“Torah and Tampax: An Ethnography of My Ancient Jewish Menstrual Cycle”
““Once, my mother, who you never met, told me to get her pads from the store. I was so, so angry,” she said. Grandma Bertie’s voice has that tone when someone is recalling a distant memory, something just beyond their grasp. “I didn’t want to be seen with it. In those days, pads came wrapped individually, in little brown bags. I asked my mother if boys ever had something like this to worry about, she said no. That made me mad, too.”
I realize that in no other other circumstance would I ever hear this much about my own Grandmother’s menstrual cycle. I realize that I am hearing a rather obvious fact, that my great-grandmother menstruated, that it is in fact one reason in the list of cosmic ways that I am here today. I have known my grandmother my whole life, and have never asked her about her experiences having a period and a body.”
