Menstruation is still surrounded by a rather negative view in society. How can this be explained in evolutionary terms? What is the effect of this on the mental health of people that menstruate? And what can we do to demystify the stigma? I will try to tackle these questions in an essay pleading for the appreciation of women.
Menstruation is still surrounded by a rather negative view in society. How can this be explained in evolutionary terms? What is the effect of this on the mental health of people that menstruate? And what can we do to demystify the stigma? I will try to tackle these questions in an essay pleading for the appreciation of women.
Illustration: Carolien de Bruin
Illustration: Carolien de Bruin
Over four decades ago, feminist Gloria Steinem wrote a satirical essay called ‘If men could menstruate’. She was confident that menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy and masculine event if it were men, and not women menstruating (Steinem, 1978). But in current patriarchal societies, which get exaggerated in the book and series The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood, 1985), the view on menstruation is far from containing these kinds of ‘masculine’ characteristics. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Handmaids wear a red cloak that implicitly symbolizes the blood of menstruation. In the dystopian place Gilead, Handmaids are solely a breeding stock for the wealthy and powerful men (called Commanders) whose women have become infertile due to toxic radiation.
The narrator Offred (she is really called ‘June’, but as her Commander is named ‘Fred’, in Gilead she is called ‘Offred’) becomes fearful of menstruation because if she can’t get pregnant, she could get sent to the Colonies, a place where Unwomen (the lowest social class) are sent to clean up the toxic waste. This work is really dangerous and most people that start working there will only live for three more years (Jonsson, 2018). June has internalized the expectations of Gilead: “Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes, it means failure, I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own’’ (Atwood, 1985).
In her book Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working for You (2019), the social activist and menstruation expert Maisie Hill argues that just like in The Handmaid’s Tale, our current society appreciates pregnancy, and therefore menstruation is evidence that women have not fulfilled their duty as a breeding machine. In this essay I will argue how the aversion towards menstruation leads to a reduced mental wellbeing in women and how the social status of women is both influenced and reflected by the stigma surrounding menstruation. I plead for better menstrual education and for normalizing women not always behaving the same way all year, or all cycle round in order to increase their mental wellbeing. I will do this by relating menstruation to nature, education and wellbeing.
“Menstrual products are reminders of the threatening earthly nature of the female body.”
Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, and Pyszczynski (2002) discuss several theories explaining the aversion to menstruation in terms of it being a reminder of women’s earthly nature. Feminist theories from Simone de Beauvoir have argued that the tendency to view women as less competent and less valuable than men is tied to their role in reproduction. Because of their reproductive role, women are perceived as being closer to nature, which has been used to distinguish them from men and to ultimately devalue them. Rooted in terror management theory it is argued that people are threatened by physical human bodies because they remind them of their animal nature and vulnerability to death (Roberts et al., 2002). Simone de Beauvoir explains that there is a tendency to view women both as less competent and valuable than men, and idealized as wives and mothers.
This dual view of women is also seen in the dual response on women’s bodies. For example, when a woman is breast feeding her baby in public and does not ‘cover up’ this is judged as indecent, but when breasts are sexually objectified they are acceptably used to sell all sorts of products. Several theories on the objectification of the female body argue that this objectification is a response to the association of women with nature. Beautifying and adorning women’s bodies is a solution to the dilemma that perceiving women as close to nature is threatening. The objectification separates the female body from its physical functions by sanitizing it and transforming it into an idealized cultural symbol. Terror management theory suggests that some features of the human body are objectified while others are concealed as a way of coping with the reminder of their animal nature, which biological functions like menstruation provide (Roberts et al., 2002).
These theories provide a logical reason for why women go to great lengths to hide their menstruation. Menstrual products are reminders of the threatening earthly nature of the female body (Roberts et al., 2002). Women often carry menstrual products in disguising packaging, wear tampons instead of pads because they are less visible and prefer to wear baggy clothes during their menstruation (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). They fear their menstrual status will be discovered, and therefore humiliated by their odor or stains on their clothes (Roberts et al., 2002).
