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First Time I Bled

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 15:04
Submitted by Liandra Dahl

I am currently in New York City filming The BodySex Group and I will be writing a very detailed blog post about that soon but something pretty siginificant happened just before I left that I want to write about first. My daughter got her first period. I was so proud and I can't wait to get back and throw her a big red party to celebrate her intiation into the journey from child to adult.

As her mother it is quite something to know we are onto the next stage of my parenting...guiding her through her adolesence to womanhood. In a marvelous amount of serediptity I feel like The BodySex Group Documentary will be something I have filmed that I will be able to show my daughter when she is ready at around 14/16 as a part of her ongoing sex education and as part of my parenting to help her embrace the changes of her body, what it looks likes, what it can do for her. The timing of this experience with The BodySex group for me with my daughter embarking on womanhood has me in a position of hope and joy for her future.

Another documentary I will be showing her much sooner will be one made by someone I really admire, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins. It is a documentary called 'The First Time I Bled', a collection of stories of first menstruation from women in Melbourne Australia. I want to share with my daughter my experience of bleeding as a positive thing, of course, but also the various different experiences that women have as they move from child to adult with their bodies and with their sexuality, both the positive and the negative.

I feel that both this documentary on menstruatation and in a couple of years time The BodySex Documentary will help my daughter to love and accept her body, to love and accept her sexuality and to never allow anyone, man or woman (including her own internal critic), keep her from the vast potential for joy an adult sexual woman has. As her mother this milestone marks my daughters entrance into a sisterhood and the beginning of a journey that will have both ups and downs. Though I am of course ever fearful of the pain that is out there for her to experience I am currently so filled with hope for the beautiful experiences and opportunities that also await her if she is open to them.

So I shall fly back from NYC this Sunday and leave what feels like the most astoundingly beautiful female collective project I have ever been a part of. In seredipitous coincidence I shall be flying back to the UK to shoot two loving partners who embrace their womanhood wholeheartedly and bring together both aspects of The BodySex Group Documentary and The First Time I Bled. I will be shooting a couple who use menstration as part of their sexual love and as performance art on their blog and I can't wait to film it. I have a feeling it's going to be bloody hot.

Sex Documentarian
http://liandradahl.com/blog/

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Hearty love

Sat, 09/17/2011 - 12:23
Marisa Black

Liandra, it has been an amazing pleasure to connect with you and the others in the circle. I am so glad your daughter's exciting transitory event happened before you were away in NYC. She is a lucky young woman to have you as a mom as you guide her forward.

comment repost

Mon, 09/19/2011 - 11:23
Marisa Black

The comment below was left on my sensory/smell post, and I'm sharing it here, where it may have been intended. The attitudes Sheryl and Liandra and other parents are sharing with their daughters about the joy and positivity of menstruation gives me a lot of joy. At such a fundamental level, how girls and women feel about themselves and their bodies makes huge differences in how their lives, and the lives of those they touch, play out. Thank you, body-affirming parents!

Sat, 09/17/2011 - 17:10
Sheryl Chaplin (not verified)

My daughter got her period at age 9
which is younger than most of her peers. The bizarre thing is that when
other women hear of this, the comments are "oh the poor thing", "that's
terrible", "too young to have to cope with that" as though menstruating
is a curse on all women.

My daughter has never felt as though she is cursed with menstruating
because I explained openly and honestly to her at around age 7 about
women bleeding but because I look at it as a beautiful feminine event, I
never put the negative slant on it that other mothers do. I have taught
her to embrace it as a part of being the powerful, sexual, fertile
beings us women are.

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