Kinship
I am a woman in a continuous chain of mothers and daughters–never-ending and never breaking. I have grown up in a community where traditional women’s roles are encouraged and even expected from the rising generation of females. Perhaps, as a result, I have found that for the women I am closest to, talking about anything relatively connected to our bodies and/or sexuality is seen as inappropriate; such things should be kept to oneself. As a young person, if I ever did have these conversations, they were quickly covered up or disguised as something else.
Recently, I have recognized that body awareness is a challenge for many women, primarily those brought up in similar communities, and I find myself wanting to ease their discomfort as I expand my sliver of knowledge and ease my own. For this work, I approached many women–in groups or one on one–and asked for their participation in my project. I wanted to emphasize womanhood as a collective experience. I encouraged participants to confront their discomforts with body awareness, specifically menstruation, and more purposefully recognize how our period is a key element that makes us women. Interestingly, but maybe not surprisingly, the women willing to participate were still not able to escape embarrassment when they discreetly handed over their menstrual blood-stained pieces of cloth. I realized that there is a very real need to provide an honest place to engage women in these vital conversations. In doing so we can support and empower each other.
