1,977
Views
5
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Female trouble: menstrual hygiene, shame and socialism

Pages 771-787 | Received 01 Dec 2015, Accepted 28 Jan 2017, Published online: 07 Apr 2017
 

ABSTRACT

Drawing on semi-structured interviews, and an analysis of advertisements for menstrual hygiene products in socialist Slovenia and wider Yugoslavia, this article seeks to contribute to the scholarship on menstruation. There are tensions in the public language of the socialist system, how women perceive menstruation and the messages conveyed through these advertisements. The choices made by women in relation to their views of these products assist in evaluating the emancipatory potential they are imagined to have, as well as the shame still widely associated with menstruation itself.

Acknowledgement

The author has made reasonable effort to trace and contact the Rights Holders for Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, but regrettably has elicited no response. If readers are cognizant that such Rights Holders are extant, the author requests readers contact Polona Sitar email: [email protected] so that a Corrigendum can be published in the journal.

Notes

1. For a critique see Fehérváry (Citation2009), Vidmar-Horvat (Citation2010) and Thelen (Citation2011).

2. Interviews were carried out between 2013 and 2015 in the framework of wider fieldwork for a doctoral dissertation.

3. ‘Patriarchy’ can denote the legal powers of a husband/father over his wife, children, and other dependents. ‘Patriarchy’ broadly draws on feminist critiques of male power (Bennett, Citation2006, p. 55). Rich Adrienne (in Cooper, Citation1984, p. 306) defines patriarchy as:

familial-social, ideological, political system in which men – by force, direct pressure, or through ritual, tradition, law, and language, customs, etiquette, education, and the division of labor, determine what part women shall or shall not play, and in which the female is everywhere subsumed under the male.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 304.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.