Thank you Adriana for sharing your personal experience of being a woman 
and having the female cycle.

Part of the "shame" around menstruation comes from, I think, that it is 
totally beyond your control. We live in a civilization where we expect 
from each other and from ourselves that adults are their own masters, 
and menstruation (and pregnancy and birth) totally f*** that up in a way 
that we otherwise only allow disease to do.

I think that embracing this "connection" to nature is a very useful 
process, but it does not solve all the practical problems of having a 
body that jumps out of modern life and back into the stone age a couple 
of days each month.

Some mtf trans women seem to start identifying with having periods 
though they have male anatomy; how am I supposed to react to that? Does 
any surgery and hormonal treatment actually produce a bleeding uterus?

/ Lene

On 25-05-2021 19:44, Adriana Forte Naili wrote:
> *CAUTION: *This email originated from outside of JMU. Do not click 
> links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the 
> content is safe.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, so much energy in this thread.
>
> There is so much alive in me as I read all of your contributions. I am 
> aware that I don’t have the time or capacity at the moment to go into 
> all that I’d love to explore but maybe there is an invitation here for 
> some deep exploration? Maybe one day…on zoom?
>
> I am currently finishing up an article that I wrote that  partly 
> addresses some of the topics touched on here but from a different 
> angle and offering a potentially different perspective.
>
>  One of the things that I could add here is that I see a lot of 
> confusion (in the world) in the desire to transcend something WITHOUT 
> fully including it. (I am here referring to the transcend and include 
> well described by Ken Wilber as a necessary part of evolution). Each 
> evolutionary stage transcends AND includes the previous stage and that 
> means that ALL previous stages are a necessary part of the “more 
> complex/more inclusive stage”.
>
> I am saying that because in the context of the female physiology, for 
> example.  By wanting to go beyond the two sexes (which holds some 
> truth to it) WITHOUT having fully included what it ACTUALLY means to 
> be a full physiological female human is a bit complicated in my view. 
> I’ll try to explain without being too over simplistic but also trying 
> to keep it simple due to time constraints.
>
> A female human menstruates for about 40 years of her life. This is a 
> LOT. This doesn’t just means that she bleeds for about 4 days. What it 
> means is that there is an invitation for her to live life embodying 
> perspectives that are ONLY possible by being cyclical.
>
>  For example: when I am pre-menstrual or menstrual the 
> pre-rational/magic (as per Gebser's work) is much more present in the 
> forefront of my awareness. I am in the magical quite easily during 
> those times which means a lot of things  that need to be unpacked 
> carefully maybe another time
>  ( including more intuitive). But to the outside world, focused on 
> “doing” this phase of my cycle is seen as “inconvenient” and therefore 
> I was taught to suppress it from a very early age (which obviously 
> backfired)
>
> When I am closer to ovulation I am in the rational and this aspect of 
> myself is much more celebrated by culture so I practiced, my whole 
> life, being in the rational which (in reality) I am only truly in 
> during half of my cycle. So there is a gap between how I ACTUALLY am, 
> and how I have seen/felt myself to be. This is a massive blindspot I 
> feel on the level of society.
>
> What happens, and has happened (unfortunately) over the years is that 
> this feedback loop between culture and self and who I am and what I am 
> expected to be got really confused for many women (including myself 
> here!) and it takes some active and deliberate work (that can only be 
> done when you know to look for it) to INCLUDE what I (and many others) 
> had transcended WITHOUT including. This transcending without including 
> causes tremendous individual/collective and systemic pain not to say mess.
>
> If you look at the whole of the physiological rites of passages that 
> are exclusively female they are all in certain way either vilified or 
> feared/controlled by the mainstream culture (to our peril).
>
> It starts with girls feeling shame about their periods (which as you 
> would probably guess deeply impacts their self-esteem), then it 
> carries us into a way of giving birth that devalues a woman’s innate 
> bodily intelligence and power (I have to say here that I don’t believe 
> there is anyone to be blamed by this…it has been part of transcending 
> the body without fully including it) and then it ends with menopause 
> which again is super misunderstood by culture.
>
> Some curious facts for example are that in tribes where women are 
> celebrated as elders and their worth is not only linked to fertility 
> there is no word for hot flushes and the transition into the 
> “matriarch” of the tribe is a beautiful and celebrated one (I’m sure 
> there are counter points to this but I feel there is also some deep 
> wisdom).
>
> So what I am saying is that I understand the desire to be more nuanced 
> in the way we explain and think about sex and gender. I was even 
> actively researching the growing up of sex and gender from a 
> Developmental perspective supervised by Terri O’fallon (but I stopped 
> this now for many reasons).
>
> However without having women of future generations fully embrace what 
> it even means to see reality from a female body (the hormones are the 
> concrete expressions of much subtler energies that permeate the way a 
> women experiences life/reality) I feel we are all missing a BIG piece 
> in this co-creative dance between the masculine and feminine 
> energies…so big part of my work in the world now is to, gently and 
> slowly, start supporting the inclusion of that before it is fully 