The idea of having to hide your menstruation is also maintained by advertisements for sanitary products that market menstruation as a ‘hygienic crisis’ that must be effectively managed with these products to avoid staining, embarrassment and odor (Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, & Pyszczynski, 2002). These kinds of advertisements send the powerful message that stains of menstrual blood decrease the femininity of women, because through the proper choice of products, they should have kept their menstruation a secret. The advertisements emphasize secrecy, avoidance of embarrassment and freshness. Images representing vaginas such as flowers and hearts and blue rather than red liquid have been used euphemistically to promote secrecy (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Bodyform was the first brand of menstruation products to actually show red, rather than blue blood, and this was only four years ago (BCC, 2017).
This widespread concern of women on concealing their menstruation was partly confirmed in a study of Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, and Pyszczynski (2002). In the study participants were put in a room with a female confederate (a researcher acting as just another participant) to answer questionnaires about group productivity. The participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which the confederate ‘accidently’ dropped either a hairclip or a tampon. When filling out a questionnaire about the confederate afterwards, the confederate was judged as less competent and less likeable in the tampon condition than in the hairclip condition.
“Women are taught by society to talk about menstruation in secrecy.”
The negative view towards menstruation is maintained by the minimal attention to menstruation in sexual education. Peranovic & Bentley (2017) investigated beliefs and attitudes towards and experiences with menstruation in men. The respondents talked about their menstrual education as non-existent, inadequate or confusing. Some respondents even reported that the male classmates needed to leave the classroom while the female classmates were discussing menstruation. The study revealed that menstrual education in school is mostly riddled with negative messages, and focuses on biological factors instead of promoting more positive messages or demystifying the secrecy and taboo surrounding menstruation. This minimal menstrual education can have negative effects on both men and women; it implicates the notion that men ought to see women’s health as irrelevant to them (Peranovic & Bentley, 2017).
Women are taught by society to talk about menstruation in secrecy. Many euphemisms are used to discuss menstruation (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). The societal stigma on menstruation teaches girls not to talk about menstruation in public, especially not with men (Roberts et al., 2002). Menstruation is typically avoided in conversation, except in some special circumstances (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Many men in the study of Peranovic & Bentley (2017) report that menstruation in their environment was often discussed in secrecy. It was something that happened behind closed doors, that was whispered or it was simply a discussion from which they were excluded.
“Why would we rather not have menstruations and are they seen as a messy intruder, while they are one of the oldest measurement systems and evidence of our internal tides?”
This stigmatized condition of menstruation has important consequences for the wellbeing of women. Especially the self-consciousness and hypervigilance associated with concerns about the revelation of one’s menstrual status is very tiresome (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). This stigmatized condition, along with the minimal education surrounding menstruation is probably also the reason why women know so little about their cycles. Maisie Hill is one of the several authors behind new books about the female body which are not written by experts or nurses, but by what you could class together as social activists that are startled by how little women know about their own bodies (Cain, 2019). Hill believes that being aware of your cycle benefits you so much that it is one of the biggest unused sources to improve the mental health of menstruating human beings.
In her book Period Power (2019) she explains how you can deal with your cycle to your advantage. She divides the menstrual cycle into four phases which she compares with the seasons of the year: menstruation (winter), pre-ovulation (spring), ovulation (summer) and pre-menstruation (autumn). Just like in the different seasons of the year, she explains how you could feel different in all seasons of your menstruation under the influence of the fluctuating hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone (yes, not only men are the proud owners of this hormone). She gives very practical tips about how you can structure your life around these seasons of your cycle. For example, social activities are good for spring and summer, because in these seasons you’ll feel most active as your body is ready to find a partner and mate. In autumn and winter however, you could better not plan social activities as you will want to crawl back into your shell. There can be a day between the seasons that can feel quite unusual. When not keeping track of your cycle these days can come quite unexpectedly, which can have several bad influences on your mental health, work and relationships.
