11-year-old me would squirm reading this

Also: Judy Blume helped me feel more ‘normal’ [View in browser](    [❤️]( April 30, 2023 Dear Cog reader, You never would’ve caught me reading “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” when I was 11. I was too busy trying to outrun the “changes” to come. Some sixth grade girls can’t wait to get a bra and learn the ins-and-outs of their blossoming uteruses. That girl I was not. As a devoted tomboy, my sixth grade passions included working on my curveball, playing pingpong and riding bikes with my buddies. At 11, there was nothing I wanted to think about less than getting my period: ew, ick, gross. And yet, I could intimately relate to two wonderful period-related essays we published this week. The first, by WBUR’s very own Sharon Brody, is [a love letter to Judy Blume]( the author of that iconic book. "Sharon bravely quotes the diary she kept as a sixth grader in the 1970s, and explains how revolutionary Blume’s novel was at the time – when the world was much more Lawrence Welk square, than Woodstock hippie. She and her friends inhaled the book and passed it on, from one friend to another. As she writes, an “endless connected chain of girls trying to help each other decipher … everything.” The second essay is by novelist Jane Roper. She’s out with a book this spring titled “The Society of Shame” in which the protagonist accidentally inspires a movement to destigmatize menstruation: #YesWeBleed. You’d think the author of such a book would be perfectly comfortable with period talk. Not quite. [Jane’s essay]( is all about the chasm that exists between women her age (Gen X) and younger generations. Her kids don’t shy away from talking about their periods with their dad, or even their grandparents – and she thinks that’s a good thing, even if it makes her squirm. Laughs (and Judy Blume) aside, recent studies suggest that attitudes towards menstruation around the world [are changing]( even as the subject remains a topic of political debate (I’m looking at you, [Florida]( Something like [300 million women]( are menstruating across the globe every day. Activists have begun framing menstruation as a [human rights issue]( as they seek to address the stigma and shame that accompany menstruation in many cultures, and the lack of access to period products. [Free the tampons]( they say. Eleven-year-old me would blush to read this note, let alone write it. Adult me thinks it’s about time we dispatched with the period histrionics and stopped punishing women for being women. I’m also girding myself for the moment my own kids need me to buy them a box of tampons. As Jane says, it’s hard to unlearn some messages about our bodies. Happy reading, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [Judy Blume taught 11-year-old me: ‘I might be normal, and I am not alone’]( In the early 1970s, and for years after that, a lot of girls didn’t merely get a kick out of "Margaret" — Judy Blume's book felt like a necessity, writes Sharon Brody. The world was a straight-talk desert and this novel served as the oasis. [Read more.]( [Judy Blume taught 11-year-old me: ‘I might be normal, and I am not alone’]( In the early 1970s, and for years after that, a lot of girls didn’t merely get a kick out of "Margaret" — Judy Blume's book felt like a necessity, writes Sharon Brody. The world was a straight-talk desert and this novel served as the oasis. [Read more.]( [My kids aren’t embarrassed to talk about periods. Why am I?]( I wish it were easier for me to shake my ingrained prudishness, writes Jane Roper. But it’s hard to unlearn the messages we’ve been given about our bodies our whole lives. 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"[Dads Still Get Extra Leisure Time. Moms Are Still Subsidizing It.]( The New York Times. "She happens to be my kid, this person I made, a living being that gave my life a whole new significance. She will grow up and leave me and yet never leave me; she will be mine forever, a being I shaped." "[Girl Genius]( Longreads. "The world was a straight-talk desert and this novel served as the oasis." — Sharon Brody, "[Judy Blume taught 11-year-old me: ‘I might be normal, and I am not alone’]( ICYMI [What Jupiter’s icy moons might tell us about our universe]( A recently launched spacecraft will orbit three moons of Jupiter that are thought to harbor the ingredients necessary for life, writes Joelle Renstrom. [Read more.]( [What Jupiter’s icy moons might tell us about our universe]( A recently launched spacecraft will orbit three moons of Jupiter that are thought to harbor the ingredients necessary for life, writes Joelle Renstrom. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2022 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.