I hadn't been prepped or armed with information regarding normal ‘girlie’ things that women do to look after themselves. Like: Shaving your legs, wearing a bra, getting a bikini wax or what to do when you get your period. This was probably due to my parents splitting just as I was about to hit puberty. (This was actually a blessing in disguise.) So in grade eight, when other girls started talking about shaving their legs, and I didn’t, I felt like total loser.
Then there was the time I had to beg my Mum to take me bra shopping.
"What!" She said, "But you don’t need one yet!”
“I’m nearly 14!!” I screamed, and my little half tits were beginning to hurt when I ran!
It was in a public toilet cubical, at the Gold Coast Oasis shopping mall, that I got my first period. I was with Mum those holidays. Mum is a feminist in the true sense of the word. She was sympathetic and disappointed, that I too, must now contend with this monthly disaster, that men were free from. (Oddly enough, she is able to talk candidly about sex and penises with me, but when it comes to matter’s of the vagina, her lips curl and she can’t say it without looking totally uncomfortable, and a little repulsed.)
Mum, also being a 'conservative-hippy' mother, had never used a tampon. So, to avoid an incredibly uncomfortable conversation about vagina mechanics, I took it upon myself to immediately rebel. I told my mum to wait there. I bought a box of the most commercial / coporate looking tamons (Libra Flur). Then I barricaded myself in the toilet. I read the instructions inside the box, and taught my self.
It really is such a loss of innocence when you have to stick something up your vaj-ay-jay for the first time. I felt oddly dirty, like I shouldn’t be doing this. But with stats like - one in three people being molested as a child, I count my self lucky, that I got in first.
Fast forward to the second half of my holidays, and I’m staying with Dad. Thank god for my Step-Mum, who If I didn’t know better... FREAKING LOVES getting her period. She doesn’t view it like a pain or a inconvenience that stops you once a month. She views it as a natural and cool part of being a woman! She leaves boxes of tampons on top of our toilet and around the house. So when I told her the news, she hugged me and yelled a big ‘CONGRATULATIONS!!!’ Then my three brother’s and Dad came running down stairs to see what was going on. Uggg! The joys of being the only girl.
This is awesome. I mean, not the part about having to figure things out for yourself, but the whole scenario is just good, real. It was more of a hush topic in our household, even though there were 3 kids who were all female and the idea of being a woman and having a period in the first place was definitely viewed as a very positive thing, we never spoke of it around my Dad. Sort of odd, that. Like, it was some sort of big secret. I think mostly, it was to protect him from the reality of all his little girls growing up, at least that's how I felt about it. Strange, but not the end of the world. It did seem like it was always a very private thing in our house though, even to this day sometimes it catches me off guard when my female friends will talk about being on their period openly, or if guys mention it, WHAT!?!? =0) Everyone's different! Thanks for sharing,
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