Defining rites of passage

[jay]

Given a debate in the hallways at work today with hopeforyou, over someone's celebration this evening ... I just don't see how celebrating the onset of an icky, unpleasant bodily function that causes half the population to be cranky and require chocolate and paper products one out of every four weeks is a rite of passage, other than as an affliction. Might as well design a ritual to celebrate, say, acne as the door to adolescence.

In this culture, IMO the things which most clearly delineate children from adults are gaining independent mobility and finances. So I think that a first paid outside job and gaining a driver's license are the true rites of passage in the US, both usually happening around age 15-16.

Comments

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

I don't see how anything that requires chocolate can be all bad.

But seriously, there may be women who see it the way you do. I am not one of them. I find it to be neither icky nor unpleasant. It just is. There is sometimes pain. Mine is not debilitating. I get a day or two of emotional wackiness. If I watched my diet more carefully, there would be neither pain nor crankiness.

I find the whole cycle to be interesting. There are specific days during the cycle when my voice is particularly good. There are specific days when I'm more interested in sex than others. It's when the cycle isn't regular that I find it annoying and unpleasant.

I suspect that men find it ickier than women do.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Being subject to an out-of-one's-control cycle would seem highly annoying to me... what if I wanted my voice to be particularly good on the night of a concert, not two days before in rehearsal? That, and the general messiness, are just things that I guess women take as givens.

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

A couple of points here -

1) In order to live with something that is a part of your bodily function and be healthy (mentally and physically), I think one has to take a more constructive view then this. This is something that happens (for me) every 27-34 days, for a few days. I take it as a chance to remember how my body works, and a note from my body telling me everything's ok in there.

2) It can be controlled, these days. One can make it come like clockwork, or avoid it altogether for months at a time. Me, I like it. It comes with happy chemicals and other fun side effects. But, then, I was raised more crunchy-granola then most and never had the 'dirty' view even brought to my attention until adulthood. I was also blessed with good experiences in my first few relationships around the issue.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Fun side effects? (wondering look)

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes!

When everything is working right, I get a few days of thinking that most men are adorable. I think that's fun.

Also, I get a huge rush of clarity and energy about two days after I start bleeding.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

LOL... obviously symptoms not widely shared, at least not by the women closest to me ;).