Women are taught to be ashamed not only of their gender, but also of their bodies and sexuality.   As soon as we enter pruberty we are taught certain things make us bad, that we should either hide or remove these offensive things.  We are taught to remove all the body hair that grows, torturing ourselves with such procedures as shaving, waxing and other methods of hair removal.  I wonder why, why is it that hair on a woman is so obscene?  It can't be that hair is growing in the wrong places, its meant to go there, every woman will grown hair on their legs or under their arms.  Men grow it, and for them it is no sin.  But we as women, are taught it's ugly, that it's not acceptable and we spend fortunes to have it removed.  I know of a lot of women that also remove all their pubic hair, isn't that the ultimate refusal to become a woman, to remain a child and therefore reject all that maturing into womanhood means.  Or is it that their partners really prefer the idea of having sex with little children.  Harsh, maybe, but we are a society that is proud of boys becoming men, there are rites of passages for the male moving into manhood, but with girls it seems a disgrace, a sad event that if talked about at all, is whispered in hushed grief.

With women, there is a physical line between girl and woman.  When the body bleeds its first mensuration the girl becomes a woman.  My rudimentary biology understands this as the body becoming mature enough to produce life, and the womb prepares for this event.  When no egg is fertilised, the lining prepared to nourish the fetus is expelled as blood.  This is a simple biological action.  But yet so much shame is connected with it.  I was taught to hid my period, to keep it a secret, that it made me dirty and it was a curse.  I could not keep tampons or sanitary pads in the bathroom for there was a risk someone, especially my father or brother would see them.  I had to bring them from my bedroom to the toilet without any other member of the family seeing them.  They could not be purchased with the usual groceries.  There was no celebration of womanhood, no specialness of it.  When it happened there was just sadness and shame.  Even now there is an attitude of dirtiness about menstruating.  Like anything "dirty" there are a multitude of words to use instead of the correct ones.  People talk about it in hushed tones, men to not even mention it.  When New Zealand television first started showing advertisements for tampons and pads there was a public outcry, complaints to the broadcasting standards committee claimed these advertisements were immoral and vulgar.  For years toilet paper advertisements were showing and totally acceptable, the fact that they were about pieces of paper used to wipe up urine and faeces did not worry anyone.  But cotton (or whatever tampons are made of) being used to collect just as natural discharges should be hidden, should be censored.  Therefore perpetuating the belief that menstruating sound be a shameful thing.

I personally don't see my gentials are terribly attractive, but then I don't see any type of genitalia in isolation particulary physically attractive.  But women aren't taught about their genitals, they are just there, and the less you have to touch them the better.  There are still women that have no idea what their genitals look like, do not know the words to describe the parts of it.  Vagina, clitoris, and vulva are only talked about by doctors, words like pussy and cunt are only spoken by whores and loose women.  (Ok personally I have never liked the word cunt, not that I object to it, or find it offensive, it's just the sound of it, it sounds too masculine for me, and pussy sounds too childlike, so I am yet to find a word I like, will have to keep looking.)  We do not speak of our bodies, we acted ashamed of them and their functions.   We are not taught to explore them, to learn about how they feel and what functions they have.  They are kept hidden, not only from the world but from ourselves.  Perhaps that has something to do with the fact they are not that pyshically visable.  Unless you are very limba it is hard to actually see your genitals.  But the idea of taking a mirror and looking at it seems so preverse, and embarrassing.

I remember going to a comedian when I was about 17.  He was actually pretty good, at one point he was talking about as a boy how he found masturbation, and his fear his mother would walk in.  He made some comment about all the men in the audience laughing, but to watch out if any woman did.  There was this assumption that women don't masturbate.  And for years there was that belief, that woman don't and can't experience pleasure from self-sex.  That we as a gender recieve no pleasure from the physcial actions, or that we are not interested in sex.  I was introduced to sex at a very early age, it was a horrific experience, but masturbation was always fun.  Children do it instinctively.  A friend of mine has a three year old daughter, that used to rub the cat over her gentials.  The cat didn't seem to mind, probably no different to it than having a usual pat.  And the daughter loved the feelings.  Children's bodies react to stimulation, and given the right and safety to exoperience and investigate their own bodies, children will find enjoyment in their playing.  While men are comfortable with the conversations about masturbation, women seldom talk about it, or maybe don't even do it.  If so they are missing a wonderful experience.  The body, regardless of male or female has certain areas that are able to bring pleasureful sensations, if it was wrong then why would they be there.

I remember reading somewhere, that women only enjoy sex for the emotional connection with their partner.  When I read that orginally, I was so concerned, I thought something was wrong with me.  Now I see that statement as complete bullshit, spoken probably from ignorance or a fear of female sexuality.  Yes, I enjoy the intimacy with my partner, and for me, sex is better with someone I actually care about.  But sometimes, I don't want to make love, I want to fuck.  When I am in the mood to make love, then soft touchs and tenderness is what I crave, but other times I just want raw passionate sex.  I enjoy sex for what it is, the interaction between two (or more) people for the sensations it produces.  Sex is not a male doman, women are not just lying there thinking of England.  Perhaps once they were, for women did not understand their bodies, would not take the initiative to get their own enjoyment.  Their role was to please their husband, and real women would not be having sex before marriage.  But now hopefully women are more intune with themselves, know how to get pleasure, how to take a less passive role and be an active partner in sex.  The body is ours after all, and aren't we responsible for it.

Being a woman is something to celebrate, something to be proud of.  We are not inferior, we are not the cursed gender.  Celebrate who we are, be proud of menstruating, it is the passage of womanhood.  We are more than caretakers and baby makers.  We have wonderful bodies capable of so much, beyond that. I have heard of places like the vagina stories, and celebrating your cunt.  More women need to be proud of their bodies, of their pure womanhood.