Selling Sarafem: Priestly and Bardic Discourses in the Construction of Premenstrual Syndrome

Abstract

This essay examines advertisements for Sarafem, an antidepressant treatment for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Using Thomas Lessl's concepts of priestly and bardic voices, this essay analyzes the relationship between scientific authority and postfeminism. Scientific discourse is mediated by bardic appeals to women's expressed desires, just as postfeminist persuasion appropriates and redeploys rhetorical elements from the feminist movement. The Sarafem advertisements fuse postfeminist and scientific rhetoric, resulting in a depoliticized feminism defined by neutrality, objectivity, and individual choice.