Dancing around the mooncup

[alias_sqbr]

About a year ago I decided to investigate alternative menstrual products, partly out of eco-sensiblity but mainly because they sounded really useful.

Years and years ago I bought a felt pad (I think it was a Rad Pad, but if so they have drastically changed their designs) from a closing down sale at a hippy store, which I was pretty happy with until I left it to soak in a bucket and forgot about it, at which point it went mouldy and I threw it out. They said to just fold it around your underwear and let friction hold it up but I also used a safety pin. It was pretty bulky but cottony "wings" were a nice change from plastic. I should hunt down a replacement.

Now apart from the environmental angle, something which struck me recently is that there might be a way to avoid the annoying situation of being stuck at someone's house and unable to (a)Replace your pad or (b)get rid of it. So my next purchases had these issues in mind.

I then bought Eenee Eco Pads. These are just cotton pads with no sticky section which are held on by friction inside a small harness which clicks onto your underwear. These are terrible, at least for me: they keep falling out! Or at the very least getting all squished and misshapen. Still, it is useful just being able to flush them down the toilet.

Finally, the Mooncup: a latex cup which acts kind of like a tampon which you empty and rinse to re-use. I kept hearing good things, so I ordered one online. I am definitely quite happy with it. It took a little getting used to and emptying it is rather..visceral but it's So Convenient for when I'm out: If I have private access to a sink I can empty it and clean it without needing a bin or extra pads etc and even if all there is a is a toilet (as at work: I am not pouring this stuff down the sink where my workmates can see. Eww) I can just wipe it out. I've always found tampons uncomfortable and the Mooncup doesn't bother me the same way, and as an absent minded person it's happily not a risk for toxic shock EDIT: so apparently it is.

The one problem with the Mooncup is that it's kind of expensive given it doesn't work well for everyone. There's a cheaper version called a "Keeper" they had for sale at the Maylands Environment House (where I got the Eenee from) but I don't know how good it is.

EDIT: Lots of very useful information in the comments! Thanks you guys!

Comments

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Not responding to this post, but asking you as my anti-racism expert. *What* is up with the appropriation debate?

I assume that someone wrote something using the POV of someone they were not. Then they were criticised and responded by saying it was racist to say they couldn't pretend to be, say, an Indian princess. And blah, blah, blah.

I keep thinking I should look at the threads but there are so many, and it all seems so serious, and so humourless, and I just can't face it.

[alias_sqbr]

I know I saw a summary somewhere but can't remember where.

Anyway, VERY dodgy summary noone should rely on:
Elizabeth Bear (from now on EBear) writes a post with advice about writing the Other.
Avalon's Willow writes an "Open Letter to Elizabeth Bear" about how her latest book was so terrible on this score that she couldn't finish it.
EBear writes another post saying how right Avalon's Willow is. She says "I will be moderating very closely so watch yourselves".

All good.

EBear's friends are all "But your writing is great! They're complaining about nothing!"
Emma Bull then makes an argument that the problem is that Avalon's Willow (a)Didn't finish the book to see how it all played out and (b) Isn't well educated enough to understand the way it was written.

This goes to a Very Bad Place. There is evidence that EBear is freezing threads of anyone who says anything rude to any of her friends, but not threads where her friends are being rude to others.

It expands out in other people's ljs.

People on both sides take everything very personally (with, in my opinion, more justification on the side of the POC being told they're too stupid to recognise racism and should rely on white people with degrees in literary analysis to explain it to them etc rather than the white people freaking out because someone implied they might be a bit racist)

For example:
Paul Neil Harris accidentally offends a lot of people without knowing what he's stumbled into then refuses to retract anything when it's explained and when it all gets too heated deletes his LJ.

After this has gone on for some time, EBear posts some vague posts including a rather vague but inflammatory "last word" which annoys people further. (Linked because I couldnt do it justice)

Avalon's Willow gives a timeline which misses this last post from EBear.

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha, oh holy wow at the "last word" and comments.

[alias_sqbr]

There's a reason this whole thing is now being referred to as "Race Fail 2009" (personally I think this is optimistic about the rest of the year)

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Knew you would be on it.


Ah, fans, do we ever have a sense of moderation?

[alias_sqbr]

When it comes to people "attacking" our books and/or friends? No :/

[stephiepenguin.livejournal.com]

And now pnh's wife has declared that everyone that disagrees with her is a troll and/or a sockpuppet because she's never heard of them before.

[alias_sqbr]

Well, most of them seem to be American, and we do all know America doesn't really exist, so...

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

I've mostly been following it at one remove, reading people's reactions in posts/comments on metafandom, and I'm finding that although there is a lot of rage, it is being very articulately expressed, with people avoiding direct attacks on individuals, and focusing on behaviours.

[alias_sqbr]

Well, I've come across some that weren't that articulate, but I guess the good thing about following at a remove is it has a filtering effect. Still, I agree that a lot of people have been remarkably clear headed and decent under the circumstances.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I have no clue who Paul Neil Harris is; pnh is Patrick Nielsen Hayden and his wife Teresa (lj = tnh) threw a hissy fit about him deleting his journal and made everything even more spectacularly Fail.

It's important because they're editors and fairly big deals in SFF publishing, and tnh was threatening that anyone who'd said anything to upset pnh would never get published by Tor and then claiming all those of us who read it as a threat were stupid and lacked reading comprehension.

All in all, you're very lucky to have missed it. The round-up is maintained by rydra_wong, for reference.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I think I am glad to not be following this. My life is too full of other stuff:-)

[alias_sqbr]

Ah crap. I was going to double check I had all the names right and then forgot :/ I was getting confused with Neil Patrick Harris who afaict is not a jerk, he just plays them on tv. How embarrassing!

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Well, as long as there's a roughly reliable version of events here, that's okay :-).

[alias_sqbr]

And hopefully not too many people are going to rely on a thread buried in a post about menstral products :)

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

That's just the filter to make sure only true feminists are participating :-).

[alias_sqbr]

I did feel like putting something at the bottom like "Well, now that I know only women are reading this, let me ask you about my (hypothetical) Female Troubles" or something :) (Though as it turns out I would have been wrong)