WRRC Crew (and others) with Author Inga Muscio
5/27/05
From left (top row): Chris Martin, Suzanne Roberts, Cierra Olivia Thomas, Inga Muscio, Anne Spurrier, Craig Coleman Bottom Row: Lisa Greif, Liberty, and Annie Love

Share your stories and inspirations based on Author Inga Muscio's visit or book (to submit something click here):

Written by Cierra Olivia Thomas, Morgaine and Anya's Mom

I have come out of my "Menstrual hut"
 

On May 25th, 2005, author Inga Muscio visited my very own rural institution of higher education, Eastern Oregon University.  It was great to meet Inga and hear about her research and her childhood stories; she is a great storyteller.  We share similar background stories, interests in research, and lived experiences so I really connected with her through her writing.  I am looking forward to reading her new book Secrets of a Blue Eyed Devil.  This writing is about my connection with Inga’s first book. 

Muscio wrote a book called Cunt: A Declaration of Independence and in it she explores all things vagina (sorry Inga, all things cunt).  Reading Muscio really had an impact on how I am raising my daughters with regard to menstruation.  I actually used to freak out a little bit about my period, because it is such a drag.  Reading what Inga had to say, though, helped me connect with my body and think about what it meant in connection to the circle of life.  I feel better about my body, and Muscio made me feel “okay” about having a period.  Now I share that with my daughters.  I do not want them growing up feeling like they need to hide their periods.  I want them to rejoice their entrance into the sisterhood of women.

              This is personal—so don’t read on if you have something against blood—but I want to share with you how I have begun making my period “natural” for my daughters.  I do not shut them out of my bathroom when I use it (most of the time).  This means they see all manner of my personal hygiene, including my “rituals” when I am menstruating.  Before I read the book I used more privacy when I was on my period, but I want to normalize the experience of having a period so my daughters will not feel ashamed.

It is important for my daughters to feel wonderful and important as girls and women in America.  One way of doing that is normalizing menstruation, which has become such a “travesty” in America.  We have developed culture bound syndromes, as PMDD (Pre-menstrual Dysphoric Disorder), and mainstreamed pharmaceutical treatments for PMS (Pre-menstrual Syndrome), because our periods have become so cumbersome.  We are prevented from engaging in battle or covert operations because we are women and have periods and get raped because we have cunts.  I have a responsibility to normalize this process for my daughters so they do not feel the same pressure I did to hide my period (thus, denying my womanliness).

One day I forgot to use anything to catch the blood and it got all over my cute pink sweat capris: the girls happened to follow me into the bathroom and were present when I discovered this, so I did not freak out like I wanted to.  Calmly, I said “ooops, I forgot my tampon.  That’s okay,” and I went on from there.  The opposite experience—me freaking about a blood stain and closing the girls out of the bathroom to clean myself up—would have conveyed a sense of shame to be experiencing womanliness.  I am thankful for what I learned in Inga’s book and my girls are too, even though they do not yet know it. 

My womanifesto is to develop a sense of appreciation (in me and in my daughters) for all things woman, beginning with our cunts.

Chris Martin’s Womanifesto

Permeable Faith

On a road trip, I created a conversation with myself. It was wrapped in faith, and loaded with questions. I suppose you could say that I pondered “urgent” questions at a leisurely pace!

~

How do we find a sense of “God” (for those who are looking)? Peace, Passion, Pontification, Piety…

Are we allowed to have our own way?

Do we know “he” is “there?” Or do we believe, in fact, “he” is “here?”

Do we test the waters of “morality” and “faith” when hoping for a taste of the “spiritual guidance” we read about?

Can we only go so far “up” because a “higher” power has predestined religious achievement (who provides the plaque)?

Do we always fall short of the requirements for “good girls?”

Is there a “trip wire” when we have gone to far?

Where do we go when we are asking for “more?”

What are we looking for when we sit very still and wait for an “experience?”

Have you ever dropped down on your knees (in the name of something) and not known where to begin?

Where do we go when our hearts have been ripped out from between our legs in a dirty bathroom, on a sterile table, or on the filthy concrete of an abandoned lot?

What do we hope to become when mistakes saturate our “character” in heavy, suffocating, and demeaning insecurity; or when family holidays become an invitation to exorcise the Dike, Feminist, Buddhist, Liberationist, who questions too much and praises to little?

How do we placate an uncompromising need for our absent mother’s wisdom that aches so deep down in that “throaty place?”

Why do our friends become our sisters?

Where do our children “go” when they challenge authority; what about when they have the courage to say “yes” or “no” because they recognize self awareness, passion, and curiosity?

Is it a “sin” to actively seek “something?”

• apostles
• prophets
• teachers
• miracle workers
• wise counsel
• clear understanding
• “simple” trust
• healing the “sick”
• miraculous acts
• proclamation
• distinguishing between spirits
• interpretations of tongue
• trinity

Who heals souls?

The “words” become entangled with the deeds, but a Woman impassioned by writing can stir souls and nurture a pure form of revelation. The gift of writing is magical, ancient and deliciously deviant, drawing on the power of female understanding long before us.

I speak my mind in hopes of someone yelling, “lights!”

I write because this IS my religious practice.

From my dirty depths to my heart,

From my heart to this page,

I have found what I am looking for.

Thank-you for the inspiration

Chris

neodymium

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Last updated: 5/30/2004 by Cierra Olivia Thomas