time: Harness the Ever-Changing Energy of Your Menstrual Cycle by Lucy H. Pearce. In case the title and subtitle don't give it away, this is a book about understanding and embracing the monthly cycle that approximately half of the human population goes through in their lifetime, the menstrual cycle.

This book. Right here. 10/10 would recommend.

It's a relatively short book, but it's got a lot of information that we don't learn in school and that society seems to want to keep from menstruators. It's almost as if the world is not prepared for those who menstruate to embrace the power within them [because anyone who can bleed for 3-7 days a month and not die is obviously pretty powerful, right?] and harness it to change the world outside.

The book starts with a good biological explanation of what happens to the body during the menstrual cycle and then looks at how society treats humans who menstruate. Like many other books on the topic, it is good at pointing out the flaws that much of today's society exhibit regarding the treatment of menstruation; it is also good at pointing to different ways to work with the changes that the menstruating body experiences, for those who are not interested in using commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals for this.

One of the major things that I learned from the book is that birth control pills are highly over-prescribed in our society, and that many individuals who go on the pill do not get all of the information about it beforehand. I, for one, definitely did not know everything I should have known before I went on the pill in high school. While I am not sure if I believe everything negative about birth control pills that the book talks about (after all, tons of doctors tell you on a regular basis that birth control pills are completely safe, and I do have a good deal of trust in doctors), there are some things that I feel should be discussed more before putting humans on birth control, especially those that are young.

Overall, I think that this is a great book to read if you're interested in knowing more about your menstrual cycle in an intimate way, rather than just the clinical treatment that you get when you look it up. It does a great job of filling in some of the gaps that society has allowed and encouraged in the education on menstruation. It also has some fun activities and ways that you can embrace your menstrual cycle and plan your life around it in order to better use the varying energy levels that you are likely to experience throughout your cycle.

This is a book that I asked for and received for Christmas, and I elected to read it as my first book of 2017 because I wanted to enter the new year with a better understanding of my own body. I also selected it because my menstrual cycle began (i.e. my period started) on the first day of the new year, and it seemed fitting to read something related to moon time (the author uses "moon time" as a phrase for "period") while in my moon time, ya feel?

At the end of the day, I would recommend reading it, and taking from it what suits you the best, allowing yourself to read, acknowledge, and understand the different perspectives that are offered in the book, whether or not you elect to take all of the advice given.

Even if you are not a menstruating human, there is a lot to learn from this book. If you are a non-menstruating human who values the menstruating humans in your life (e.g. mother, sister, friend, partner), I would recommend reading this with one or more of those humans and discussing it as you go in order to better understand how the menstrual cycle affects them and your relationship with them.

Food for Thought Friday: the F-word

You had to know this was coming.

It's time to talk about the F-word

No, not that F-word, this one:

Feminism

There are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding feminism and the feminist movement.

I am (sometimes) proud to call myself a feminist. (Other times, it is difficult, and I'll talk about why today)

So, let's start with a little bit of history.

The feminist movement began in the 19th century (that's the 1800s for those who get confused by the century numeration system) with women fighting for rights like being able to own property and, like, be treated as humans. The actual start of the first feminist movement is debatable. It is my belief that the first-wave feminist movement (in the United States, at least) came after the Civil War, when women whose husbands, brothers, fathers, or other important male people died in the war had to fight to receive their fallen companions' pensions. The first-wave feminist movement (as we now call it) carried on through the early 20th century (1900s) with the women's suffrage movement. Many of the people who are admired as members of the first-wave feminist movement would not have called themselves feminists. The term wasn't really developed until later--they would have been known as women's rights activists. The first-wave feminist movement encompasses a lot, from fighting for the right to own property to the right to vote. Some of my favorite feminists from this time are Clara Barton (educator, Civil War Nurse, founder of the American branch of the International Red Cross, and much more), Mary Wollstonecraft (author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women), Lucretia Mott (abolitionist, quaker, women's rights activist), Sojourner Truth (abolitionist, women's rights activist), and Sonia Kovalevsky (first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics).

