Menstruation

Menstruation is the shedding and discharging of the uterine lining. Menstruation occurs after a woman ovulâtes and if she does not become pregnant. The time during which menstruation occurs is referred to as menses. Although many refer to the discharge during menstruation as “menstrual blood,” the more accurate term is menstrual fluid, because it contains not only blood but also mucus, bits of the uterine lining, and cells from the vaginal lining. The first time a girl experiences menstruation is called menarche. The cessation of menstruation is menopause.

Menstruation is a biological phenomenon that, throughout history, has been conceptualized in ways that reinforce the gender norms and roles of the time. Menstruation has long been tied to the philosophical tradition of the distinction between the mind (or consciousness or soul) and the body, which started with Plato and is still a recurring cultural trope to this day. Generally, the mind has been both the privileged term in the binary and associated with men, masculinity, and culture. The body, on the other hand, has been associated with women, femininity, and nature. Within this framework, menstruation has often figured as a sign of women's association with the body and nature, reaffirming women as the “inferior sex.” Such gendering extends into the medicalization of the entire menstrual cycle. The normal bodily function of menstruation has become a pathology to be managed by medical professionals, who are predominantly male. This framing encourages women to turn to professionals rather than to get to know their own bodies. Menstruation has also become a large consumer market, encouraging women to empower themselves through consumption and using fear and shame to sell medications and hygiene products.

Despite the strength of these cultural conceptualizations, women throughout history have refuted understandings of menstruation as an indication of inferiority or pathology and embraced it as a sign of women's power to give life, a source of wisdom, a reason to listen to and know their bodies, an equalizer among women, and a connection between generations. The variety of opposing meanings that have been attached to menstruation, both synchronically and diachronically, render it a rich site for understanding how gender is constructed in society.