As has been pointed out in other posts, tampons don’t go “poof” when you’re done using them. Out of sight is *not* out of mind! They go into landfills or waste treatment plants. Their manufacture, like that of pads, too, adds to water and air pollution. The wash-your-own pads are nice, and I used those for a while, but really, they’re way messier to deal with and also have a negative impact on the environment because they have to be laundered, which for most American women means running a washing machine through a disinfecting hot cycle, perhaps with Clorox or some other chemical to help get the bloodstains out. Long story short, ladies and germs, not all things that sound stupid are. Sarah Palin falls into that category, but menstrual cups don’t.

I also love stand-up pee cups. I learned of them too late to enjoy them at festivals, but when I became incapacitated with sciatica two years ago and found it horribly painful and difficult to sit down on my toilet at home, I got one and used it for the 3 months or so it took me to recover. I imagine it’s a standard item in nursing homes and other places where women who aren’t actually bed-ridden have the same kind of trouble. If not, it should be. I often take mine with me when I’m on the road, b/c you never know what conditions you’ll discover in public rest rooms. I prefer to have an alternative to sitting on other people’s ****.

One of the great things about mooncup is that most of the time you don’t even remember that you’re having your period. Emptying and rinsing the cup twice a day is not such a trouble, and for the rest of the time you can forget the whole issue; do sports, go swimming etc. without worrying for leaks or smell.

For me it sounds much more scary than any mooncups that someone is so unfamiliar or uncomfortable with her own body, that being in any contact with the fluids coming out of it feels impossible.

But the larger point – as evidenced by the moon cup furor – is that us amerikans, born in this particularly charmed time and place – are poised at the precipice of the apocalypse, at least in terms of our spoiled, massively wealthy, ‘entitled to anything and everything, consequences (for the earth and our fellow human creatures that we share this fine but fragile little sphere with) be damned’ attitudes. The fact is that we’re so rich and so stupid that we become more helpless with each succeeding generation. This can only end in one place: mass poverty, starvation, and death. As mentioned above, the ‘I hate the moon cups’ of the (western) world will be amongst the first to go. I for one, as a truly resourceful and creative human, able, despite my (relatively) massive wealth in relation to the majority of this little planet’s sentient inhabitants, sort of can’t wait…