Um.

Dec. 17th, 2008 12:29 am
labellementeuse: a girl sits at a desk in front of a window, chewing a pencil (Default)
[personal profile] labellementeuse
Okay, why did EVERYONE ON MY FLIST just get their period? This is truly bizarre. (I am not joking, like five people in the last 12 hours have posted about Aunt Flo coming to visit (worst period euphemism ever, btw, share your least favourites in the comments!). Given my personal ratio of number of periods posted about : number of periods had is about equal to 1:20, perhaps even smaller, and that my reading flist is 141 people, probably... ok, I was going to say probably 75% of whom are women, but realistically I can name three guys on my flist right now. Assuming there are slightly more than that (and some names are coming back to me now), 20x5 = 100 and therefore 100/120 women on my flist have their period right now. QED!)

Date: 2008-12-16 11:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] confusiontempst.livejournal.com
Mmm, faulty logic leaps.

Was I one of the original 3, or one of the extras?

Date: 2008-12-16 11:50 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (sad robots)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Hey, period math is serious!

(Srsly, it's not that bad. I post about my period rarely, and nor is it common for me to read about periods on my flist. Perhaps twice a month. To read about someone else's periods five times in one day is statistically significant to me.)

You were one of the extras, but to be fair the three people I thought of were the three guys who've been on the flist the longest (with regular posting and/or some kind of personal stake - for example, I can think of two or three guys still technically in that 141 number who haven't posted in over two years, and with whom I have never interacted outside of LJ bickering.)

Date: 2008-12-16 12:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] confusiontempst.livejournal.com
Thats ok. I guess I'm slightly surprised you have so much idea of the gender of people on your friends list. Although that said, a lot of people on my FList are girls.

Damn it, now you're tempting me to work out FList demographics for myself.

Date: 2008-12-16 01:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com
Did I get to be one of the three?

Given my flist filters, I'd hate to figure the demographics... Lotsa females though going by instinct...

Date: 2008-12-16 08:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com
I am so great, I am so great, everybody loves me, I am so great :D

Date: 2008-12-16 07:22 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Um, I know the gender of everyone on my flist except the two newest arrivals (and if you put my back to the wall I would guess that they're both women and I doubt I would be wrong). Don't you?

Date: 2008-12-17 05:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] confusiontempst.livejournal.com
Yeah, but my Flist is something like 200 people big, and I don't consciously think about it.

Date: 2008-12-16 11:22 pm (UTC)
trialia: Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), head down, hair wind-streamed, eyes almost closed. (Default)
From: [personal profile] trialia
I have about half a dozen guys on my flist out of ~320 people, and I really don't think there are more than that many.

Date: 2008-12-17 05:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] confusiontempst.livejournal.com
See, I find that surprising.

I'll get back here with statistics later.

Date: 2008-12-17 08:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] confusiontempst.livejournal.com
~250 accounts on my friends list
About 5 of them are me.
142 Females
79 Males
10 Famous People (Where this may well be famous on the Internet, anyway, they're nonreciprocal readers. I didn't track gender for these ones, though they were predominantly male)
8 Fictional Entities
A few I couldn't classify as well.

Date: 2008-12-16 11:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] semiramis.livejournal.com
My favorite is "TOM came over", which, when one is in need of a pad or a tampon, may be extended to "TOM came over and wants a sandwich" or "TOM came over and wants a burrito" respectively. TOM, is, of course, an acronym for "time of month".

Date: 2008-12-16 11:55 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (my torment (by rare_fandom))
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
AMAZING. (Especially the food metaphors. Wow, *gross.*) I love how this is a super-carefully worked out code, too!

Date: 2008-12-16 01:28 pm (UTC)
ext_3321: (Stock - Mountains)
From: [identity profile] avendya.livejournal.com
Mine just ended. I've never heard anyone say Aunt Flo in real life - mainly, the most anyone ever says about it is that they need Midol. (I think it is a bit odd, that periods are irritating things that happen to so many women, and we never, ever discuss them in public.)

Date: 2008-12-16 01:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com
I grew up in a house with my mother and three sisters, and never heard them discuss it. Beyond "We need tampons" on grocery days.

Date: 2008-12-16 01:34 pm (UTC)
ext_3321: (Stock - Kaleidoscope)
From: [identity profile] avendya.livejournal.com
I've had people act completely scandalized when I mention cramps in an all-female group. SRSLY, guys, we've all been through this.

Date: 2008-12-16 07:25 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (bestfriends4evah!1!!)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
I did here someone [male] say it semi-recently and was sort of flabbergasted. I agree, I think the taboos around periods are weird and I get frustrated with guys who are all "ewwww" whenever someone mentions is. Come on, it affects sooo many women, five days a month! Yeesh.

Date: 2008-12-16 07:29 pm (UTC)
ext_3321: (Stock - Molesworth)
From: [identity profile] avendya.livejournal.com
I think it is a very strange taboo. I mean, really. A decent percentage of women are dealing with it at any given moment. All women will have dealt with it at some point. Why are we so afraid to talk about it? (Especially when talking about sex is not taboo!)

Date: 2008-12-16 07:41 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (nita & kit)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
I'm really not sure. (I mean, I'm sure a student of the appropriate fields would be able to tell us that it's something about body-taboos, etc) and I know that within my own study, I've encountered material talking about taboos, often derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition, about effluvia from the body - urine, excrement, period. Indeed, as women are distinguished from men by having a whole extra icky effluvia, it has been part of attempts to justify our subjugation. There is a notion of stuff that breaches the barriers/sanctity of the body as foul and therefore scary (even when it's not: urine is sterile, after all.) [Note that I'm not sure how semen fits into this tradition.] Anyway, blahblahblah: yeah, it's weird!

