A week ago Suzanne and I presented our first TED talk as part of the Berlin-based TEDxChange event that was also held at satellite locations in 193 cities. TEDxChange was convened by Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the event’s strategic partner), the theme was “The Big Picture”, with a stated goal of addressing global issues. Here in Vancouver the banner was flown by TEDxKids@BC, a dynamic, youth-focused TEDx chapter.
What’s not to love about TED talks? Some of our office faves include Simon Sinek’s Start with Why, Brene Brown’s The Power of Vulnerability and Leymah Gwobee’s Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls. What knocked our socks off about the @BCKids event was that a bunch of teenagers and young adults could be as poised and confident in telling their stories as you would expect from a seasoned TED speaker. Not to mention the gravity of issues and experiences that they brought to light: check out these examples.
Hi everybody, Lisa here! Our most recent guest post from Samson (read here) motivated me to finally share some of my own thoughts and an explanation / followup to the note on gender that I added to our website recently.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the note:
Lunapads users and community members are cisgender, transgender and genderqueer individuals who span the gender spectrum. Cisgender / AFAB (assigned female at birth) women comprise the majority of our customer base. However, we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming space for all those seeking eco friendly solutions to their everyday and monthly needs.
Being mindful of essentialist & exclusionary comments made about periods and bodies – and the real & lasting impact those words and assumptions have – is important to me, both in and outside of my work here at Lunapads. Avoiding framing conversations in ways that make others feel unrecognized or overlooked matters to me, to my community, to my family, and to many of our customers. I hope we can also move beyond simply being “neutral” to talking about periods in ways that are actually inclusive of all those who experience them. I care about what we say and how we say it because I believe that exclusion in language equals exclusion in practice.
In understanding and acknowledging that each individual’s experience is far more complex and varied than traditional gender constructs would have us believe, I think we can find new, meaningful ways to relate to and support each other — strengthening our communities and expanding the narrow confines of who’s given access to improved health, comfort and support in relation to their own menstrual cycles and bodies.
My hope is that we will continue to listen and work on maintaining a space within the Lunapads community for those who menstruate and feel unrepresented or overlooked in conversations about menstruation. While most women menstruate at some point in their lives, the ways in which those cycles are experienced varies so widely depending on a number of factors. Furthermore, having a period is not something exclusive to those who are women — nor do all women menstruate or share the same feelings about their bodies, fertility, sexuality, and so on.
Yesterday we had the extraordinary good fortune to be visited by some remarkable people working for change for Ethiopians, the leaders of Partners in the Horn of Africa, and Hope for Children.
Yewoinshet Masresha is an engaging and charismatic Ethiopian woman and the founder of Hope for Children, an organization which has received worldwide attention for its pioneering work in the care of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.
A social activist from her early teens, Yewoinshet joined the Red Cross at age 17 during a period of political instability and war in Ethiopia. When she refused to marry a high ranking military official she was imprisoned in solitary confinement for three years. She emerged with a renewed strength and commitment to help women and children in need. The impact of HIV/AIDS was having a profound effect on the country and many children were losing one or both parents to the virus. It was in response to this HIV/AIDS crisis that Yewoinshet founded Hope for Children, the first NGO in Ethiopia dedicated to the care of children affected by HIV/AIDS.
Yewoinshet shared her personal story with us firsthand, as well as describing life for most women and girls in Ethiopia. In many communities, for example, girls are expected to wash male visitors’ feet, and are given undesirable bits of meat, while their brothers receive choicer pieces. Education for girls is widely seen as being pointless, since they will end up married often before they even reach puberty. Yewoinshet also described a deeply negative and shame-based culture around menstruation, and the devastating effect that it has on girls’ self-esteem and education (a sadly familiar story, which for our part we are seeking to address in various nations via our Pads4Girls program.)
What is your trusted go-to source for information about sexual health or environmentally friendly and body safe sex toys?
Let us know in a comment below, and you could win a bottle of Hathor Pure Lubricant! You can respond anonymously if you prefer, just be sure to fill out the email box (only visible to us / not shared publicly) so we can contact you if you win. Thanks everyone, and good luck!
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!
As many of you know, Lunapads manufactures and sells beautiful, washable cloth menstrual pads, pantyliners and underwear. We do this because we believe that using natural, reusable menstrual products is a creative and empowering way to honor and care for ourselves and the earth. Our mission is to help individuals have more positive experiences of their menstrual cycles, and by extension, their bodies overall.
For Madeleine, making the switch from tampons to cloth pads brought her the unexpected benefit of discovering a deeper connection with her body. Click here to listen to her conversation with Jamye Waxman about the connection for her between period positivity and pleasure.
Lots of our customers tell us that they have had a similar experience, and that using Lunapads led them to a new found appreciation for their bodies; not just during their periods, but all throughout their cycles and every day of the month. For some of us, using sex toys is another one of the many creative and celebratory ways we can nurture the relationships we have with our bodies. Of course, being the eco and body friendly folks that we are, we want to be knowledgeable about the products we use and the effect they have on our bodies and earth.