Women often self-police behavioral or emotional clues to menstrual status (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Self-policing, introduced by Foucault, occurs when external, authoritarian methods of surveillance and social control are replaced with (unconscious) self-induced control (Ussher, 2004). Ussher (2004) conducted in-depth interviews with women experiencing premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Multiple women in the interview positioned the desire to attend to their own needs as a sign of internal pathology; PMS. These women were practicing self-policing; they judged their own needs or desires in relation to the discourse around women as responsible, and always able to offer unlimited care and attention to others. Women often use psychiatric terminology, anxiety, depression or PMS in describing the reaction they experience by their own needs not being recognized. Instead, one could argue that it is an understandable response to always taking care of everybody and everything and denying their own needs, because this is what society expects of them and this expectations they have internalized. Rather than pathologizing PMS as an individual disorder, Ussher (2004) argues that PMS is the outcome of self-policing practices, which function to ensure adherence to constructions of femininity. Although the article of Ussher was already published in 2004, in the article of Peranovic and Bentley published in 2017 some men still reported that PMS was ‘no excuse for bad behavior’.
Hill (2019) reveals more of these contradictions in her book Period Power. Why is it that when a woman bleeds because her virginity was ‘taken’ by a man, this gets celebrated, but when the blood is a monthly, biological and natural process, it is suddenly viewed as disgusting and as something that should be hidden away? Why would we rather not have menstruations and are they seen as a messy intruder, while they are one of the oldest measurement systems and evidence of our internal tides? Why is menstruation the only kind of blood not caused by an accident but do we try so hard to hide this blood? She calls this ironical as menstruation is a sign of a healthy reproductive system and the blood is a rich source of stem cells.
“Almost half of the population has to deal with menstruation, so why not tackle it collectively?”
Hill’s book (2019) has certainly made me more aware of my cycle and has given me better ways to deal with it. It is exciting that a new and insightful series of books about menstruation is put on the market, but what I wish for the next generation, is already learning everything we have to learn by these books, in school. Sexual education should contain a big deal of menstrual education, not only for women, but also for men. This will help remove the taboo around menstruation and improve women’s mental health a lot. Almost half of the population has to deal with menstruation, so why not tackle it collectively?
I think the view on women should consist of way more appreciation for the natural and primal functions. Being reminded of the earthly nature of women isn’t something to be deterred from. The exact opposite actually; menstruation is a beautiful part of human nature that should be appreciated greatly. The stigma surrounding menstruation should be demystified, menstrual education should be enormously improved for both women and men, women need to learn to keep track of their cycles and it should not be expected of women to always fulfill societal expectations regardless of the phase of their cycles. All these factors will have enormous benefits for the mental wellbeing of women, which is still far from equal between men and women. This is a plea for the appreciation of women. As artist Mary More once sang: ‘Anything you can do, I can do bleeding’ (More, 2019). <<
References
– Atwood, M. (1985). The Handmaid’s Tale (1st ed.). New York, United State: Radom House.
– BBC. (2017, October 18th). Bodyform advert replaces blue liquid with red ‘blood’. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41666280
– Cain, S. (2019, May 29th). ‘I’m such a big fan of the menstrual cycle!’ – the women asking whether it’s possible to have a better period. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/29/im-such-a-big-fan-of-the-menstrual-cycle-the-women-asking-whether-its-possible-to-have-a-better-period
– Hill, M. (2019). Period Power: harness your hormones and get your cycle working for you. (1st ed.). Londen, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
– Johnston- Robledo, I., & Chrisler, J. (2011). The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation a Social Stigma. Sex Roles, 68(1-2), 9-18. d
– Jonsonn, A. (2018). Enforcing Patriarchal Values: A socialist feminist analyses of the characters Offred and Serena Joy in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Karlstad University, BA dissertation.
– More, M. (2019). (2019, January 25th). Mary More – Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Bleeding. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiB707AqW64
– Peranovic, T., & Bentley, B. (2017). Men and Menstruation: A Qualitative Exploration of Beliefs, Attitudes and Experiences. Sex Roles, 77, 113-124.
– Roberts, T., Goldenberg, J. L., Power, C., & Pyszcynski, T. (2002). “Feminine Protection”: The Effects of Menstruation on Attitudes Towards Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 131-139.
