Menstrual Taboos Ft. Sexist Social Hardships #6

Culture and Menstrual Taboos

Education

Menstruation education is frequently taught in combination with sex education in the US, although one study suggests that girls would prefer their mothers to be the primary source of information about menstruation and puberty. A Nigerian study showed the following breakdown in menstruation education: "parents of 56%, friends of 53%, books of 46%, teachers of 44%, internet of 45%, and health centers of 54" held the most influence in terms of menstruation education. Information about menstruation is often shared among friends and peers, which may promote a more positive outlook on puberty.

The quality of menstrual education in a society determines the accuracy of people's understanding of the process.This is in part due to the segregation of male and female peers during educational sessions. Failure to teach an accurate understanding of menstruation to students of all genders has social implications for gendered relationships and the objectification of women’s bodies. Discomfort arises when students do not have access to the same information, reinforcing the belief "that menstruation is gross and should be kept hidden". Girls are encouraged to conceal the fact that they may be menstruating in order to be considered desirable. Sexual harassment and teasing about menstruation cause girls anxiety as they must struggle to ensure that they give no sign of menstruation.

Effective educational programs are essential to providing children and adolescents with clear and accurate information about menstruation. Several education and sexual health experts have studied the key features necessary for such programs. Some experts maintain that schools are an appropriate place for menstrual education to take place because they are an institution that young people attend consistently. Schools are intended to expand students' knowledge and thus serve as an appropriate site for conveying menstrual education.

Other experts argue that programs led by peers or third-party agencies are more effective than those taught in the school classroom. This may be due to the use of small group interactions, the ability of these programs to target specific populations, or the possibility that many teenagers choose to participate voluntarily in these programs, rather than being mandated to attend school programs.

Advertising

Menstrual product advertising began in the early twentieth century. Early ads included print magazine campaigns from Tambrands Inc (Tampax), Kimberly-Clark (Kotex) and brands that have since been discontinued. Advertising for menstrual products outside the US began somewhat later, with SABA in Norway starting after the Second World War.

Historically, menstrual product advertising has had to balance frankness and information with taboos and censorship laws against discussing or showing menstrual themes. Educational pamphlets and school outreach has been an important way of marketing to young consumers during the twentieth century.

One common way that sanitary-product advertising avoids depicting menstruation is by pouring a blue, rather than red, liquid on the sanitary product to demonstrate its absorptivity. Historically, this has been due to strict censorship rules regarding menstrual product advertising.

In 2010, the "Always" tampon brand created the first feminine hygiene ad to ever feature a tiny red spot, representing blood. The ad was created by intern and artist William Chyr who was working at Always' advertising agency, Leo Burnett. Originally the ad was created for the intern's personal portfolio, but then it caught the attention of the chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, and was subsequently published as an actual ad. There was some controversy when the ad was first released. In June 2016 the presence of red blood in a UK Bodyform commercial was greeted with approval in social media for its attempt to challenge the stereotypical menstruation ad, by showing women who struggle despite bleeding from cuts, blows and bruises they receive while playing various sports.Later, Bodyform's owner's Essity launched campaigns featuring blood-like liquid in the campaign Blood Normal.

Visual arts

Menstrual art engages with menstrual themes, including blood, pain, menopause and menstrual stigma. Although not new in the twentieth century, a noted increase in artistic engagement began in the late 1960s with artists including Shigeko Kubota, Carolee Schneemann, Judy Clark, Judy Chicago, Catherine Elwes, Marina Abramović, Gina Pane, Ana Mendieta, and later Orlan. Since the 1960s, artists have continued to take an interest in menstrual art.Menstrual art highlights different issues regarding menstrual joy, taboos and pain.

In 2015, artist Rupi Kaur was censored by Instagram for posting menstrual art series Period. Kaur critiqued Instagram's position, writing: "Thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique…. I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak, when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women . . . are objectified, pornified, and treated [as] less than human".Instagram later reversed their decision, and menstrual art has since flourished on this platform.

Art history has recently begun to explore this theme in art, drawing on a longer historiography of gender and the body in modern and contemporary art explored by feminist art historians, for example Ruth Green-Cole,Camilla Mørk Røstvik,Kathy Battista,and Bee Hughes.

In 2015, artist Jen Lewis curated a menstrual art group-exhibition as part of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research' conference, which also resulted in a catalogue. In 2020, Norwegian Museum Telemark Kunstsenter held an exhibition about menstruation named SYKLUS.

Films

Movies and television also reflect the taboo nature of menstruation. Typically menstruation as a topic is avoided, except for scenes involving menarche or the first period. For example, as Elizabeth Arveda Kissling explains in her article, "On the Rag on Screen: Menarche in Film and Television", the 1991 film My Girl contains a scene where the main character, Vada, experiences her first period. The explanation given to her by a female role model of what is happening to her is done off-camera and the subject is never mentioned again, save when Vada pushes Thomas across the porch telling him, "Don't come back for five to seven days."

In the movie Carrie, the title character has her first period in high school, and becomes hysterical in the gym shower believing she is dying. The other girls tease her by throwing tampons and sanitary pads at her. The gym teacher tries to calm Carrie down, and eventually must explain the concept of menstruation to Carrie (because Carrie's mother had never done so). When Carrie returns home announcing she's a woman and inquiring why she was never told about periods, her fanatically religious mother yells at her and locks her into a closet fearing that menstruation will bring men and the sin of sex. Later in the movie, her classmates mock her ignorance of menarche again by pouring pig's blood on her at the prom.

In Only Yesterday, one of the girls is found to be going through menstruation and is later teased about it, especially when a group of boys tell the others not to touch a ball she had touched by saying, "You'll catch her period".

Clueless, the 1995 cult-classic best known for its iconic fashion and memorable one-liners, contains one of the most cited period lines of all time. Protagonist, Cher when receiving a second tardy for being late to class, uses the excuse of 'riding the crimson wave' as her reason for receiving her second tardy.

In 2004, Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan came out and featured a scene where Stephanie Drummond's character, Bethany Byrd, has her virginity come into question as she used heavy flow tampons.

In the 2007 movie Superbad, Seth discovers menstrual blood on his jeans after dancing with a woman. He reacts with disgust, as do other men in the scene.

Netflix's Big Mouth (TV series) features Jessi Glaser, played by Jessi Klein, getting her period for the first time on a school trip to the Statue of Liberty in season one episode two. As Jessi frets in the bathroom her male friend, Andrew Glouberman, played by comedian John Mulaney, finds her a menstrual product.

In the 2018 Bollywood movie "Pad Man', Laxmikant Chauhan wishes to help his wife get better access to sanitary products after finding out that she has to live in separate quarters owing to her getting her period. He works hard in order to create a low-cost pad accessible to every women of India and the first pad is given to Pari Walia who unexpectedly got her period.

Part 6 of 8

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