The Gross Out Girls

Salon.com today has a post by Rebecca Traister which takes issued with the slate of recent gross out posts by this column’s favorite blog Jezebel, and let me just say to her: get over it. She writes  “Oversharing is in” – this isn’t oversharing – it’s simply sharing. It’s just that we’re not used to it.

Women’s bodies are complicated. The vagina is an extremely sensitive organ whose status is beholden to hormones, environmental factors, women’s grooming, and emotional state (among others). Menstruation, birth control, and hygiene routines mean we spend a lot of time working on the old pipes down there and historically there’s been little place to discuss the ins and outs of all this. I for one find this refreshing. I remember one time pitching a short film to my thesis class – a dark comedy about a woman with dyspareunia, and let’s just say that even though the pitch got laughs, the overall response was tepid. Okay, maybe that pitch was pushing it (it did involve a talking vagina), but I think in large part that’s because we’re not culturally primed to hear about these in public.

All this reminds me of the 1970’s by Gloria Steinem If Men Could Menstruate:

What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? The answer is clear - menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event:

Men would brag about how long and how much. Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed-for proof of manhood, with religious ritual and stag parties.The US Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea to help stamp out monthly discomforts. Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free…Street guys would brag ("I'm a three-pad man") or answer praise from a buddy ("Man, you are lookin' good") by giving fives and saying, "Yeah, man, I'm on the rag!" TV shows would treat the subject at length…so would newspapers…and movies (Newman and Redford in "Blood Brothers"!)

Is it so shocking then that women would take the affordances offered by online communities to share and  provide a forum for our shared frustrations, triumphs, difficulties, curiousities, and questions. This is feminism 2.0, and it’s about damn time.

And let’s face it. As the Jezebel response points out – this is opt in. It’s not like Letterman or Leno are joking about this on the news, and I doubt Conan will replace the masturbating bear with the menstruating red panda (though a girl can dream).

Write on ladies!