The second-wave feminist movement began in the middle of the 20th century (1900s, y'all), after WWII and Rosie the Riveter brought women into a new (to them) sphere. Prior to WWII, most women were expected to, and did, remain in the home. When WWII occurred and all the men were off fighting, and women had to step into the factories to do all the work that the men weren't doing since they were away, they realized that they kinda liked not being home all day every day and so after the war, when all those who had been fighting came back and wanted their jobs, these women were like "yo, I want to have a job still, too" and so the feminist movement grew to encompass women's right to work outside the home as well as other important topics, such as reproductive health (I'm talking Roe V. Wade, birth control access, family planning, etc. some of this was part of the first wave movement, but became more central to the second wave). Much like the first wave of feminism, this was often referred to by another name: the women's liberation (lib) movement. Some of my favorite second-wave feminists are Betty Friedan (author of The Feminine Mystique), Simone de Beauvoir (author of The Second Sex), and Oprah Winfrey (she's considered part of the second wave, though she is still active today).

The second wave of the movement is where a lot of the criticism of feminism began.

The third wave of feminism is what's occurring right now.
It's not perfect; no movement is.
It's been criticized for not being as inclusive as it should, and rightly so. We have all kinds of celebrities claiming the title of feminist, but then turning around and doing things that are wrong.
[in case you don't want to click through to those articles, the first is about Taylor Swift's "squad" not actually being about women's empowerment, since it's kind of a big group of the kind of girls that intimidate you in high school ganging up on another girl, also the term "squad" is one she appropriated from black culture; the second article is about Amy Schumer being foolish and making a really bad parody cover of Beyonce's "Formation," a song by a black woman, about black women's lives, for black women. Not for Amy Schumer.]
This is why it's sometimes hard to be proud to be a feminist.

But here I stand, and it's quite clear that I haven't disowned the movement for the problematic actions of some. So I'm going to talk about what feminism means to me, because the criticisms don't have to be true of everyone.

First, feminism, to me, is about gaining equality for all people of all genders. The word "feminism" is kind of misleading, because it seems to imply that the feminine should be considered better than the masculine. This, however, is not what the intent was when the term was coined. At the time, women were just trying to get to a place where they could be seen as humans and taken seriously for who they were. Over time, the goals of the movement have changed to be more inclusive of those who don't fall into the strict male/female binary but still want to be treated equally and taken seriously. My feminism embraces individuals of any and all genders and seeks to be inclusive of those who haven't had the opportunity to be heard in the past.

Second, I believe feminism needs to be about accepting and embracing people of all races and colors. Sadly, there is a huge lack of what is referred to as "intersectional" feminism in today's movement. [that link is a great article about why intersectional feminism is important]. Everyone deserves to be seen as equal, but that does not mean that we can ignore the different places that individuals come from. The whole idea of being "colorblind" is super offensive to, like, everyone that isn't white because it ignores the horrible conditions that have been faced by people of other races in the past. Yes, everyone should be seen as equal, but that does not mean that everyone is the same. By claiming not to see or care about race, some white feminists are effectively trying to erase the experiences of millions of people whose ancestors faced challenges such as slavery and internment at the hands of white people. That is not okay and needs to be stopped.

Third, my feminism is inclusive of anyone and everyone who needs help. It understands that bad things can and do happen to any person of any type. Some of the issues that people say feminists ignore are actually part of feminist discourse, but people don't want to accept it. Toxic masculinity, that thing that causes people to be like "why are you letting your son watch princess movies" is a huge feminist issue. Because the patriarchal way society is set up is harmful for everyone, even those whose gender qualifies them to receive higher wages, better jobs, and to be taken seriously.

Feminism can and should be about eliminating the harmful societal structures that have put people into boxes that we're not meant to fit in.

It's not about hating men. It's not about burning bras and refusing to shave (though I definitely support not shaving bc like what a waste of time). It's not about harming anyone.

It's about helping everyone. The goal of feminism is to ensure that future generations will have a better, more equitable society than the one that we have, as past generations have worked to make our society more equitable than the one in which they lived. We just have to start by helping those who are the most harmed by how our society is currently operating, and sometimes, that's girls, sometimes that's people of color, sometimes that's boys who are told they can't cry because boys don't cry.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist