About book Flow: The Cultural Story Of Menstruation (2009)
3.5 stars rounded down to 3 for Goodreads.This is a very interesting book about the cultural significance of menstruation and the way it has been treated (mostly as a taboo) in modern western culture. A lot of the emphasis is on advertising and the stigma of periods placed on women by the patriarchy, which is definitely interesting and worth discussing, but I was hoping for more historical information. I want to know more about how women dealt with their periods prior to commercially available femcare products, and white the book touches on that it does not dig too deep.Granted, what I want to know may not be available as I doubt many people recorded much of it.FLOW also has a distinctly "crunchy granola liberal earth mother feminist" bent to it that I found a little preachy as to HOW I should feel about my period. That last chapter was a real doozy and it took everything I had to finish this book, especially when I reached the last seven pages, and not give this a one star rating. The authors spend most of this book criticizing the feminine care industry/advertising agencies/drug companies for their "evil" schemes to make money off of ignorant unsuspecting women and yet we don't receive a peep out of them in the last chapter. They're left simply "unconvinced" when it comes to using magnetized underwear (magnet therapy - insert muttered "OMG" here) and the products offered by womanwisdom.com are praised for their attempts to "inject some celebration into a major life event". Call me cynical if you want, but "a home-study course with topics including the shamanic power of menstruation, sacred geometry, the wisdom and madness of menstrual taboos, the eroticism of blood mysteries, and menopause as a second puberty" and "goddess gowns in various colors" definitely sound like a ploy to make money off of the insecurity women have concerning their periods to me. At least the feminine care industry are protecting my underwear from blood staining (note: "protecting") and the big drug companies are relieving my discomfort, in other words doing something useful. This book was humorous, it wasn't all that bad and I read it in a little over 24 hours, which is why I'm still going to give it two stars, but I'm clearly not among the intended audience. I think this book might be aimed at those women who give you the stink-eye and think you're lower than dirt if you don't use those menstrual cups and actually buy pain relievers instead of herbal remedies. So if you're not one of them (more like me) I definitely wouldn't recommend this book.
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SUCH A GREAT BOOK! EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS THING!!!!!
—ajojeda
