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Rachel Has a Website

(this is it. welcome.)
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  • April 2019
    • Apr 10, 2019 72 Hours in Dublin Apr 10, 2019
  • July 2018
    • Jul 24, 2018 summer songs Jul 24, 2018
    • Jul 10, 2018 This Month in Menstruation: July/What Is Time, Anyway Edition Jul 10, 2018
  • February 2018
    • Feb 28, 2018 This Month in Menstruation: February (just under the wire!) Feb 28, 2018
  • January 2018
    • Jan 21, 2018 This Month in Menstruation: January 2018! Jan 21, 2018
    • Jan 9, 2018 Well-Reviewed and Warmly Recommended Jan 9, 2018
  • November 2017
    • Nov 20, 2017 #menstruationmonday, autumnal decay edition Nov 20, 2017
  • October 2017
    • Oct 25, 2017 Menstruation...Wednesday? Oct 25, 2017
  • September 2017
    • Sep 18, 2017 It's That Time of the Month Again! Sep 18, 2017
  • August 2017
    • Aug 7, 2017 What Day Is It? Why It's #menstruationmonday! Aug 7, 2017
  • June 2017
    • Jun 12, 2017 #menstruationmonday Jun 12, 2017
  • April 2017
    • Apr 30, 2017 Critical Menstruation Studies, Week 5: Stand Up, Fight Back Apr 30, 2017
    • Apr 23, 2017 Critical Menstruation Studies, Week 4: What If You Could Just Stop Menstruating? Apr 23, 2017
    • Apr 9, 2017 Critical Menstruation Studies, Week 3: #periodtwitter and a SURVEY! Apr 9, 2017
    • Apr 2, 2017 Critical Menstruation Studies, Week 2: Menstruators and Period Power (?) Apr 2, 2017
  • March 2017
    • Mar 26, 2017 Critical Menstruation Studies, Week 1: Binaries, Vocabulary, and Controversial Norwegian Sex Ed Videos Mar 26, 2017
    • Mar 22, 2017 denying / her wounds came from the same source as her power Mar 22, 2017
  • February 2017
    • Feb 17, 2017 What's Making Me Happy This Week/Five Things Friday Feb 17, 2017
  • January 2017
    • Jan 1, 2017 #top5 part 2 Jan 1, 2017
  • December 2016
    • Dec 25, 2016 2016 #topcats Dec 25, 2016
    • Dec 24, 2016 Listen to This: 2016 in Review Dec 24, 2016
    • Dec 21, 2016 2016 #top5, part 1: media Dec 21, 2016
    • Dec 16, 2016 How to See London and Paris in 96 Hours* Dec 16, 2016
  • November 2016
    • Nov 11, 2016 What's Making Me Happy This Week/Five Things Friday Nov 11, 2016
  • September 2016
    • Sep 12, 2016 Summer Reading Sep 12, 2016
  • June 2016
    • Jun 24, 2016 What's Making Me Happy This Week/Five Things Friday Jun 24, 2016
    • Jun 7, 2016 To Market, To Market Jun 7, 2016
  • April 2016
    • Apr 22, 2016 Listen to This - Spring Apr 22, 2016
  • March 2016
    • Mar 8, 2016 Chocolate-Hazelnut Pear Upside-Down Cake Mar 8, 2016
  • February 2016
    • Feb 29, 2016 The Handmaid's Guide to Cambridge Feb 29, 2016
  • January 2016
    • Jan 25, 2016 The Villain in Your History Jan 25, 2016
    • Jan 3, 2016 2015: The Year That Was (PART 2) Jan 3, 2016
  • December 2015
    • Dec 30, 2015 2015: The Year That Was (PART 1) Dec 30, 2015
  • September 2015
    • Sep 23, 2015 Back-to-School Blues: Notes from an Erstwhile Grad Student Sep 23, 2015
    • Sep 22, 2015 Undercover Sep 22, 2015
  • August 2015
    • Aug 11, 2015 Summer Fun: Cape Cod in 36 Hours Aug 11, 2015
  • July 2015
    • Jul 18, 2015 Stranger Than Fiction: A Review of the Welcome to Night Vale Novel Jul 18, 2015
  • June 2015
    • Jun 21, 2015 Savory Vegetable Pancakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce, or: Maybe This Is Also a Cooking Blog? Jun 21, 2015
  • May 2015
    • May 10, 2015 Podcasts for Nerds May 10, 2015
  • April 2015
    • Apr 22, 2015 The Confessional Poetics of Taylor Swift, or: Does Too Much Knowledge Ruin Art? Apr 22, 2015
    • Apr 15, 2015 Bright Lights, Big City: NYC in 36 Hours Apr 15, 2015
  • March 2015
    • Mar 31, 2015 Cherry Bombe Jubilee: Kind of a Dud? Mar 31, 2015
lizlemon.gif

This Month in Menstruation: July/What Is Time, Anyway Edition

July 10, 2018 in menstruation studies!

