Are you Menstruating today?

Menstrual Activism: Decolonizing Patriarchal Knowledge of Women's Menstruation

Stephanie Robinson, Jaqueline J. Gonzalez and Marisa Loiacono
Arizona State University In order for women to experience healthier and safer menstrual cycles we must come together and educate each other on the missing information in the media regarding alternative menstrual products. Without a strong positive dialogue and a rejection of negative connotations surrounding menstruation, women (and men) will continue to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable with their menstruating bodies.
Understanding the Menstruating Body
Much negative folklore contributes to the construction of the menstruating body as taboo, dirty, leaky and viscous and needing to be managed. (5,4,6) Women and girls often use slang, euphemisms, omission, and circumlocutions to speak about menstruation in order to manage the communication taboo and the shame surrounding menses.(7) PMS has become the explanation for hysteric or otherwise outspoken women of modern times. (3) Constructing the menstruating body as unclean and dirty with the language of feminine hygiene helps companies like Tampax and Kotex market their products to women (9)

Method
We staged an on campus, public intervention, spreading our knowledge about the dangers of mainstream menstrual products through the use of flyers, posters, and pictures of alternative menstrual products. We approached students passing by to inquire their thoughts (positive or negative) towards the usage and potential dangers of mainstream products in addition to giving information about alternative products. Participants were asked if they (or their partner) would use alternative menstrual products Participants gave final feedback or reactions to the intervention, then were given a flyer detailing the R.E.D.S.C.A.M acronym, and alternative menstrual products and were encouraged to educate another person about the intervention that they had encountered.

Medias Construction of Menstruation

The medias representation of menstrual blood as blue liquid in menstrual product commercials demonstrates societies taboos about menstruation and further propagates the need for concealment and falsities about what actually happens during menstruation. (4,10,8) Menstruation is portrayed as negative, for example; the Tampax Outsmart Mother Nature commercials construct menstruation as the gift no woman wants. (4) The marketers of the feminine production industry construct themselves as the authorities on menstruation and thus control our purchasing power and repress our empowerment. (1)

Discussion
Women curious about the intervention more often came up to us without being solicited by group members, and more often talked about their own menstrual cycles and products that they currently used and expressed openness to the idea of talking about menstruating bodies and the practice of using alternative menstrual products. Men who had female partners, or close relationships with their mothers or sisters were more receptive to a discussion about menstruation in general, particularly in sharing knowledge with their partners, mothers and sisters about the dangers of mainstream products and possible usage of alternative products. Half of the population we encountered on campus rejected any portion of the intervention. Many younger females and older males were not only unresponsive, but visibly hostile towards our behaviors and the content of the intervention. The campus police were notified that we were staging an intervention surrounding ideas about menstruation, and were no more than 20 feet outside the vicinity of our intervention for the hour and a half that it was staged on campus.

Managing Womens Bodies

The rapid expansion of menstrual repression products like Sea- sonal, Lybrel and Depo-Provera construct the non-menstruating body the ideal. (11) Women and girls often lack knowledge about menstruation and ovulation, and rarely receive exposure to alternative products.

Activism
Activists have used multiple tactics: raising awareness, alterna- tive products, challenging negative attitudes, fighting medicalization, and transforming menstruation into something affirming, humorous, or fun. (2)

What can you do?...

Create a positive dialogue surrounding menstruation! Deconstruct the "shameful period" narrative in the media and replace it with factual and beneficial conversation. Make menstruation a comfortable and common topic to discuss for not only you, but others as well. STOP using mainstream products and START using alternative menstrual products (Diva Cup, Glad Rags, SoftCup, Lunapads, etc.) Question why stores do not sell alternative products and DEMAND that more options are made available in local and national stores. Spread awareness of menstruation by educating both women and men about the dangers and disadvantages of mainstream menstrual products. Advocate for sex during menstruation! Deconstruct the idea that menstruation prohibits sexual pleasure and enjoyment! Promote early awareness of the options we have for menstrual hygiene by reaching out and educating ado- lescent girls and young women. Support stores that sell natural menstrual products Share the information you learned today with all of the women in your life! Disperse pamphlets and flyers In local public re- strooms to Increase awareness of the natural products that are available. Out yourself as menstruating more often and make an intervention when you encounter hostility!

Suggested Readings
1. Bobel, Chris. 2006. Our Revolution Has Style: Contemporary menstrual product activists doing feminism in the third wave. Sex Roles. 54 (5-6) 331-334 2. Bobel, Chris. 2010. New blood: Third wave feminism and the politics of menstruation. Camden, NJ: Rutgers Uni- versity Press. 3. Chrisler, Joan C. 1996. PMS as a culture-bound syndrome. In Lectures on the psychology of women, edited by Joan C. Chrisler, Carla Golden, and Patricia D. Rozee. 106-121. New York: McGraw-Hill. 4. Chrisler, Joan C. 2011. Leaks, lumps, and lines: Stigma and Womens bodies. Psychology of Women Quarterly 35 (2):202-14. 5. Delaney, Janice, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth. 1988. The curse: A cultural history of menstruation. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 6. Johnston-Robledo, Ingrid, and Joan C. Chrisler. 2011. The menstrual mark: Menstruation as social stigma. Sex Roles. 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0052-z (Accessed October, 2012) 7. Kissling, Elizabeth Arved. 1996. That's just a basic teenage-rule: Girls' linguistic strategies for managing the men- strual. Journal Of Applied Communication Research 24 (4): 292-309. 8. Kissling, Elizabeth A. 2002. On the rag on screen: Menarche in film and television. Sex Roles 46 (1-2): 5-12. 9. Kissling, Elizabeth A. 2006. Capitalizing on the curse: The business of menstruation. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. 10. Merskin, Debra. 1999. Adolescence, advertising, and the ideology of menstruation. Sex Roles. 40(11-12):941-957 11. Rose, Jennifer Gorman, Joan C. Chrisler, and Samantha Couture. 2008. Young womens attitudes toward continu- ous use of oral contraceptives: The effect of priming positive attitudes toward menstruation on womens willingness to suppress menstruation. Health Care for Women International 29(7): 688-701. 12. Fahs, Breanne. 2011b. Sex during menstruation: Race, sexual identity, and womens qualitative accounts of pleas- ure and disgust. Feminism & Psychology 21(2): 155-178.