Unfortunately, sex toys are often comprised of a mystery-mix of chemicals and other ingredients not disclosed by their manufacturers. In addition, because sex toys are classified as novelty items, they’re not regulated by the FDA or held to the same stringent health and safety checks that medical devices are. So, how do you choose a toy that is good for your health, and the health of the planet? Here’s some info about the different materials and options available.
So, I helped organize a Call to Action Roundtable with Joy Anderson of Criterion Ventures titled: “Investing in Women: how to increase women’s access to capital and invest in social entrepreneurs focused on improving the condition of women”. Much to our delight, over two dozen participants gathered over lunch to join in thelively conversation. With several other Roundtable conversations going on concurrently in the same room, we often had to raise our voices out of necessity (and perhaps passion!)
My own interest in the topic stems from my passion for advancing issues which affect women and entrepreneurship. It was over a decade ago when Lunapads learned that a progressive investment fund, Renewal Partners, was looking to invest in socially responsible businesses that were led by women and focused on women’s issues. I wanted to share with the SVN group my positive experience obtaining capital and dealing with our investors (Joel Solomon and Carol Newell, both long time members of SVN) and working with Vancity Capital for debt financing.
After Joy introduced her framework for the conversation, the group engaged in an enthusiastic conversation that centered around three common themes:
Make it easier for women to access capital: While all of the women entrepreneurs who attended the session had successfully attracted capital to finance their business, their experience and degree of ease in obtaining that capital varied. It was positive to learn that the social capital market is growing rapidly, but very few funds are targeted to women, and fewer still target women within community development. “Providing women equal access to capital is both a question of equity and an untapped/under invested opportunity” emphasized Joy. Others expressed frustration with the archaic legal regulations that hamper the ability for the average person or groups of people to make small investments in women run businesses.
Moon Mysteries Giveaway
Comment below telling us about why you feel like there’s more to our cycles than shedding uterine linings (ie having your period ;-) for a chance to win.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING!
I have just finished reading Moon Mysteries: Reclaiming Women’s Menstrual Wisdom (order here) and despite having my curiosity whetted for the past couple of years by our good friend and longtime Lunapads supporter Nikiah Seeds, was not disappointed. The book is truly a labor of love, written by Nikiah and Nao Sims, and illustrated and designed by Eyan Myers. There is so much that is rich and beautiful about this book and its authors and illustrator that it’s hard to know where to start.
I have read many useful books on the topic of women’s cycles, however none that inspire in quite the way that Moon Mysteries does. Reading it brought me back to a powerful place of reflection over my own menstrual history, leading me to realize how Lunapads itself can be read as a reflection of my own unmet yearning for honoring and connection as a menarchal girl. Moon Mysteries delivers this gift on numerous fronts, inviting meditation, celebration and awareness raising in every phase of the fertility cycle experience.
I am all for Modern Art and think MoMa’s current exhibit, Talk to Me, on how our fast changing world is always in communication with us is brilliant. As much as I am one of those who need to get out of the city every couple of weeks to recharge in nature, I love and value technology too.
My response to Ms. Magazine’s post about one of the pieces in this show, the Menstruation Machine, was a feeling in my belly much worse than your average period cramps. The piece itself is extremely intelligently built, designed to dispense blood and stimulate the lower abdomen in a way that would feel something like menstrual cramping. The artist, Sputniko, wants to allow men and anyone else (children or post menopausal women) to be able to experience menstruation and point out to all of us who are still bleeding for 3-7 days every month that this is an outdated and unnecessary part of being a woman. “It’s 2011, so why are humans still menstruating?”
I am all for modern art and design but let’s not neglect the greatest designer there is, nature. In case you missed Biology 101, women are designed with an incredible ability and purpose to birth babies. Even if you choose not to experience childbirth or motherhood directly this time around, there is a place where we need to remember and acknowledge the creative power that comes with that gift. To quote one of the greatest midwives of our time, Ina May Gaskin, “There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ, they would brag about it. So should we.” Sputniko has another piece called Child Producing Machine, a song for girls who would rather become a cyborg than to cope with menstruation pain. “If I have to suffer with my biology – I’d rather be a Cyborg than a goddess.”
To say that I was star-struck meeting Bitch Magazine founding Editor Andi Zeisler for the first time is a bit of an understatement. Although it continues to baffle me as to why, I realize that feminist media and cultural criticism is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s definitely one of mine, though, and Andi is one of its most incisive proponents and voices. We were in Portland earlier this summer for the most excellent World Domination Summit and took the opportunity to stop by the magazine’s offices.
Lunapads has recently entered into a more wide-ranging and intentional relationship as “Ambassadors” with Bitch Media, Bitch magazine’s nonprofit parent organization, and as such are seeking to broaden support for their work within our community. With that in mind, please consider subscribing, advertising, donating, volunteering and/or just plain old spreading the good word!
