Back to top.
Red Light Politics: Controversial ideas: Free Bleeding

redlightpolitics:

I just finished reading a post at All About my Vagina about a topic I have rarely (if ever) seen mentioned, at least in mainstream media: free bleeding.

Now, I also know that most people will have a pretty visceral reaction to this idea muttering an “Eww” or two. But is it really? Or is it a byproduct of the centuries of indoctrination we have had about the impurity of menstruation and women’s bodies? I know it is not practical or doable for everyone. Nor desirable for others. Or suitable for a full time working or studying life. I am fully aware of how it is not something most women might want to practice themselves. However, I also think that it is a nice and necessary departure from the usual discourse surrounding menstruation, blood and the female body. And I really welcome those exercises in challenging conventional beliefs.

Excerpt from the article:

“The new, non-lazy view of my behaviour came about one morning after going to bed without a product, not ending up involved in any seduction after all, and being so warm and comfy and in love with the bed that getting up to retrieve a product seemed offensive, especially since I wasn’t bleeding very quickly. Thus, I slept on my side and hoped I wouldn’t make a big mess. In the morning, I hopped up first thing and ducked into the bathroom to discover two quite lovely smears of shiny, ruby-red blood on my thighs. I occurred to me that I liked being allowed to overflow. I don’t know how these two events go together, but that is how it happened. Perhaps because the blood was attractive for the first time, instead of looking like a mess. It was a nice colour and a nice shape and it was mine.

Anyway, it occurred to me that the situation is not that I am bad at using menstrual products. It is that I don’t mind overflowing. So there. Ha ha on responsible people. I don’t mind rinsing my panties out in the sink, or getting blood in the sheets now and then. I like not feeling like I have failed somehow when a product leaks.”

++ you might remember All About My Vagina for this servicey article on how to pee standing up! ++

Source: redlightpolitics
Reblogged: redlightpolitics
http://tmblr.co/ZmjFwx2TDjl7
  1. celebrationofmenstruation reblogged this from redlightpolitics
  2. fuckyeahmenstruation reblogged this from redlightpolitics
  3. saturnoregresa reblogged this from redlightpolitics
  4. leilacohanmiccio reblogged this from periodtumblr and added:
    YOU GUYS THERE IS A WORD FOR FENNEL!!!!!!!
  5. periodtumblr reblogged this from redlightpolitics and added:
    Excerpt from the article: “The new, non-lazy view of...one morning after going to bed...
  6. politeyeti said: I do this accidentally sometimes—about half the time my period will stop for a day and then start again, and half the time when it stops it’s done. There’s no predictability to it. I’m lucky to have a super light period most of the time.
  7. vanboobsenstein said: Before I had my IUD I would do this at night and on some days off. My periods were so long and heavy I would get serious chafing otherwise, and it’s not really that gross. To me.
  8. andreaisace reblogged this from redlightpolitics
  9. someauthorgirl said: I just finished reading this. There are women that don’t want to bleed in their own shower or bath?? I also didn’t know that my resistance to sleeping (other than when the bleed is intense) with a pad, and preferring a towel, had a name.
  10. fridaphile said: Wait…are there women who don’t “free bleed” when bathing?
  11. 14kgoldnyc said: It’s really not that much different from using a pad. No, you can’t just ‘free-bleed’ unless you intend to sit on a bleeding cushion for a week, but what is a pad if not a bleeding cushion?
  12. redlightpolitics posted this