– Steinem, G. (October, 1978). If Men Could Menstruate. Ms. Magazine.
– Ussher, J. M. (2004) Premenstrual Syndrome and Self-policing: ruptures in Self-Silencing Leading to Increased Self-Surveillance and Blaming of the Body. Social Theory & Health, 2, 254-272.
Over four decades ago, feminist Gloria Steinem wrote a satirical essay called ‘If men could menstruate’. She was confident that menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy and masculine event if it were men, and not women menstruating (Steinem, 1978). But in current patriarchal societies, which get exaggerated in the book and series The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood, 1985), the view on menstruation is far from containing these kinds of ‘masculine’ characteristics. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Handmaids wear a red cloak that implicitly symbolizes the blood of menstruation. In the dystopian place Gilead, Handmaids are solely a breeding stock for the wealthy and powerful men (called Commanders) whose women have become infertile due to toxic radiation.
The narrator Offred (she is really called ‘June’, but as her Commander is named ‘Fred’, in Gilead she is called ‘Offred’) becomes fearful of menstruation because if she can’t get pregnant, she could get sent to the Colonies, a place where Unwomen (the lowest social class) are sent to clean up the toxic waste. This work is really dangerous and most people that start working there will only live for three more years (Jonsson, 2018). June has internalized the expectations of Gilead: “Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes, it means failure, I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own’’ (Atwood, 1985).
In her book Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working for You (2019), the social activist and menstruation expert Maisie Hill argues that just like in The Handmaid’s Tale, our current society appreciates pregnancy, and therefore menstruation is evidence that women have not fulfilled their duty as a breeding machine. In this essay I will argue how the aversion towards menstruation leads to a reduced mental wellbeing in women and how the social status of women is both influenced and reflected by the stigma surrounding menstruation. I plead for better menstrual education and for normalizing women not always behaving the same way all year, or all cycle round in order to increase their mental wellbeing. I will do this by relating menstruation to nature, education and wellbeing.
“Menstrual products are reminders of the threatening earthly nature of the female body.”
Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, and Pyszczynski (2002) discuss several theories explaining the aversion to menstruation in terms of it being a reminder of women’s earthly nature. Feminist theories from Simone de Beauvoir have argued that the tendency to view women as less competent and less valuable than men is tied to their role in reproduction. Because of their reproductive role, women are perceived as being closer to nature, which has been used to distinguish them from men and to ultimately devalue them. Rooted in terror management theory it is argued that people are threatened by physical human bodies because they remind them of their animal nature and vulnerability to death (Roberts et al., 2002). Simone de Beauvoir explains that there is a tendency to view women both as less competent and valuable than men, and idealized as wives and mothers.
This dual view of women is also seen in the dual response on women’s bodies. For example, when a woman is breast feeding her baby in public and does not ‘cover up’ this is judged as indecent, but when breasts are sexually objectified they are acceptably used to sell all sorts of products. Several theories on the objectification of the female body argue that this objectification is a response to the association of women with nature. Beautifying and adorning women’s bodies is a solution to the dilemma that perceiving women as close to nature is threatening. The objectification separates the female body from its physical functions by sanitizing it and transforming it into an idealized cultural symbol. Terror management theory suggests that some features of the human body are objectified while others are concealed as a way of coping with the reminder of their animal nature, which biological functions like menstruation provide (Roberts et al., 2002).
These theories provide a logical reason for why women go to great lengths to hide their menstruation. Menstrual products are reminders of the threatening earthly nature of the female body (Roberts et al., 2002). Women often carry menstrual products in disguising packaging, wear tampons instead of pads because they are less visible and prefer to wear baggy clothes during their menstruation (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). They fear their menstrual status will be discovered, and therefore humiliated by their odor or stains on their clothes (Roberts et al., 2002).
