I know we have spoken a lot about menstruation, but there is always more to say. Jenna (talia) picked up a book from the library about menstruation the other day, and I borrowed it because I was absolutely fascinated by the article titles that grounded menstruation in many contexts within religion, mythology and history. (I was particularly interested in the articles about vampires, which covered menstruation and sexual taboos. )
However, the most interesting article I found was “Masking Menstruation” which covered the invention of disposable “feminine hygiene products” at the beginning of the 20th century. Menstruation became something we could hide, and thus we must hide it. Suddenly women were purchasing pads, making menstruation a part of the consumerist culture.
I was fascinated by how “the modern woman” navigated menstruation. Menstruation became unclean, it was a hygiene problem for the masses, and it was a matter of civilization. Modernism promoted the idea of progression, and the progressive woman did not need her period to rule her. The modern woman must maximize her body; she must control it and manage it. While no one wants to be ruled by their bleeding, that kind of obsession with control of the body seems a little unhealthy to me.
What was also interesting was the marketing technique connected with the early feminine hygiene product market. They were co-opting feminism, because a woman who can control her body, a woman who is free from the cycle of her body is truly free. More than being simultaneously free and in control of their body these women could pass as “normal”. Because a normal woman doesn’t bleed?
How much of this is relevant to this day? Should we have to pass as not bleeding when we in fact are?
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