A new translation

We need to talk about sex and men, and we need to talk about the feelings that women have. Let us ask ourselves: what are some of things that men think about sex and women? What do men think about women when they express their feelings? Women want a gentle man to be gentle. The men think that women want to avoid sexual contact. Women want a gentle man to be a gentleman. They think the women are always crying and that they want to stay away from the men. Women want a man to go slow. Men think the women are difficult. The women think it is too hard to talk to the men, to them how they really feel. They think the men don’t know, that they can’t know about the female body. The women want books, they need books, and the men need them even more.

            The women hear it on the streets, they hear it in the home, they hear it from their friends. They tell you, “Don’t let anyone who’s got their period hold your baby! They’ll give the baby pijo.” They tell you not to touch the babies belly button – “you have to know that if you do, it might pop out!” The women also know that you cannot eat oranges or eat grapefruit or eat lime, unless you are ready for bad cramps, or to make your existing cramps that much worse. Your body will go through changes, remember that. Your regular menstruation will come, you will lose blood. Make sure that you do not have irregular bleeding, as this can be a serious concern.

            As the authors, the ones in charge of getting this information out, we have to make sure that the people will understand. When someone gets their period for the first time, they feel at fault, almost as if they have to hide or blame themselves, and they cannot say why they feel this way. No – when I got my period for the first time, I did not know what was happening. I was shocked and scared, so much so that I bled, and I bled, and I bled all day and I could not stop bleeding.

            I was the first one to develop, and I did not know it either. My mother never told me, she never talked to me about what was to come. No – I heard that they talk about menstruation, and with the bottle that was prepared for me by my mother, this is how I developed. Will the women know, will they understand what we are trying to tell them? Have they had these experiences, will this be familiar to them, will they care? They need to know about their bodies, they want to know, but they do not know who to go to. Their mothers and sisters do not know who to go to, their grandmothers did not know who to go to, but they will have somewhere to go, and their daughters will have someone to go.