Auntie Flo

Dawn celebrates motherhood here. At least before the advent of home testing, the first sign of impending motherhood used to be the friend who didn’t come to visit.

More euphemisms from the Museum of Menstruation:

Are you in need? “When I was in college in Berea, Ohio, if my female friends or I discreetly asked for a tampon or a pad, we would get the equally discreet response, ‘Are you in need?'” writes the 26-year-old contributor from Parma, Ohio. (April 2001)
A little ketchup with my steak “I had a boyfriend who lustily referred to it as ‘a little ketchup with my steak.’ Those Arizona boys do like a little ketchup and a lot of steak. Thought you might like a little extra positive terminology for your wonderful site. Thanks, ******* (now a New Yorker),” writes the contributor. She entitles her e-mail containing this information “That thing, that thing.” (February 2002)
A snatch box decorated with red roses (a) “snatch” and “box” both are vulgar terms meaning “vagina” in American slang
Are you seeing red? (a)
At high tide “Performance artist Laurie Anderson has a song ‘Red Dress’ in which she says ‘at high tide,’ her euphemism for menstruation,” writes the male contributor. (July 2001)
At war “I’m a college student and my roommate always uses the term ‘at war’ when she’s on her period. All of the girls on my hall now use the term,” writes the contributor. (February 2002)
Aunt Aggie used by a writer to the Would you stop menstruating if you could? page on this site (December 2002)
Aunt Flo is visiting (a) Flo is a short version of the name Florence. A contributor e-mailed MUM (March 2002), “I traveled to London on business. Of course, Aunt Flow had to come along.” See also Gramps.
Aunt Martha from the title of a painting by Judy Jones in the Art of Menstruation series on this Web site; she said that was the term “we” used for menstruation (August 2002)
Aunt Ruby The woman contributor, from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (U.S.A.), wrote, “We call it Aunt Ruby; lots of people say their aunt is visiting, and we added Ruby after a character on General Hospital [an American television program] back in the 1980s. We always used to laugh at her name and say it sounded like a period. Now it’s my family’s favorite way to refer to it.” (2000)
Aunt Sally “Aunt Sally is one that my friends and I often use. I have a great aunt named Sally, who always meant well, but was constantly messing things up. and overstaying her welcome. I think that it’s a very appropriate name for such a time. By the way, I’m 13 years old,” reads the e-mail. (November 2001)

and that’s just a portion of the “A’s.”

And speaking of menstruation: liven up your life with a little Tamponart. Here is their “Manifesta”:

Manifesta

….With the onset of menstruation, young women often experience a spiraling down to a state of being out of control AGAIN with their body fluids. As children, most of us were degraded for our inability to control our elimination. In response to such unconscious shame, young women are challenged to hide and to control their flow; that creative force, that cycle of rich endometrial shedding, rebuilding, shedding, rebuilding and shedding. The same humiliation of infantile incontinence has the potential of defiling our self-esteem. The shame can also stunt the developmental tasks required for successful entry into adulthood: moving from doubt to initiative, stagnation to industry, dependence to autonomy. It is of no surprise that with the onset of menses, females also start to score lower in scholastics and experience an increase in depression.

….Since societies were predominantly controlled by men, men defined what events are to be celebrated and what events were to be condemned. Therefore, menstruation has been projected culturally as something to hide away, something that is disgusting and most of all, something that is frightening. Death is a taboo subject and anything that confronts man with death should be removed. Women have been forced into isolation, judged unclean and reviled. There was a time, when I lived in the city, that I would place an unopened tampon conspicuously on the dash of my car to keep would-be thieves away. I have never had my car stolen and I attribute my good fortune to the Power of the Tampon.

It is easy to forget that only since the beginning part of the last century have women been allowed to vote and own property. Having custody of the children if a marriage failed was not a mother’s right. Keeping women as breeding chattel with little or no rights has been the status quo through millenniums. Women, except for the rare instances of societal matriarchies, have been perceived as inferior in intelligence, inadequate in controlling their body fluids, and predominantly sexually moronic.

….Tampon Art is a transformation. Our history has been women bleeding, being isolated, being shamed, and being diapered in rags. But now, we have the opportunity of utilizing an internal absorbent, not just for convenience during menstruation, but for having fun and making art. Out from the mud comes the lotus flower. From the blood and pain comes Tampon Art, an alchemy of the human spirit. It is rare for a process that has such a profound negative, even taboo status, to transform its control mechanism into art. Who would have guessed that such amazing creations would be possible from a tampon?

We hope that you will enjoy this new and fun art form, taking the tampon from ordinariness to spectacular creativity!

So there you have it – check out the gallery and be amazed and/or disturbed.