Homage to The Curse

Credit: My Little Red Book cover from www.mylittleredbook.net

My Irish grandmother grew up in a time when after a woman gave birth it was generally expected she would not show her face in Church until she was blessed by the priest. The reason? It was regarded that a woman was ‘unclean’ after giving birth and needed to be ‘purified’ by the local priest.

Thank God those day’s have disappeared in Ireland and in many countries around the world however one thing that has not changed is many women’s reluctance to talk about menstruation or their periods.

So it was much interest last weekend that I read Shelley Gare’s article in The Good Weekend  (Secret Women’s Business) about 19 year old Rachel Kauder Nalebuff who has sought to demystify periods  and has edited an anthology called The Little Red Book which is a collection of first person stories from women about their first period.  The anthology has made it onto the New York Times Bestsellers List and the Amazon Top 25 in a month.

If you want to submit your story you can do so here. And you can read Nalebuff article in The Huffington Post on periods and women in developing countries. One comment especially stands out:

“If Men Could Menstruate. There would be no taboos. Men would brag about how long and how much. And sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free”

And if to add weight to Nalebuff argument about periods needing to be demystified, if you enter the word ‘Period” or “Menstruation” in Google, click “Books” and then specify “Pages from Australia” guess how many results you return?

None.