Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Spa Feminism

What I'd really like to see, instead of spas that make women look better (hair styling, mani-pedis, dermatological peels) is the advent of spas that are 100% dedicated to making us feel better.
It would signify a substantial improvement in valuing femininity if there were menstrual spas, places where one could go and have massages, sample new "hygiene" products, sip teas designed to reduce bloating and balance hormones, sit in darkened rooms specially designed to ward-off headaches.
Apologies if that's too suggestive, but really.  Wouldn't that be a terrific use of  a spa day ? (Says me, who has had one spa day ever, and that was in 2004.)
I'm tired of menstruation (irrelevant now that I'm done having kids.  One should be able to just turn the whole mechanism off).
I'm also tired of it being such a shameful irritant.
If I'm teaching Julia Kristeva and the abject, menstruation and possible leaks are my go-to examples (the body exceeds the individual's control of it).  I'd like to shift from abject to pampered and indulged, and have the pampering/indulgence have nothing whatsoever to do with how pretty I am.

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