RUS' Feminine Planners: A Bloody Good Time

Looking to try the rhythm method? Worried that you’ve missed a period? Keeping up with your monthly cycle is easy with the Radcliffe Union of Students’ (RUS) dayplanner, which includes a one-page menstrual calendar.

“Shade in the appropriate box for every date of menstrual bleeding. Use a dot to note light or minimal bleeding,” reads the calendar’s instructions.

The RUS dayplanners are packed with useful features including the aforementioned menstrual calendar, a list of feminist bookstores in Massachusetts, and a page of “radical resources” online, in print, and around campus.

The planner also features important events in women’s history. FM learned that Finland was the first country to give women the vote, that Junko Tabei was the first woman to climb Everest, and that the first mammography machine was developed in 1967.

The planner also includes break and exam times, along with sound, too-cool-for-capitalization advice like “deep breath. exams begin.” and “e.x.h.a.l.e. end of exams.”

RUS membership co-chair Ellora A. Derenoncourt ’09 describes the planner as a combination of a calendar and a ’zine.

“It definitely has a specific theme,” Derenoncourt says. “We’re trying to educate people about women’s issues at Harvard and internationally.”

So far, Derenoncourt says RUS has sold about 150 copies at $2 a piece, and she says they hope to sell out by the end of the month.