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Or, Just Like The Guys

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Reader,

I have been thinking about oral contraception for weeks because of the Femiplan stock out that seems to be happening (I’ve heard tell of shops carrying it but EYE have not been able to buy a pack in a while) so today I got another brand, which is a Progesterone Only Pill, for all its usefulness.

As a person who, as far as I know, has never been pregnant; menstruation has been a feature of my life for over a quarter century. I am exhausted and that’s the number one reason I take a contraceptive without breaks - there’s something freeing about not having to think about bleeding every 21 to 35 days. And for some of us, the attendant benefits are life-saving.

There’s a genre of right wing book content creator who says contemporary books are bad because they’re “too feminist and gay” but — and maybe I’m not picking up the right books — I find women, and AFAB people broadly defined, don’t seem to exist in books on a corporeal level. I wonder how feminist and gay literature that elides women’s bodies can truly be. The feeling of recognition those of us with big breasts, heavy periods, fibroids, flat chests, PMDD and so on have when we listen to, or watch, someone speak about these things online has been absent from my reading experience.

I wonder if it’s that men are overrepresented among writers (the recurring joke about a women breasting boobily exists for a reason) or that the sort of people who write want to inhabit the first person (if the Iowa Writers Workshop rumours are to be believed) but I increasingly feel that the reason so much of the embodied experience coded as female is obscured is that we don’t encounter it outside of interpersonal moments and medicalised settings. Give me a period with blood running down the leg, give me one so light one doesn’t have to wear pads approximating diapers, give me the relief of post-partum amenorrhea; give me all of it!!!

I’m talking only about periods here because they are the bane of my existence, as old hands know, but I wish this particular female (and/ or AFAB) experience wasn’t just the province of memoirs about the body (loving it, changing it, living with it) because it’s a not-insignificant part of how one moves through the world. And yes, I enjoy a book about class, race, nationality, religion and so on as much as the next person but this reader craves a body. Bring me the bodies!!!

If you know of a book that tackles the bodies and bodily functions of its characters, please let me know! Thanks in advance 🙂

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Quick news/ things that may be of interest:

Ending on Thursday (fyi: the homie who went over the weekend said there was no mobile network in the godown):

Next week:

I’ll be in conversation with a legend, join me if you can!

Ongoing (contribute here, join the WhatsApp community here):

Go see this show!!!

• Treat someone you like (me, for instance, I have a Switch) to the Tiny Bookshop Game (which is also on Discord)

• Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online

• Film folks: Solidarity Cinema, for your consideration

• If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!

• The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️, which is free to join here

• Digital Library of Korean Literature, which is free to join here

• Film folks: Check out the Japan Foundation’s JFF Theater online streaming platform

• How to Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the visually impaired

• An interactive self care flow chart

• Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!

• You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya (I write back!)

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I have finished two books since I last wrote to you: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (audiobook narrated by Stina Nielsen & Saskia Maarleveld) and Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century: Stories by Kim Fu (e-book & audiobook narrated by Piper Goodeve, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Samara Naeymi, Gary Tiedemann & Jeena Yi). I’m primarily using Storygraph now (passively updating Goodreads as I read most e-books on Kindle via the library) and I hope to get back to making videos soon.

As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.

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Thank you for reading 🙂

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Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!