The idea of having to hide your menstruation is also maintained by advertisements for sanitary products that market menstruation as a ‘hygienic crisis’ that must be effectively managed with these products to avoid staining, embarrassment and odor (Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, & Pyszczynski, 2002). These kinds of advertisements send the powerful message that stains of menstrual blood decrease the femininity of women, because through the proper choice of products, they should have kept their menstruation a secret. The advertisements emphasize secrecy, avoidance of embarrassment and freshness. Images representing vaginas such as flowers and hearts and blue rather than red liquid have been used euphemistically to promote secrecy (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Bodyform was the first brand of menstruation products to actually show red, rather than blue blood, and this was only four years ago (BCC, 2017).
This widespread concern of women on concealing their menstruation was partly confirmed in a study of Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, and Pyszczynski (2002). In the study participants were put in a room with a female confederate (a researcher acting as just another participant) to answer questionnaires about group productivity. The participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which the confederate ‘accidently’ dropped either a hairclip or a tampon. When filling out a questionnaire about the confederate afterwards, the confederate was judged as less competent and less likeable in the tampon condition than in the hairclip condition.
“Women are taught by society to talk about menstruation in secrecy.”
The negative view towards menstruation is maintained by the minimal attention to menstruation in sexual education. Peranovic & Bentley (2017) investigated beliefs and attitudes towards and experiences with menstruation in men. The respondents talked about their menstrual education as non-existent, inadequate or confusing. Some respondents even reported that the male classmates needed to leave the classroom while the female classmates were discussing menstruation. The study revealed that menstrual education in school is mostly riddled with negative messages, and focuses on biological factors instead of promoting more positive messages or demystifying the secrecy and taboo surrounding menstruation. This minimal menstrual education can have negative effects on both men and women; it implicates the notion that men ought to see women’s health as irrelevant to them (Peranovic & Bentley, 2017).
Women are taught by society to talk about menstruation in secrecy. Many euphemisms are used to discuss menstruation (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). The societal stigma on menstruation teaches girls not to talk about menstruation in public, especially not with men (Roberts et al., 2002). Menstruation is typically avoided in conversation, except in some special circumstances (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Many men in the study of Peranovic & Bentley (2017) report that menstruation in their environment was often discussed in secrecy. It was something that happened behind closed doors, that was whispered or it was simply a discussion from which they were excluded.
“Why would we rather not have menstruations and are they seen as a messy intruder, while they are one of the oldest measurement systems and evidence of our internal tides?”
This stigmatized condition of menstruation has important consequences for the wellbeing of women. Especially the self-consciousness and hypervigilance associated with concerns about the revelation of one’s menstrual status is very tiresome (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). This stigmatized condition, along with the minimal education surrounding menstruation is probably also the reason why women know so little about their cycles. Maisie Hill is one of the several authors behind new books about the female body which are not written by experts or nurses, but by what you could class together as social activists that are startled by how little women know about their own bodies (Cain, 2019). Hill believes that being aware of your cycle benefits you so much that it is one of the biggest unused sources to improve the mental health of menstruating human beings.
In her book Period Power (2019) she explains how you can deal with your cycle to your advantage. She divides the menstrual cycle into four phases which she compares with the seasons of the year: menstruation (winter), pre-ovulation (spring), ovulation (summer) and pre-menstruation (autumn). Just like in the different seasons of the year, she explains how you could feel different in all seasons of your menstruation under the influence of the fluctuating hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone (yes, not only men are the proud owners of this hormone). She gives very practical tips about how you can structure your life around these seasons of your cycle. For example, social activities are good for spring and summer, because in these seasons you’ll feel most active as your body is ready to find a partner and mate. In autumn and winter however, you could better not plan social activities as you will want to crawl back into your shell. There can be a day between the seasons that can feel quite unusual. When not keeping track of your cycle these days can come quite unexpectedly, which can have several bad influences on your mental health, work and relationships.