Date: 2008-12-16 08:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com
Well, there is all that stuff about it being a sin to waste your seed on the ground and being required to impregnate your brother's widow. I'd imagine it's held up as something important... Well, powerful anyway. Because your unclean whenever you ejaculate until you've done the correct ritual cleansing and so is anything, man or material, that you touch until then.

Date: 2008-12-16 02:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] reticent-lass.livejournal.com
Any euphamism involvig 'crimson tide' or 'surfing' just gives me the ever-lovin' creeps. But my family tends to talk pretty frankly about such things, if guys are around. At school, however, discussing it is way taboo. Because we are Girls and that is Just Nasty.

Date: 2008-12-16 07:27 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (hot hot astrophysics)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
At school, however, discussing it is way taboo. Because we are Girls and that is Just Nasty.

Yes. I really do think this is significant in terms of women and they way we are viewed, and participate in our own kind of... self-revulsion. I really dislike it.

Date: 2008-12-16 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] one-2-3-4.livejournal.com
If I posted about my period every month, my tags would become quite creative. Though times like today, I wish I didn't feel bad about spamming my flist 'cause holy shit, I got hit with cramps this morning like whoa and whining makes me feel better.

I also find it amazing how others have said they don't talk about it (how Fight Club). maybe it's because I took this really awesome class wherein it was clarified that bodily fuctions happen and its ok to talk about them, but I don't have issues talking about my period, nor do any of my rl friends. It kind of falls under the umbrella of sex and other things of that sort.

Date: 2008-12-16 07:30 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (my torment (by rare_fandom))
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
FWIW, I usually quite enjoy reading about other people getting their periods because it reminds me of our shared humanity, I guess. I think I also do like to feel the taboo being broken, like, hey! it is OK to talk about them (although, like you, I don't have many hang-ups talking about it.)

Date: 2008-12-16 07:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sixth-light.livejournal.com
Clearly we have the first example of the harem effect exetending over online communities! This demands immediate further study, obviously.

Date: 2008-12-16 07:31 pm (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (aughhh (by rare_fandom))
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Yes, so fascinating! Clearly, something in the intertubes.

♥ I got your Christmas card yesterday. <3 <3 I miss you too!

Date: 2008-12-17 12:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lady-larla.livejournal.com
apparently im a member of this community too... does further study include loads cash for study? if so i'll do it!

Date: 2008-12-17 09:53 am (UTC)

Date: 2008-12-16 11:15 pm (UTC)
trialia: Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), head down, hair wind-streamed, eyes almost closed. ([BSG/Mary] (green&red))
From: [personal profile] trialia
*dies laughing*

Guess what? I got mine this afternoon, too. *facepalm*

Date: 2008-12-16 11:24 pm (UTC)
trialia: Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), head down, hair wind-streamed, eyes almost closed. ([SGA/Torri] PMS)
From: [personal profile] trialia
Also, favourite euphemism of mine and my sister's is Shark Week.

Date: 2008-12-17 09:53 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Which makes you and two other people JUST IN THIS POST. !!!

Shark Week = hilarious/paranoia inducing.

Date: 2008-12-17 04:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amarynth.livejournal.com
My personal favourite:

"Lisbon are playing a home game"

(Lisbon FC wear red uniforms).

I did have a list of the ten most strange menstruation metaphors somewhere but it's lurking in the recesses of my LJ and I can't be bothered.

Date: 2008-12-17 09:52 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (girl reading)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
That's... OK, that's such a BOY way of talkig about it. Hilarious!

Date: 2008-12-17 09:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amarynth.livejournal.com
A boy way of talking about it? Why do you say that?

Date: 2008-12-17 10:41 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
Girls generally do not talk about their bodies by reference to obscure sporting teams. I am not trying to be gender essentialist (as you know perfectly well), just pointing out that *in my experience* these terms of reference are significantly more common for men than for women *especially* when it comes to e.g. menstruation; by referencing this I was making a hilarious point about socially constructed roles and interests for men and women, and how we may be surprised when they are not met.

Also, as patronising as you found it when I told you about my opinion of mental health and men's health, that to the tenth power is how annoying I find it when you try to be clever about my joking and ironic use of language.

Date: 2008-12-18 03:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amarynth.livejournal.com
Also, as patronising as you found it when I told you about my opinion of mental health and men's health, that to the tenth power is how annoying I find it when you try to be clever about my joking and ironic use of language.

So, what, you know how patronised I feel without me having to tell you?

You may have been intending to make a flippant joke here, but flippant jokes are a pretty important component of how gender roles get calcified. The idea that women aren't interested in team sports is a pretty pervasive myth, and I don't really think I need to apologise for challenging it when I see it.

Date: 2008-12-17 05:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] senri.livejournal.com
I WAS PART OF THAT WASN'T I

Date: 2008-12-17 09:52 am (UTC)
ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (Default)
From: [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com
YES, YES YOU WERE.

Date: 2008-12-18 05:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duskshadows.livejournal.com
see, this is why i pay for some nurse to stick a needle in my butt every three months. no babies, no euphemisms! yay! X'D

also, totally joining this internet-harem study. X'D wickedcool!

Date: 2008-12-20 10:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cabaiste84.livejournal.com
I'm late, I know. But I will say one thing about periods. I used to absolutely dread the arrival of the monthly monster- I get the most wicked cramps, and it's well nasty. But, since I've been in a serious relationship, it's arrival every month makes me want to throw (as I said on my own blog) a celebratory Devonshire Tea, out of sheer relief. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be *happy* to get my period. ;P But, right now, it's preferable to wet nappies and stretch marks. ;P

PS- We are being safe, of course. But...stranger things have happened, y'know?

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