about periods, daddy!

click here to watch

i love this video. i watched it completely slack-jawed. i challenge you to watch the whole ten and a half minutes. i was really surprised at how progressive it is, given that it's as old as it is. come to think of it, it's pretty progressive even for today. i can't imagine displaying a wad of gore to my young, apparently down syndrome sister like that, but what's pretty cool is that no one is horrified about anything. there's no embarrassment, no ick factor, no stigma -- it's like a makeup lesson. i think the use of "opening between the legs" instead of vagina is a little odd, given that virtually everything else on the film is what i perceive to be no-holds-barred, but i think it's fascinating to imagine how differently our perception of menstruation would be if every household were this candid.

i remember sitting in the bathroom in junior high on october 25, 1985 [my brain is a filing cabinet for useless data] and thinking the one really naughty thing i'd permit myself to say at that age when i was fuming mad -- 'god damn it!' -- as i wadded up my first makeshift, one-ply, industrial toilet paper annoyance. when my pretty fifth-grade teacher miss smiley told us about menstruation in sex ed class, i was devastated by what seemed like an unavoidable life-long prison sentence. as i swung open the stall door that day in eighth grade, i remember feeling the barred door of womanhood rattling shut behind me.

i'm trying to visualize sitting on the arm of the couch next to my dad. hearing my dad say with a slight greek accent, "that's right! you fold it, wrap it up, and put it in the nearest wastebasket!" would he twirl his purple mustache, gold lion medallion glinting against his post-fishing sunburned chest and smile his snaggle-tooth grin?