also, he may have thought you dropped a mouse. don’t want to be too loud about that, eh.
The period prints story intrigued me because of what it said of your upbringing and your reltionship with your mother. I envy that, having had a very repressive upbringing and a mother who was distant and too embarrassed to even discuss menstruation with her daughters. Maybe in your place I would have enjoyed the bonding and valued the prints as a reminder of a sort of rite of passage (no pun intended). I’ll never know.
I have been lucky enough to never have had a sexual relationship with someone who had any problem at all with my menses. In fact, there were times when it’s arrival was something to be celebrated 
Has everyone on this thread read this one on Opal’s fathom board?
http://fff.fathom.org/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000884.html
PS-I think the period prints thing is cool.
When I first read the period prints post two things came to mind: 1) A cartoon in Hustler (a friend told me about this ;)) where the caption was “I hate playing strip poker with her during her time of the month” (insert your own graphics here) and 2) A cartoon at at art gallery where the caption was “It’s one of her period pieces” (again, insert graphic here).
Now for me the whole subject never bothered me a bit, although the mood swings are a tad tough at times (admit it girls, you have them). In fact I find facts like roomfulls of woman “synchronizing” around an alpha female fasciniating.
I will admit though that I used to be a bit more squeamish about it. I think it was leftover from a childhood heavy on Catholic-guilt/sex-is-dirty teachings. Everything changes after my daughter was born. Yes, it was beautiful, yes it was the best moment of my life. but wow, get out the wet-vac :).
pcubed: 23 days of the month, a wonderful husband. 5 days of the month, a @$#%^%&^ so-and-so
I’m sorry, but I can’t decide which phrase is funnier:
Or this…
Menstruation is basically the body getting rid of waste, correct? It’s sloughed-away uterine lining.
I’m exactly as squeemish about menstration as I am about piss and shit. I want to see a used tampon about as much as I want to see used toilet paper.
And I want to see a “period print” about as much as I want to see a shit-sculpture.
OK, I guess I do kind of want to see a shit-sculpture, in a morbid curiosity kind of way. But it wouldn’t replace a decoration in my home, and a period-print won’t replace the picture of my parents on my desk.
I am a guy, I have zero issues with menstruation. Out of morbid curiosity I once asked a girlfriend what it looked like, and the next tampon she dropped in the toilet, she came and got me, pointed it out in there and I saw what it looked like.
Ewww…
The reaction was about the same as seeing bloosy gauze from a wound though.
Ewww…
So guys with problems regarding menstruation are idiots. I don’t like blood on me any more than the nxt guy, but thats an exception. Its a natural part of a woman, and so I can deal.
Everyone should, it ain’t goin away for a long while in a womans life.
-SS
Period PRINTS? EEEWW!!!
Um, isn’t that unsanitary? Blood is blood. Menstrual blood is human waste material. Gee, when Jr. takes his first shit, shall we save that too?
I mean, it’s good to be all open about it, but that’s just not very sanitary or hygienic. Yuck.
Couldn’t you have taken some tampons and painted them? Or pads?
I’m so bummed I can’t use bodily excretions to bond with my son.
Wait! The next time we both catch a cold, maybe we can make snot posters!
Uh huh.
I have no problem with menstruation, nor the paraphernalia required therewith, but period prints are over the edge.
Bully for you, aviddiva, for having such a close and comfortable relationship with your mother.
Once, at big public place full of young people I saw a big group and some of them were leaving. When they were by the door and about 30 feet away from the table of those that were staying, one of the girls at the table yells to one of the ones who were leaving:
-
Hey, Rose! You got a tampon?!
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Yes!
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Can I have it?
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NO!
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Why?
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'Cuz I’m wearing it!
Everybody around burst out in laughter.
I have to say some women I have been with were more squeamish than me about it and would not want to have sex during the duration.
Hmmm…I thought. I wanted to check out this link at work today, but just in case it’s something the internet police would find objectionable I’ll wait until I get home.
Just looked.
Not the type of thing I wanted to read before going to bed.
Again, not that I’m squeamish. But, those are some mental images that are going to stay with me. Hopefully my wife has a headache 
pcubed
Adrift off the Islets of Langherhans…
The period prints thing seems kinda nasty to me. I mean, I was never that close to my mother, but I doubt she’d ever done anything that strange.
My husband isn’t at all squeamish about the menstration thing. In fact, he likes tto have sex with me on my period, because it is easier to make me orgasm. Gets rid of my cramps too. BTW, isn’t there usually a shower within 10 steps of your bedroom. Just dont’ look down, guys! It will rinse off in 10 seconds.
I don’t think my husband has ever been squeamish about my period. He certainly has never passed up the chance to have sex with me whilst on my period.
As for the period prints, my mother was totally reserved about sex, puberty, and such stuff. I don’t even think I could tell her that little antecdote without her freaking out. But hey! If you two aren’t weirded out by it, go for it.
This is the end of my post because I hear my dog tearing something up in the bathroom
c-ya
If I EVER saw my Moms crotch immortalized in BLOOD, I would have to boil my eyes.
Call me repressed, call me catholic, call me old fashioned, but DONT call me into the room when my Mom has her pants down squatting and bleeding!!!
ACK!
I am a woman, I have given birth to 2 children. I got my first period when I was about 11, thats TWENTY years ago.
