Property of a Lady

Deborah Lipp goes on about Wicca, politics, movies, Paganism, and cats. Not necessarily in that order.

Here’s what I did:

Toast (really good toast, whole grain bread with crunchy nuts in it…good toast)
Bacon (turkey bacon, which I am not here saying to brag about my low-cholesterol goodness, because really, turkey bacon is an idea whose time has not yet come, but it was an experiment)
Fresh tomato (of course)
Sprouts instead of lettuce
And…

Wait for it…

Brie.

The brie melts a little if the bacon is hot.

It is to die.

Probably you’ve already heard about the “controversial” new birth control pill that prevents menstruation.

I’ve been wondering what, exactly, has so unhinged the far right about this pill. Part of it, to be sure, is that they oppose any form of birth control, because they’re all about women being the last ones to control their own bodies. If they ever succeeded in banning birth control pills and EC, they’d go after diaphragms and vaginal foam. Which just proves how far out these wingers are (emphasis added):

As Mary Alice Carr from NARAL pointed out, 98 percent of American women will use contraception at some point in their lives.

But is that enough to explain it? Is anti-birth control fervor enough to explain the sudden wingnut embrace of the glory of vaginal bleeding? I think not.

Here’s what I think. Women’s periods are one of the few “safe” excuses men have available to explain why bitches is so crazy. They’re afraid that they will lose the ability to say “she’s on the rag” while twirling a finger next to their heads. How, in all seriousness, can you be really patronizing if you can’t say “It’s that time of the month, isn’t it honey?”

And while I know I’m coming off tongue-in-cheek here (I can’t help it, I’m just naturally funny), my point is real. Menstruation is scary and mysterious to the patriarchy, but a handy tool of separation. The “red tent” may at one time have been woman-positive, but it’s mostly been used to limit and oppress women. Nowadays, we in the West are allowed to go to work even when we bleed, but we still manage to get shamed in a thousand subtle and not-so-subtle ways for having this part of our physiological makeup. And they just don’t want to lose a shaming technique.