Tracing Menstruation in British and American Culture. Strategies of Invisibilization, Stigmatization, and a Question of Im-Purity in Historical and Cultural Context

Jaśmina Kasenko

Abstract


An absentee from the Western culture, the phenomenon of menstruation is an unlikely theme to be found in the British and American media and literature. Historically and culturally the Menstrual blood was considered impure and maudit, thus positioning the menstruating women at the bottom of the power hierarchies, and asserting the social status-quo of the male dominance. Menstruation is also subjected to capitalization which has been shaping the Menstrual attitudes and practices.

The aim of the article is to draw a sketch of what menstruating means in the British and American cultures, as well as to reflect on its frequent absence from the cultural deliberations.



Keywords


Menstruation, Purity, Impurity, Vocabularies, Power Relations, Otherness

Full Text:

PDF

References


"Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume..." Delete Censorship. Accessed December 10, 2018. http://www.deletecensorship.org/are_you_there_god.html.

The Story Of Menstruation. Disney Productions, Kotex Products. February 16, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9o9m0LsbI.

Blume, Judy. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. New York: Delacorte Press, 2013.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Charlesworth, Dacia. "Paradoxical Constructions of Self: Educating Young Women about Menstruation." Women and Language 24, no. 2 (2001): 13-21. Accessed December 12, 2018. https://sentry.rmu.edu/SentryHTML/research/18761.doc.

Chesler, Giovanna. "Blood on Screen: The Runaways." Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. March 24, 2010. Accessed November 10, 2018. https://www.menstruationresearch.org/2010/03/23/blood-on-screen-the-runaways/.

Chicago, Judy. Red Flag. 1971. Museum of Menstruation. In MUM 6. Accessed December 12, 2018. http://www.mum.org/armenjc.htm.

Clue: Period and Ovulation Tracker for IPhone and Android. Accessed December 10, 2018. https://helloclue.com/.

Knight, Christopher. "Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1, no. 1 (1995): 192.

Doncu, Roxana Elena. "Feminist Theories of Subjectivity: Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva." Journal of Romanian Literary Studies 10 (October 2017): 331-35. Accessed December 12, 2018. http://www.diacronia.ro/en/indexing/details/A25656.

Evins, A. L. “The Missing Period: Bodies and the Elision of Menstruation in Young Adult Literature.” Master's thesis, Sonoma State University, 2013. Accessed December 11, 2018. www.sonoma-dspace.calstate.edu.

Gandhi, Kiran. "Kiran Gandhi: Here's Why I Ran the London Marathon on My Period and Didn't Wear a Tampon." The Independent. August 14, 2015. Accessed December 10, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/heres-why-i-ran-the-london-marathon-on-the-first-day-of-my-period-and-chose-not-to-wear-a-tampon-10455176.html.

Ghanoui, Sanya Lee. "The Enduring Menstrual Mystique of Carrie." Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. March 05, 2014. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://www.menstruationresearch.org/2014/03/06/the-enduring-menstrual-mystique-of-carrie/.

Guthrie, Meredith. "The Process of Becoming a Woman's Body: Menstruation and the Containment of Femininity." D-Scholarship@Pitt. January 07, 2007. Accessed November 31, 2018. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/2771/.

Haraway, Donna Jeanne. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2015.

Jenner, Greg. "History of Periods: How Did Women in the past Deal with Menstruation?" Greg Jenner Blog. December 29, 2015. Accessed October 18, 2018. https://www.gregjenner.com/history-of-periods-and-tampons/.

King, Stephen. Carrie: Stephen King. New York, NY: New American Library, 1974.

Kochrane, Kristen. "A Brief History of Period Art." SLUTEVER. August 24, 2015. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://slutever.com/history-of-period-art/.

Lister, Kate. "The Victorian Period: When Menstruation Was a Dangerous Disease That Could Lead to Madness." I. March 01, 2018. Accessed December 4, 2018. https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/victorian-period-menstruation-nineteenth-century/.

“Menstrual Hygiene and Management in Developing Countries: Taking Stock” (2004). Accessed November 12, 2018. http://www.mum.org/CuradsKotexads.htm.

Newman, Andrew Adam. "Rebellion Against the Usually Evasive Feminine Care Ad." The New York Times. March 15, 2010. Accessed November 31, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/business/media/16adco.html?ref=business.

O'Connor, Roisin. "Menstruation Study Finds over 5,000 Slang Terms for 'Period.” The Independent. March 01, 2016. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/menstruation-study-finds-over-5000-slang-terms-for-period-a6905021.html.

Okamoto, Nadya. Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018.

Premenstrual Syndrome." Womenshealth.gov. March 16, 2018. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.womenshealth.gov/menstrual-cycle/premenstrual-syndrome#13.

Read, Sara. "“Thy Righteousness Is but a Menstrual Clout”: Sanitary Practices and Prejudice in Early Modern England." Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 3 (2008): 1-25. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://humanities.as.miami.edu/_assets/pdf/emwj-vol-3.pdf.

Richards, Michael. "Talking about Periods with Boys - How Easy Is It?" The Conversation. October 12, 2017. Accessed November 14, 2018. https://theconversation.com/talking-about-periods-with-boys-how-easy-is-it-85413.

Ritschel, Chelsea. "Online Content Portrays Menstruating Women as Weak and Helpless, According to a New Study." The Independent. February 20, 2018. Accessed December 15, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/periods-shame-menstruation-online-negative-study-weak-helpless-pink-parcel-a8218731.html.

Ruskin, John. Sesame and Lilies. Lecture II.—Lilies: Of Queens’ Gardens. 1865. Accessed October 29, 2018. https://www.bartleby.com/28/7.html.

Stein, Elissa, and Susan Kim. Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation. New York: St. Martins Griffin, 2009.

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York: American Bible Society, 2000.

The Runaways. Directed by Flora Sigismondi. United States: Sony, 2010.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2019.4.144-157
Date of publication: 2019-09-13 22:32:49
Date of submission: 2019-01-12 23:13:46


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1049
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Jaśmina Władysława Kasenko

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.