Mortifying Shrine to Womanhood

So, I was telling Evangeline about this so here it is. I made this when my niece was 13 and she started her period. It was meant to be funny and celebratory as opposed to the slap girls received in days of old. But she was so horrified by the very idea that she never saw it until she was 18. Then it made her laugh, but she still hasn't asked to put it in her place. :-) Goodie! I get to keep it. I like it. I'll put one photo here and stick the rest below in comments. The little pink rolled up "diploma" leaning against the wall is a poem by Lucille Clifton that I can't read without choking up. I'll add it below.

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Comment by thefirstofmany on February 14, 2009 at 4:29pm: I love it! Someday your niece will know how lucky she is.
I can hardly wait to see the Menopause Shrine!

Comment by Mel on June 24, 2008 at 11:20am: K - we so would have hung out in the red tent together! I loved that book, but my book club fell into 2 camps - love or hate, but the haters reacted mostly to the fertility ritual, guess they never took any sociology courses!

Comment by kdot (keeley) on June 24, 2008 at 10:41am: it's the tampon lights though. i can't get them out of my mind!

Comment by kdot (keeley) on June 24, 2008 at 10:40am: like E said... "Period art ftw!"

Comment by kdot (keeley) on June 24, 2008 at 10:38am: mel said it best when she wrote "the way you use art to express and illuminate life confounds me, amazes me... funny, beautiful, poignant, the total package..." DITTO When we got our periods, in my family, seemed to be a sort of contest. As I was told, when my cousin got hers at 12, with a sour scowl and disapproving shake of the head: "you won't get your for a LONG time". ah, grandmonster, you nasty old wench. she hated women... men were the only thing of worth to her. loser.

lol. i ended up getting mine my 1st day of my 1st winter exams in grade 9. anxiety to the max. lol. oh, the ties that bind...

as for literary references, i keep thinking The Red Tent; we so would have been in each others red tents. Maybe that's what this is - the ning... these posts - our own virtual red tent... anyone know what I refer to ?? here is a link to the book fyi where you can also read some of the 1st chapter...

and i had thought the title of this post was " ODE to womanhood... not Mortifying shrine to womanhood.... lol... I remember it as such an ode, so great... as a 13 year old, i may have been more likely to have been mortified. I love it!!!

Comment by Deb S on June 12, 2008 at 7:50pm: You know, Mel, I think I saw that site with the gnomes before. Did WE ever talk about gnomes before? Wait, I'll bet it was Xmas. My niece was living with me for her first semester and she's half Norwegian, born in Norway. I was doing a lot of googling about Norwegian xmases. I'll bet I stumbled upon it then. But there they are -- female gnomes. All rightee then.