It’s an even more ancient version of a bat mitzvah.
Jewish women have played their part in this struggle, starting with a now-classic essay from Gloria Steinem.
Israeli men gathered to explore alternatives to a sometimes macho society and develop skills to be a good husband, father and professional.
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward, this week looking at the Red Tent, Nazi medical ethics and Ivanka Trump.
Is Tahor, a menstruation app designed to facilitate the checking of bedikah cloths, a boon or a “great stumbling block?”
Donald Trump is a “failed, fraudulent businessman.” He has given “explicit endorsement to anti-Semitic imagery.” He is “dangerous, offensive, and grossly uninformed.” So says the elected official emerging as among the most strident Jewish voices opposing Donald Trump: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
In Nepal, families observing the chhaupadi tradition bar menstruating women from entering their own homes. Sound strict? Just look at Jewish menstrual taboos.
A new advertising campaign by U for Kotex has done what no menstrual product company has done before: create an ad that is not only straightforward about menstruation, but also pokes fun at its own history of vague and sanitized ads. Both reasons make this ad campaign groundbreaking, but for some reason, you still can’t say “vagina” on TV.
Gabi’s post was my first exposure to the “menstrual slap.” But now I’m kind of wishing that I’d been thwacked by my mother, too. It’s not actually the slap I’m after, rather, at 12 or 13 I would have benefited from making a direct connection between being a woman and being a Jew.
For Sisterhood contributor Elissa Strauss, a recent panel discussion on marketing embarrassing products to women brought to mind an episode of the 1990s sitcom “Blossom,” in which the title character gets her period for the first time — and celebrates the occasion with her family, over Chinese food. For me, the discussion recalled the so-called “menstrual slap” — the Jewish minhag, or custom, of slapping your daughter across the face on the occasion of her first period.