Unless I had missed a pill that month, its arrival was never anything to celebrate. I had cramps in my teens that made me suicidal - literally. If I’d had access to a gun, Iwould have blown my head off to escape the pain. It runs in my family - sweet mercy I have boys. I finally went on the pill when I was 15, and the cramps abated.
I hate my period. Its messy, it smells bad, and its gross.
I have stained mattresses, underwear, clothes… My period is my enemy.
I use Depro Provera now, and I havnt had a period in 10 months. I dont miss it! Sex while on it? Yeah, dont it. It was messy. Any physical pleasure I might have gotten was misplaced by “are we staining the new sheets? is one towel enough?”.
As far as men being embarrassed by it - I think thats normal. This is ‘private women business’. I dont want to hear about their wet dreams either. God help us if they come up with a male hygene product for THAT!!
I still squirm when those pad/tampon commercials come on.
shudder
I don’t know about anyone else, but I do it three or four times a day. I mean, even in college, my nickname was “Four Method Matt.” I was notorious for my dexterity and spontaneity. Of course, this was in between treatments for my palm lesions and callouses, but still, I was quite famous.
Oh wait…
MENSTRUATION… woops, my bad…
OK, I’ve thought of a few more comments on this topic . . .
I’m reminded of the long-ago Pictionary game when my then-teenage sister tried to draw the word “period”: a really awful and indecipherable diagram of the female organs, well, doing their thing. Of course nobody got it. When we found out what the word was, I took the pencil away from her and drew a big squiggly horizontal line to resemble handwriting (with a bigger squiggle at the beginning to represent the capital letter) and a big honkin’ dot at the end. Sheesh.
Also, hubby and I both prefer to abstain during that week. I dunno – it just seems that it would be too much mess and bother. Of course, that doesn’t preclude other activities, especially around Day 3, when the hormone levels seem to rise and make me particularly, um, frisky. (Oh my!) I keep him informed as to when that week is coming up, and since we both sleep in the nude, my wearing underpants in bed also gives him a subtle signal that I’m, er, unavailable.
I know a guy who has been asking his wife for sex during her “red period” (to borrow from the crotch art references) for years, but SHE is the one who’s “squeamish” about it. She won’t let him anywhere near her until her, uh, paint pallette is dry.
And, to beat a dead horse, yes, the crotch art is a repulsive concept.
I know people won’t believe me when I say I wasn’t out to gross everyone out, but…
I wasn’t trying to gross everyone out. Really.
O.K. Imagine that you’ve done something with your mother or father on the order of “period prints.” Likely your perspective on what grosses out other people would be a little skewed.
But, jeez, people, how about a sense of humour! I think it’s hilarious. As I said, that framed production lives in a box somewhere, and I don’t even know which box. It was a funny thing to do (at least, we were laughing when we did it), and it’s a funny thing to have.
O.K. How’s this for an alternative to my experience:
My mother was brought up to think that everything below her neck was dirty. She got “the curse,” making her a young woman, and part of her initiation was to be given a “down there” cloth, only for cleaning “down there.” She would be scolded if she kept her “down there” cloth (recently laundered or otherwise) any place other than its designated spot. She would be scolded if she touched her father’s dishes (setting the table, bringing food to the table) while she was menstruating. She would be scolded if, after a certain age, she wore her nightgown out of her room, in the vicinity of her father. Her lessons were repeatedly that her body was bad and dirty.
She overcame those teachings enough to suggest to me the “period prints” enterprise, and had taught me enough comfort with my body for me to agree. I think that’s improvement. Some of you may think it’s rather too much. I can appreciate that.
On specific responses:
Menstrual fluid is not shit.
The jism analogy is better, and, were it not for the absolute freak-out that would ensue vis a vis possible abuse, I think a father-son jerk bonding session would be great. I believe a young man could only benefit from a healthy discussion with his father, or some other trustworthy man, about the pleasures that can be derived from owning and operating a penis, either alone or with (a) friend(s). Unfortunately, power imbalances and issues of consent are too risky to make this a realistic proposition.
As for sex during, I have never produced enough (oh! the shame!) that I would worry about how many towels I had under me. And, as I say, a diaphragm makes a useful barrier in both directions.
Point taken re the dropped tampon incident. FWIW, I wasn’t trying to embarass him, and he wasn’t embarassed. He, too, thought it was funny. I was just trying to de-stigmatise the scenario.
Someone mentioned the Dave Foley monologue. Yes, I think it’s great. I watched him deliver that when the Kids performed live a few years ago, and, judging by the response among the women, I’d say a man can only benefit from adopting his “good attitude toward menstruation.”
I’ve never been with a guy who was squeamish about periods, however, I am.
Yuck! It’s disgusting! I’m not embarrassed about it. I frankly find it gross. I fail to see the beauty or empowerment of regularly bleeding from my crotch. I hate dealing with all of the feminine hygeine products, and all of the mess that comes along with it. I’m not shy about it. I tell Mr. Granola how lucky he is not to have to deal with it all the time. I guess that I don’t equate being a woman with having a period. I just think that it’s a messy side effect.
BTW - Mr. Granola says that he’s proud to buy tampons and pads for me. I guess it’s like announcing to the store that yes, he has a woman waiting for him at home.
No sweat! Wait a few months, and when you both get the urge you can take him out back and show him how to write your name in the snow!
I tried with my daughters, but all they could manage was punctuation marks! 
(Just kidding!)