Women often self-police behavioral or emotional clues to menstrual status (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2011). Self-policing, introduced by Foucault, occurs when external, authoritarian methods of surveillance and social control are replaced with (unconscious) self-induced control (Ussher, 2004). Ussher (2004) conducted in-depth interviews with women experiencing premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Multiple women in the interview positioned the desire to attend to their own needs as a sign of internal pathology; PMS. These women were practicing self-policing; they judged their own needs or desires in relation to the discourse around women as responsible, and always able to offer unlimited care and attention to others. Women often use psychiatric terminology, anxiety, depression or PMS in describing the reaction they experience by their own needs not being recognized. Instead, one could argue that it is an understandable response to always taking care of everybody and everything and denying their own needs, because this is what society expects of them and this expectations they have internalized. Rather than pathologizing PMS as an individual disorder, Ussher (2004) argues that PMS is the outcome of self-policing practices, which function to ensure adherence to constructions of femininity. Although the article of Ussher was already published in 2004, in the article of Peranovic and Bentley published in 2017 some men still reported that PMS was ‘no excuse for bad behavior’.
Hill (2019) reveals more of these contradictions in her book Period Power. Why is it that when a woman bleeds because her virginity was ‘taken’ by a man, this gets celebrated, but when the blood is a monthly, biological and natural process, it is suddenly viewed as disgusting and as something that should be hidden away? Why would we rather not have menstruations and are they seen as a messy intruder, while they are one of the oldest measurement systems and evidence of our internal tides? Why is menstruation the only kind of blood not caused by an accident but do we try so hard to hide this blood? She calls this ironical as menstruation is a sign of a healthy reproductive system and the blood is a rich source of stem cells.
“Almost half of the population has to deal with menstruation, so why not tackle it collectively?”
Hill’s book (2019) has certainly made me more aware of my cycle and has given me better ways to deal with it. It is exciting that a new and insightful series of books about menstruation is put on the market, but what I wish for the next generation, is already learning everything we have to learn by these books, in school. Sexual education should contain a big deal of menstrual education, not only for women, but also for men. This will help remove the taboo around menstruation and improve women’s mental health a lot. Almost half of the population has to deal with menstruation, so why not tackle it collectively?
I think the view on women should consist of way more appreciation for the natural and primal functions. Being reminded of the earthly nature of women isn’t something to be deterred from. The exact opposite actually; menstruation is a beautiful part of human nature that should be appreciated greatly. The stigma surrounding menstruation should be demystified, menstrual education should be enormously improved for both women and men, women need to learn to keep track of their cycles and it should not be expected of women to always fulfill societal expectations regardless of the phase of their cycles. All these factors will have enormous benefits for the mental wellbeing of women, which is still far from equal between men and women. This is a plea for the appreciation of women. As artist Mary More once sang: ‘Anything you can do, I can do bleeding’ (More, 2019). <<
References
– Atwood, M. (1985). The Handmaid’s Tale (1st ed.). New York, United State: Radom House.
– BBC. (2017, October 18th). Bodyform advert replaces blue liquid with red ‘blood’. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41666280
– Cain, S. (2019, May 29th). ‘I’m such a big fan of the menstrual cycle!’ – the women asking whether it’s possible to have a better period. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/29/im-such-a-big-fan-of-the-menstrual-cycle-the-women-asking-whether-its-possible-to-have-a-better-period
– Hill, M. (2019). Period Power: harness your hormones and get your cycle working for you. (1st ed.). Londen, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
– Johnston- Robledo, I., & Chrisler, J. (2011). The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation a Social Stigma. Sex Roles, 68(1-2), 9-18. d
– Jonsonn, A. (2018). Enforcing Patriarchal Values: A socialist feminist analyses of the characters Offred and Serena Joy in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Karlstad University, BA dissertation.
– More, M. (2019). (2019, January 25th). Mary More – Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Bleeding. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiB707AqW64
– Peranovic, T., & Bentley, B. (2017). Men and Menstruation: A Qualitative Exploration of Beliefs, Attitudes and Experiences. Sex Roles, 77, 113-124.
– Roberts, T., Goldenberg, J. L., Power, C., & Pyszcynski, T. (2002). “Feminine Protection”: The Effects of Menstruation on Attitudes Towards Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 131-139.
– Steinem, G. (October, 1978). If Men Could Menstruate. Ms. Magazine.
– Ussher, J. M. (2004) Premenstrual Syndrome and Self-policing: ruptures in Self-Silencing Leading to Increased Self-Surveillance and Blaming of the Body. Social Theory & Health, 2, 254-272.
