Menstrual Power

Last night I came across an online forum discussing historic traditions and myths regarding menstruating women.

I particularly liked this:

I've worked with Native American ethnographic collections for many years and tribal representatives usually talked about the power of a woman on her moon. We were told by one visitor that women are restricted from certain activities or touching certain things because she has the power of life and it may be something she can't necessarily control. He described it as an energy that bounces so the woman is protected but those around her may not be. A woman past menopause also has a special status and may have priveleges that even other men may not have.

Plan C - Celibacy

A good friend recently coined (or at least re-discovered) this term. A good friend with a bun in the oven ;) Ironic. I think it's hilarious. Why? Maybe because it seems that in this day and age, no sex is not an option, is it?

Celibacy is defined as the lifestyle of someone who is and is striving to remain unmarried all his/her life or to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities (also known as "continence"). Often, it is incorrectly used to refer a mixed or an involuntary or even temporary abstinence from sexual relations – even though celibacy is by definition a freely chosen and permanent state.

Contraception - a favourite topic lately. The discussion arose (yet again) one morning over pancakes and eggs, with two young and radiant pregnant women around the table. Plan A is a constant battle (condoms, pills, shots, IUD's, risk, cost, efficacy, blah blah blah). Plan B is a pain in the but and a waste of a day, barf. And Plan C...ahhhh...now that's it....avoid the act all together!

I wonder if the potential unwanted consequences of sex will eventually be reason enough to abstain all together...and might there possibly be a greater benefit in that - as individuals - as a collective society?

But, for a lifetime....???