Feminism | Posted by Georgia L on 11/19/2012

The Red Menace?

When it comes to competitiveness, I am the winner. I choose to be ridiculously competitive about certain things, and my fight to beat everyone else is bloody, bitter, and vaguely worrying. Of all the things I’ve fought hardest to win though, puberty was maybe not one that you’d expect. I wanted to grow up faster than all my friends, and I wanted it badly.

Maybe that’s why I never understood – and still don’t understand – the negativity that menstruation seems to evoke. Periods, to me, seem messy, annoying, and slightly nerve-racking. However, they’re also to thank for, oh, you know, just the entirety of the human race.

When it comes to the perception of menstruation, one could argue that our attitude towards it has almost regressed. In Ancient Greece …

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Feminism | Posted by Selena T on 12/6/2010

You Will Get Pregnant And Die

Sex education is an experience that brings two memories to mind- the first of walking, red faced and weak kneed, to the desk in front of the class room, on which a monstrous, purple, shiny, plastic penis stands erect next to a trojan condom. I am expected to slip the condom onto the penis, but my hands are too sweaty to open the wrapper. The class breaks down into hysterical laughter, the kind of hyena-like shrieks that only a room full of 12 year old girls can produce. I repeat “this too shall pass, this too shall pass” over and over to myself while trying to figure out how to possibly stretch such a small condom over such a large phallus.

The second takes place 4 years later in high …

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