In honor of National Women's Month Anna Basai will is hosting a blog tour of
My Little Red Book.
This is a small book of stories of litle girls when we grow up.
You guessed it, it is called the cursed or blessed event called menstruation.
This depends on how you were raised and the attitudes that you were brought up on.
These stories range in age from young women to older women. It is a book of stories that these women are professionals and non-professionals, young and old, famous and not so famous women that share their stories on their first time they got their periods and their experiences.
One story takes place in Germany during the holocaust. Of all places she got her period when she was on the train. Other stories are down right funny. Some are sad.
There are some girls that were not ever told about once a month getting their period.
One mother never told her daughter she had to find out from her sister. One girl's father was so proud it was announced at the dinner table. That would be so embarrassing. Other girls thought they were dying.
This would be a good book for a conversation starter. to discuss this with other In a youth group such as Girl Scouts, church youth groups, and synagouge youth groups, a book club of young girls and mothers too. This book would help pre-teens to talk about their fears of their bodies,and compare notes with each other. Many girls when I was growing up were afraid to ask anything and you always heard horror stories. I wish someone had wrote this kind of book when I was growing up.
Educating ourselves empower us. Just a added note there are discussion questions on the book website to consider. I wish I could have a group that we could answer thses questions. I would love to hear the responses from other women.
I attempted to talk about this among my friends( they are in their 60's).
They are not quite as open minded as I. They really did not want to talk about this.
But hopefully the younger women are much more open minded then my social circle of friends.
When I was growing up in the 70's my mother never talked about it.
When it came to sex education my mother gave me a book and told me to read it. It was never discussed again. I don't remember getting my period and what it was like. I probably could not wait to get it. Because I thought something was wrong with me because I was so late, I was 16.
I have a 18 yr. old son. I am very open with him. I remember talking with him and discussing reproduction, protection, diseases. etc. Thank G-d I am not like my mother when it comes to not telling. I am pretty open with David. If I had any pre-teen daughters I would have given this book to them to open up a dialogue with them.
I don't know why in my generation this is considered dirty. I am Jewish and there are laws for orthodox women that women stay away from their husbands for a certain amount of days. Then the women go to the mikvah(a large bathtub). It is not told to us but we can pretty much feel that we feel dirty. This law is held by the very religious women.
I would like to thank Anna for sending me a copy.
There will be a book blog tour hosted by Anna from Hatchette Books.
Here is a review by The New York Times
I can't wait to see what the other bloggers think.