Here is the best way I know how to provide you with a copy of a zine my best friend Leah and I made. We’re both white-middle-class-queer-”female”-bodied-folks, who come to the menstration table with totally different experiences. We stayed up till 5 in the morning chain smoking Clove cigarettes and trying not to fall asleep. We did our best to awknowlege that not all female identified folks bleed and not all female bodied folks bleed, and that not all folks who bleed are female identified. Our hope was to create a zine that informed folks who did bleed, or knew someone who bleeds, what the alternatives were to tamp*x and kot*x and alw*ys and blah blah blah blah blah.
I wanted to share this particularly because of a post made by Felix @disruptedspace.wordpress.com. He shared some info with us about Tamp*x’s current scheme to advertise their product: by using a 16 year old boy who suddenly “wakes up with a vagina”. The whole thing is really offensive and disgusting and I don’t think any queer or feminist really has enough time in their life to critique as much as it should be. Never the less you can do your own personal rant by checking it out here.
Personally, I am a firm believer in your dollar being your vote. If you choose to purchase mainstream menstruation products, you are telling those companies that you do not mind being part of a disposable lifestyle, and you certainly don’t mind the anti-feminist and cissexualist ways inwhich they convince the rest of the world to buy these products.
Nevertheless here is “Womanifesto Volume 1: Issue 1″
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- Front Page and Back Cover
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- Pages 3 and 4
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- Pages 5 and6
* Please note that this was a collabrative effort between both of us. Unless otherwise noted, both Leah and Myself wrote what you are reading. Leah, however, has better handwriting, and I,however, really wanted to draw a menstrual cup.
If you wish to have a for-real copy, please e-mail me at mandeedriggz@gmail.com, and we will make it happen.
ponyprince said,
July 31, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
I am going to have to disagree with a point in this blog while thanking you for linking people up to my post about zack16.com.
I cannot agree with the point you make to urge readers to not use any products for menstruating except reusable plastic cups, sponges, and non-bleach alternatives. Consumption is consumption. There is no such thing as a conscious consumer. Capitalism is a system of domination and there is no way to do capitalism “right”. The argument to buy “green and healthy” products is basically urging folks to consume right so everyone can keep consuming. I persynally believe that consuming is the issue and we need to deconstruct these systems to avoid their oppressive nature. Whether buying a moon cup or Tampax Pearl, you are still consuming and contributing to a capitalist system. That’s the world we live in and I do not intend to tell people to they have to stop consuming. (It takes a lot of often unchecked privilege to be capable to “dropping out” in this way.) I understand that in the world we live in people purchase products they need and or want. I think the emphasis should be placed on the deconstruction of these system in comparison to urge folks to consume in certain (and expensive) ways.
I do not think that blaming folks for purchasing a certain product is helpful. Victim blaming only helps to take away from destroying systems of oppression. I am not transphobic or misogynistic because I purchase the cheapest menstrual product that I can find that I can hide easily and use in the men’s room. I do not find cups to be comfortable and I cannot rinse out a sponge in the men’s room. I need to go in and get the fuck out as fast as possible a majority of the time. There are plenty of reasons why folks might use these products.
It’s also a racist assumption to say, hey, live life this way. These products are produced by whites, for whites, in white spaces. It’s colonialist to have the thought that a group (in this case, eco-friendly whites) to tell others what is best for them. I am not sure how many poc feel welcomed in the upper class, white space of many co-ops where these products are sold. I am not sure how many poor folks wanna go into bourgie places to get these either.
There is no way to consume and uphold capitalism in a way that is not contributing to the idea that these companies find people to be disposable in pursuit of higher profits. Work, at it’s root, is oppressive. Work is violent. So is consumption. The revolution won’t be funded. It won’t be paid for by green, feminist companies. This whole argument divides communities along lines of race, class, mobility, and ability. Those that can work at “good” companies are somehow better than ones who work for oppressive ones. Those that can afford to buy green products are better than those who do not. Those that have the ability to move in spaces without restrictions and can seek out “better” products and places and stores are better that those who cannot for a variety of reasons.
Reform is only going to make oppression falsely feel a little less like oppression to privileged groups of people. I don’t think it can actually change anything.
Liberation! Not assimilation!