It's been a long time since I wrote one of these or wrote anything at all, really, but I'm trying not to let that period of writer's block keep me from jumping back in. So, as the first pangs of this month's cramps start up and those PMS blues set in, I'm here to share some interesting #periodcontent I've found recently.

  • One of my newest podcast discoveries, The Inbetweenies, just ran an episode all about periods. It's not a particularly deep or complicated or even terribly woke episode—this podcast is very much in the two-friends-chatting model and they don't get too political beyond condemning tampons with plastic applicators and vaguely referencing girls in the developing world who miss school when they are menstruating—but it's nice to hear people speaking publicly and candidly about menstruation. If anyone has reccs for other period podcast eps, I'd love to hear them.
  • I'm thinking of changing my period tracker app from Clue, which I just can't seem to get into, to Spot On from Planned Parenthood. My friend sold me on it when she mentioned on Twitter that it's not only inclusive of all genders, but also has a dinosaur theme(??!), and that's just too intriguing to pass up. 
giphy/prettywhiskey.com

giphy/prettywhiskey.com

  • There was a heartbreaking and frustrating New York Times piece in June about the tradition of menstrual huts (chhaupadi) in rural Nepal, where women are still considered unclean during their periods and ostracized as a result. I still don't understand how superstitions like this even got started. I mean, I know how they did, I just don't comprehend it. This is over half the human population! This is a sign of fertility, which you all claim to value so highly! It's a quarter of most adult women's lives!! Hopefully the activists (men and women) working in Nepal and other countries where these traditions still exist will be able to effect some real change, and soon.
  • The Cut continues to have some of the oddest #periodcontent out there, including this piece called "We Had Sex on Thinx’s $369 Period Blanket So You Don’t Have To." That's right, everyone's favorite questionably progressive period panties company now makes bedding, too. The piece is worth a read but please don't buy this blanket, just use a cheap towel and make sure you do your laundry in a timely fashion.
my favorite graph from the Thinx blanket story

my favorite graph from the Thinx blanket story

  • I'm late to this one, but I recently learned about menstrual activist Chella Quint's #menstrualnotsanitary campaign to change the language we use around period products. As a language person, I think this is a small but vital part of shifting cultural ideas around menstruation, and Chella's piece from The Independent last fall made me think a lot.
  • We all know Teen Vogue is #killingit, and their period coverage is no exception. This piece is called "What Trans & Non-Binary Menstruators Should Know About Periods" but these are things everyone should know, menstruator or not!

That's all for this edition. I wish you all the hottest heating pads and the darkest chocolate (sometimes things are stereotypes for a reason). Thanks for reading!

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@missrrg on Instagram

February in photos. Not an ideal month but with some highlights that can’t be denied, including a dreamy fab five galentines in NYC and a very chilly trip (never too cold for creemees tho) to always-stunning VT to meet my tiny amazing new niece
February reads, least favorite (bottom) to most favorite (top). The Tana French was a reread in anticipation of her new one coming out this week(!!!). Also excited to get to the next book in Adriana Herrera’s Las Leonas, which I understand to b
January in photos—a pretty quiet month, it turns out, but sometimes it was sunny and I went on long walks and found delicious things to eat, so that’s basically all I ask for in this life.
January reads, least favorite (bottom) to most favorite (top). Making good on my resolution to try more nonfiction, although I definitely don’t have the brain for serious critical theory that I once did 🫥 #amreading
And with that, the 2023 season comes to an end. December behind the scenes—festive decor (scaled to new house), messiah sing, fancy baking, two days walking around nyc, and cats (always cats).
December reads, least favorite (bottom) to most favorite (top). Squeaked by my 60-book goal for 2023 (final count is 65-ish). Anyone have reading resolutions for the new year? #amreading
A joyous kittyversary to all—it’s lucky number 13!!?! Congratulations to Chessie and Carol for absolutely killing it this year, including their total mastery of the brand-new concept of Stairs. With apologies to all other cats, mine are o
November, director’s cut. If you look closely you can spot a cat and also a peek at me losing nanowrimo lol
November reads, least favorite (bottom) to most favorite (top). Only the bottom one is truly bad. Are there still good thrillers out there or is just a spectrum from entertaining trash to offensive trash?? BONUS: I also read a very 🥵🔥 😳series of r

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