Andi and I took a look at a couple of different areas where women’s health, consumer products and questionable media messages intersect: namely, some current ad campaigns for feminine hygiene products and hormonal birth control.
To hear Andi deconstruct the subtle-yet-insidious phoniness that underlies that UbyKotex campaign was particularly heartening to me, as it seems to have been well-received by many progressive women, who welcomed its message while leaving its products unquestioned. (Also see Suzanne’s post about how UbyKotex claims to have invented the notion of groovy-looking menstrual pads, an idea that Lunapads has been championing for almost 2 decades!)
To say that we were blown away by the response to our LunaRevolution Video Festival & Contest is a seismic understatement – it was literally one “WOW” after another at yesterday’s staff viewing. Thank you so much to all of you who participated; we are deeply honored by your efforts.
The overall experience has been more complex than “WOW” suggests, however, and I want to address that it was not as easy as sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and basking in the Luna-love. I cannot go any further without first acknowledging the efforts of Nancee, our Video Intern (here for her second summer, woot!) and our IT wonder Lisa. Nancee is a fabulous tech-geek workaholic super-smart/nice person who is constantly seeking more ways to be helpful (if you can’t think of them, she will!) and then executing them with dizzying speed and efficiency. With equal dedication the perennially brilliant Lisa waded through the maze of technical issues with her consistently calm and sensible demeanor.
Clever Lunagals and all, were there flaws? Oh yeah! We have not had a video contest in years, and naturally technology has advanced a notch or two. We decided to go with a Facebook application called Wildfire, which involved a bit of a learning curve and proved to have its shortcomings. Thank you to all of you who were smart enough to point out the not-totally-clear bits and have been patient enough to bear with us while we worked it out.
We received 21 (TWENTY ONE!!!) submissions, which we considered to be totally amazing. Twenty-one Lunagals felt inspired enough to take the time to tell us how our products have changed your lives: how incredible is that?!?
It was a massive challenge to choose the top picks, and if we have any regrets it’s that we didn’t create more categories and/or Honorable Mention spots in the first place (it would have looked pretty silly if we had created a dozen categories and only had three submissions, for example). Finally, we didn’t all agree about, for example, what made a video particularly “creative”, and so I want to highlight what we felt was uniquely awesome about the videos that may not have fit into a particular category.
Our 5 Honorable Mention Prizes:
another drum roll, please…
Lunapads was so proud to host this year’s LunaRevolution Video Festival and Contest! The contest was a highlight of our summer and we hope you all enjoyed it just as much as we did.
Since the voting period ended, we have been busy in the office watching (and re-watching!) all the videos and trying to pick out the winners. We felt every video was superb in its own way and deserved recognition. You all did an amazing job, and made it extremely difficult for us to choose the winning submissions – more on that in our next post!
Alas, winners had to be selected – and so without further ado *drum roll please*
To be clear about how the winners were chosen: the People’s Choice awards were based solely on the number of votes through Wildfire. The Most Creative, Staff Pick and Honorable Mentions were chosen based on lengthy conversation and general consensus between the Lunagals. That said, as the song goes, “Everyone’s a winner, Baby” (didn’t take 1 of the top 8 prize-winning spots? keep reading!) – please check out all of the entries, and share your favorites with your friends!
The fact that Ashley’s video got so many votes speaks for itself – she was the hands down People’s Choice winner. Our Staff Pick went to Carla. We loved her funky editing style, amazing facial expressions and irresistible enthusiasm and charisma. Top it off with a wonderful musical choice at the end, and you’ve got a winner. DIVA!!! We chose Nicole’s video as Most Creative due to her choice of a multiple interview style, great music, and totally authentic girlfriend conversation about all the stuff us Lunagals dislike about disposables. A little something awesome for everyone!
Aside from announcing the top winners, we would really like to give a shout out to our People’s Choice runners-up. In fact, the top 3 contenders were so close in votes we couldn’t believe it! Coming in with the 2nd most votes was long-time Lunapads fan Holly Pluchinski, followed very closely behind by Kendra Gabert. Excellent work, ladies!
Stay tuned for Madeleine’s follow-up blog post naming our 5 honorable mention prize winners, as well as special mentions for everyone else who participated! For those who did not win, keep an eye on your mailboxes for a thank you treat from all of us here at Lunapads! Please send your mailing address tous at info@lunapads.com (use the subject “Lunapads Video Contest: My Address!”)
Everyone give a final round applause for these lovely ladies and their video creations – and don’t forget to share your favorites with your friends.
Want more video fun? We got you covered. Subscribe to our Lunapads YouTube Channel today for videos on reusable menstrual products, women in business and how-to’s. Thanks again so much from all of us at Lunapads!
Flickr photo by 
For Madeleine, making the switch from tampons to cloth pads brought her the unexpected benefit of discovering a deeper connection with her body. 
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