> transcended. (Which we all know what is not embraced or integrated can 
> cause havoc in the form of shadow…)
>
> I hope this makes sense. It is a very big topic so I already apologise 
> if I offend anyone here with what I share. I’d love to explore more of 
> this collectively.
>
> Warmly,
>
> Adriana
>
>> On 24 May 2021, at 06:18, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx 
>> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Lene,
>> In some of my circles “lady” has become associated with “old school” 
>> and maybe even sexist thinking. For example, at my Mom’s 80^th b-day 
>> I heard some of the granddaughters noting that my mother used “lady” 
>> and “ladies” and they said it sounded very “old fashioned and 
>> traditional” and they would not refer to themselves as “ladies”.
>> Best,
>> G
>> *From:*tree of knowledge system discussion 
>> <[log in to unmask] 
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>*On Behalf Of*Lene Rachel 
>> Andersen - Nordic Bildung
>> *Sent:*Monday, May 24, 2021 12:06 AM
>> *To:*[log in to unmask] 
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> *Subject:*Re: TOK Psychology Prof Removed From APA Discussion After 
>> Saying There Are Only 2 Genders (*Newsweek*)
>> *CAUTION:*This email originated from outside of JMU. Do not click 
>> links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know 
>> the content is safe.
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> How about reserving female and woman and male and man for the 
>> biological adult females and males respectively, and then use the 
>> terms lady and gentleman for the cultural female and male?
>>
>> Then it would actually make sense to talk about a lady dick.
>>
>> / L
>>
>> On 23-05-2021 13:48, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx wrote:
>>
>>     Thanks for your reflections, Cory. I am in large agreement.
>>     One thing I would like to comment on and add regarding this issue
>>     is that we can use the ToK map of reality and science to show
>>     that just thinking in terms of “biological” and “social” sides of
>>     the equation is insufficient. The reason is that it overlooks
>>     mental evolution and the behavioral inclinations we have as
>>     primates. This is the psychological or mental behavioral level of
>>     analysis.
>>     This comes into high relief when we look at the masculine and
>>     feminine primate relational styles through lens of the Influence
>>     Matrix, as I point out in this blog:
>>     https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_us_blog_theory-2Dknowledge_201907_simple-2Dway-2Dunderstand-2Dthe-2Dorigin-2Dgender-2Droles&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=llmh7o40yROfKp8TN1CV-fLQuu0GA9gCHcHzSf2kGDM&s=Pxn2FRkgVholLEpn1fduaK053gc5t3xhgOYk4ysEFsk&e= 
>>     <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_us_blog_theory-2Dknowledge_201907_simple-2Dway-2Dunderstand-2Dthe-2Dorigin-2Dgender-2Droles&d=DwMDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=M50kmFrkh9TRFt0wrfUxwp_24-N8-YR6wvLugfBsTbg&s=byaoG4BiTDHkguY_JWcsB1aZJpGbwPlUwFqXThNOhOE&e=>
>>     It also speaks to Mike’s well argued points.
>>     Best,
>>     Gregg
>>     *From:*tree of knowledge system
>>     discussion<[log in to unmask]>
>>     <mailto:[log in to unmask]>*On Behalf Of*Cory David
>>     Barker
>>     *Sent:*Sunday, May 23, 2021 2:47 AM
>>     *To:*[log in to unmask]
>>     <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>     *Subject:*Re: TOK Psychology Prof Removed From APA Discussion
>>     After Saying There Are Only 2 Genders (*Newsweek*)
>>     *CAUTION:*This email originated from outside of JMU. Do not click
>>     links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and
>>     know the content is safe.
>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>     Hi all,
>>     See the below article and paper. I just remembered this from way
>>     back, and the article was still available online (to my
>>     surprise). This sort of neuroscience explains a lot.
>>     Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex >>>
>>     <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.newscientist.com_article_dn14146-2Dgay-2Dbrains-2Dstructured-2Dlike-2Dthose-2Dof-2Dthe-2Dopposite-2Dsex_-23ixzz6vfTFoIHu&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=CG1KWhb4QO3gl1ZDrSE9wEXuzvPdry1ZzHs4yT-R__U&s=PXQub7k2o4CnC4N_LBT9l132XXjj6fuC6EbcwOsNRg0&e=>
>>     Savic, I., & Lindström, P. (2008). PET and MRI show differences
>>     in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between
>>     homo-and heterosexual subjects
>>     <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.pnas.org_content_105_27_9403&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=CG1KWhb4QO3gl1ZDrSE9wEXuzvPdry1ZzHs4yT-R__U&s=6TKk1JnOb9qYSpexNijLyRmVC_3OAgD39umz0DKdNYQ&e=>. Proceedings
>>     of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(27), 9403-9408.
>>     C.
>>     ############################
>>
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>> --
>>
>> *Lene Rachel Andersen*
>> Futurist, economist, author & keynote speaker
>> President of Nordic Bildung and co-founder of the European Bildung 
>> Network
>> Full member of the Club of Rome
>> *Nordic Bildung*
>> Vermlandsgade 51, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
>> www.nordicbildung.org 
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nordicbildung.org&d=DwMDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=M50kmFrkh9TRFt0wrfUxwp_24-N8-YR6wvLugfBsTbg&s=39e87Cc8q5AF_ChGyjqeWz3FNOBql6XHblnfidTbzb4&e=>
>> +45 28 96 42 40
>>
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-- 

*Lene Rachel Andersen*
Futurist, economist, author & keynote speaker
President of Nordic Bildung and co-founder of the European Bildung Network
Full member of the Club of Rome
*Nordic Bildung*
Vermlandsgade 51, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
www.nordicbildung.org
+45 28 96 42 40


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