I'm even slut-shamed by my cervix.

The horror, the horror.

On Wednesday I have to have a LEEP. If you don't have a cervix, skip to the next paragraph, because I doubt you'll give a shit. Basically, I have precancerous cells, and the next step is to take an electrified loop of wire and shave off a layer of tissue, after which I can't have sex, lift anything heavy, or take a bath for a month. Woohoo!

So I'm reading up on it, and here's what the Wikipedia page has to tell me about how my lifestyle is responsible for this:

"A number of risk factors have been shown to increase a woman's likelihood of developing CIN,^[9] including poor diet, poor personal hygiene, multiple sexual partners, lack of condom use, and cigarette smoking."

Alright, here is where I want to say, fuck you very much, medicine.

Oh, you had sex with a bunch of people? Yeah, it's your own fucking fault that you're well on your way to cancer. You didn't use a condom every time you had sex? Get ready for us to remove a big chunk of your internal tissue. I find it way too convenient that what modern medicine tells us is the best for women is - hmm - EXACTLY what the patriarchy feeds us. Apparently, unless I sleep with one person, live completely sober, and pop out a bunch of babies in my twenties, I am essentially inflicting myself with certain death by terminal illness. I'm sorry, but I think this is fucking bullshit.

And here's the kicker: cervical dysplasia (what I have) is caused by HPV, which I am vaccinated against. So, something's fishy here, right? Here are the options that I'm considering:

1. Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, doesn't work.
2. Doctors are fucking idiots.
3. I have been cursed by a Somalian witch doctor at the behest of my ex-boyfriend who threw a ceramic heart I made him in a river because I dumped him for someone else and he made me a video of pictures of me surrounded by flowers with an accompanying crappy poem and I deleted it off my computer without watching the whole thing and called him a creep. 
4. The changes in my cervix are my version of normal - seeing as I've had cervical cell 'changes' since I was SEVENTEEN - and this is simply a ruse, so they're terrifying me with the C-word so they can get my insurance company to pay for a somewhat expensive, not-very-necessary outpatient procedure.
5. God is really trying to get back at me for saying "Jesus shit" all the time.

Oh, and it goes on, for as long as we ladies shall live. If it's not a Pap smear, it's a hysterectomy. We can't give birth like our bodies were designed to, so we all have to have C-sections.  The medicalization of women's bodies in our culture is both pervasive and perverse. It's a way to reap maximum profits and ensure that reproductive power - the only kind of power that is strictly held by women - is chained down for society's sake.

All I have to say is, whatever painkillers they give me... they better be good enough to make me forget my own name and the fact that I have a vagina at all.

I'm not embarrassed about my period, why are you?

Last week, I took a day off of work for my own personal mental health and sanity. Seeing as I was right in the throes of my period, I took a leisurely stroll to Rite Aid and proceeded to pick up a multipack of tampons, and take them to the checkout line. I also purchased a pair of pantyhose, and a teeth whitening kit. The nice older woman at the register chatted with me about the weather and bagged my items, and I paid and left. Only after leaving the store and walking down Highland did I realize what she'd done.

The woman doubled-bagged me.

I don't know if they teach people this in drugstore-cashier-training or whatever the hell they do at CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens... but every time I buy tampons, they're double-bagged. Maybe they do it for every embarrassing purchase, you'd think, but I bought anti-diarrheal pills at CVS a few months ago and they single-bagged those fuckers. I have yet to get a verdict on whether or not Preparation H is tagged for two bags, but I'm gonna guess it's not.

Why does this anger me, you ask? Because this seemingly harmless little old lady who's manning the register at Rite Aid is contributing to the continued stigma of the menstrual cycle - an element of EVERY WOMAN'S LIFE. Every natural born woman, illness or certain conditions notwithstanding, menstruates. So I don't understand why, in 2009, we still have to double-bag feminine hygiene products, which EVERY WOMAN NEEDS AND USES. Why are women not allowed to have normal bodily functions? Oh, that's right, because we're not supposed to be human. We're supposed to be sweet-smelling, gentle, delicate creatures that don't grow body hair or take shits.

I know this woman probably grew up in a time when periods started with a capital P: for Private, and Personal, and Positively no sex involved. We need to seriously rethink how we're acting about menstruation, and what it may mean for the next few generations. I'm not embarrassed about menstruating. it's a part of life. I'll take a single bag for my tampons, thank you.