I am out of care

[channonyarrow]

Today, I feel like ass. I have a headache, caused by falling asleep without a pillow, I slept ten hours which generally means something's wrong, I have a cold coming (on the slow train from Siberia, where they keep the toilets) and the brief burst of energy this weekend that allowed me to find four interesting jobs I'm qualified for has completely drained away, leaving me fucking annoyed at myself that I am not returning emails, making trip plans, turning in applications, or even mailing my fucking Visa bill. This is on top of shouting about the election, about the latest rumour about John McCain, about whether or not Palin is qualified to FIND the office of Vice President, and generally feeling fucked off about the whole economic situation, up to and including the bailout.

There. That's my day.

Note, please, that I am not blaming this on my period. Note further that I DO NOT CARE if you are having yours, I REALLY REALLY REALLY FUCKING DON'T.

A) I have no idea what relevance that has to anything. I can only imagine that it has relevance to me if you are about to get blood on me. As we're not in a position to do that - see above about lack of care.

B) If you are trying to indicate that it is a reason for why you feel like shit...are you not paying attention? The economy is lodged in the U-bend, the jobs (which I haven't got one of, so there, I'm worse off) are going goodbye, credit is going goodbye, food and gas costs continue to rise, and the government has just bulk-ordered fiddles and zippos.

If you are not upset by any of this, then you are not paying attention.

And finally, C) that's a fucking copout.

It's a very female copout, too (obviously) because what it says is "Sorry I'm being a bitch! I'll be sweetness and light next week again!"

Now. As the lit-crit people say, "Let's unpack that."

What it means is "I'm not willing to articulate my very-reasonable worries and concerns for some reason, because I don't think they're okay." And if you agree with me or not, YOU are the one making the EXCUSE. Actually, maybe it means "I'm not willing to claim responsibility for my very-reasonable worries and concerns because doing that would mean I was a bitch, and I don't want to be seen that way."

Why the fuck not?

And my god, what state have we come to when the condition of your underwear is better than telling people that you're unhappy? That you're fed up, frustrated, worried, and possibly even scared? JESUS SHIT, people! There really, really is nothing wrong with that, and blaming your period for why you're being all "weird" (as if I would fucking KNOW, I only know the part of you that you choose to present on the internet) is just. fucking. annoying.

Self-actualise or whatever the hot fucking buzzword is! Admit that you are legitimately unhappy! Do not blame your period for everything!

That turns out to be a subject that you can get surprisingly less out of than you would think, so I'll stop, but SERIOUSLY. Shut the fuck up with the excuse of your period. No one is paying you to be on the internet, so I don't think your "job performance" is going to be off if you feel like crap and go die in bed for a day. And you know, I notice NO difference between 'you with your period' and 'you without your period' so there's that for you. You're not actually radiating period-vibes so broadly that they've entered Alaskan airspace.

Only tell me these things if you are about to get blood all over me. Otherwise, I totally fail to care.

Comments

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

With all due, etc, my temper degenerates into uncontrollable irrationality or unexpected optimism depending on where I am in my cycle. I wouldn't necessarily discount the effect of hormones. Especially as for those of us lucky enough to have FUCKED endocrine systems, they pretty much dictate our lives; The world may be fucked up, but whether I am mildly annoyed by this or screaming at inanimate objects depends a good deal more on my ovaries, the weather, and the time of day than it does on the actual events involved.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

And? I don't need to know, and I don't give two shits. So what? You can be uncontrollably irrational or unexpectedly optimistic without blaming your period for it, and I can live my ENTIRE life without knowing whether you're having it or not and feel Pretty Okay With That. I don't need to know ANYTHING about the state of ANYONE'S body because you are not presenting your body to me on the internet, you are presenting your mind. Your thoughts may be a product of what your body is doing, but your body is not, actually, the be-all and end-all of what's going on there.

I'm pissed off right now, I'm bitching about it, and it has sod-and-fucking-all to do with anything about my body: the point is, I'm doing it ANYWAY. Saying that it's because of my period is giving an excuse.

I'm not being squicked by the whole thing, I'm being genuinely annoyed. It seems so VERY female to say "Whoopsie! I'm not a bitch, honest, Mr Man, I'm a goooood girl...next week! Tee hee!"

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Well yes, because no one ever takes men to task for being irrational or unbalanced. They aren't ever required to provide an excuse for it.

You can be uncontrollably irrational or unexpectedly optimistic without blaming your period for it

I find knowing why I've had to go to hospital with my blood also shooting out of my nose because of something that on any other day would simply have provoked eye-rolling indifference is instrumental to making sure it doesn't happen again, but I appreciate that other people's anger probably has a much less physical and far more constructive effect than mine.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

And in that case, what you have is an element of a story, an element that explains the net result of the story. It's not being tacked on as an excuse, as is the case in the instances I have run into today, where the entry goes something like this:

"Worry, upset, worry, worry, fear, financial crisis, worry, unhappiness, closing off of futures, unhappiness, uncertainty, worry, worry, fear, doom, doom doom doom doom doomity doom doom, fear, OH WAIT I HAVE MAI PERIOD IS WAI I AM UNHAPPIEZ LOL!"

Or in a separate post entirely. That moves it into the realm of excuse, and I fucking hate that excuse. It's stupid, and it's being said (today) by people who should KNOW better, because EVERYONE on my flist should know better. No one on the list is fucking stupid, and that's a fucking stupid statement.

Doom.

[lzz.livejournal.com]

I really like the phrase, the government has just bulk-ordered fiddles and zippos.

Somehow, good satire makes me feel better about the whole thing.

[lzz.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, my grammar is all wrong in that first sentence. Wait, it must be because I have my period!!

[lzz.livejournal.com]

(all wrong = incorrectly placed comma. Yes, I am a pedant)

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

And amazing for it. *g*

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

It is all we have left!

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

OH, NOES! You are so mean! You made Period Girl cry!

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Probably, but Period Girl shouldn't blame me - it's the fault of biology!

[gentlyepigrams]

I can't speak for any other woman, but I know a lot of women my age were socialized heavily not to show anger, ever, because it was unfeminine. Some of those women need an excuse to let loose with anger that has nothing to do with biology.

Having said that, I personally laid the smackdown on someone yesterday and my biology had nothing to do with it. I was legitimately angry about something that the other person had done and I explained it in no uncertain terms that had nothing to do with biology.

And I will be just as angry/upset/whatever about the economy and politics for the next four weeks. I've been pissy about that stuff since 2000. My hormonal cycles can't possibly last that long.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

The people who provoked this are both younger than me - < thirty. While I buy that - and I somewhat agree with Apiphile's comment above - I still really don't need to know because I HATE that it's being used to cop out. And I can accept that people were taught not to do that - I had the reservation of posting this that people would read it and would think I was saying that periods are gross - but honestly, in an online forum, where I think most people manage a lot of fairly brutal honesty, keep being honest and quit using excuses. There's a lot to be upset about. And I believe, a lot, in the power of telling people that you're pissed off in as direct a fashion as possible.

[gentlyepigrams]

in an online forum, where I think most people manage a lot of fairly brutal honesty

I'm not disagreeing with you here, but my initial online time was spent on a very USENET-style mailing list, and I often find livejournal, even with the younger folks, to be full of what I think of as traditionally feminine behavior restrictions. I sorta stomped someone last week, and got dinged for attacking people, and I thought afterwards "wow, if you'd ever really seen me go after someone in the bad old days, you'd understand how easy I went".