Why I think its appropriate to blog about yeast infections

So I am thinking of writing a post about yogurt. As I formulated this post in my mind I figured I would start with why I am trying to eat more yogurt these days. Then I realized that post was going to turn into a post about why It's okay to write about yeast infections.

For those of you who know me personally you probably have experienced my honesty. A gift and burden I, of course, have a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes I am too honest that I don't recognize the boundaries I cross. But beyond that, I believe that some boundaries are bogus, particularly those around sex and gender. Now, I am all for keeping sex private and between the parties involved. I think there is power in the private relationship that couples have. I think the intimacy of sexual-ness is awesome and powerful.

With that in mind I think that sometimes we step too lightly around the biological nature of gender and sex. I believe this treading too lightly does a disservice to ourselves and our children. I think there are a lot of men walking around who know very little about women's bodies, women's experiences, women's struggles. I also belive there are a lot of women who think their bodies are messed up, their personal experiences are solely theirs, and thier struggles have no universal vein. The silence around experiences of embodiment and gender enslave us to believe that it is our own experience and that it is shameful.

Ministry makes clear that sometimes the things we don't talk about are more powerful than the things that we do talk about. We control people by our silences, by our whispered discussions, by veiled language choices. I think that in doing that we create a fair amount of our own problems.

So that's why I think it is important to talk about bodies, talk about sex, talk about gender. Because we have to believe that we are not totally alone in our experience. We have to remember that our bodies are created in the image of God. We have to free ourselves of the silences and live in the freedom. What are we so afraid of? What will happen if children learn to label their body parts appropriately? What will be so wrong with men knowing that women sometimes get yeast infections- and hearing this from women? What would be so evil about that.

I suppose there would be some negative consequences. I suppose it would stir things up. I don't forsee those problems. But, I think I am willing to take them on anyway. Because, I guess, as this plays out in my life, we are going to end up with a precoucious child who is going to make some people uncomfortable sometimes, who is going to enter adolescence with parents she finds humiliating, and who will hopefully enter womanhood knowing that she is one of a community of women, a community of embodied, sexual, and gendered people.

So hopefully I can soon post about yogurt. And, believe it or not. I don't have a yeast infection.

Comments

  1. If you haven't read Caroline Knapp's Appetites, please do. It's only partially relevant to this entry, but completely relevant to everything else, ever.

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