Nature, menstrual suppression, and the value of material feminism

ABSTRACT

This article revisits women’s accounts of menstrual suppression and considers the value in using material feminist theory to discuss the concept of nature in this context. Whilst a sociological, poststructuralist framing of nature as discourse has been useful in challenging essentialist claims about women’s bodies, I argue now that engaging with material feminism acknowledges both the material and discursive ways in which women talk about menstruation and its suppression. This article draws on qualitative data gathered in the aftermath of the approval of the first extended cycle oral contraceptive. In their narratives women struggled to unite the desire to frame their perceptions as natural whilst at the same time upholding the right to use synthetic interventions to control menstruation. Building on poststructural and embodiment theory, as well as drawing on the concept of ‘naturecultures’ [Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge], I argue it is helpful for health sociology to incorporate material feminism in order to advance understanding of ambivalence in relation to new reproductive technologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodiment
• material feminism
• menstruation
• nature
• naturecultures

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the women who provided the comments that feature in this article and to Margie Ripper, Megan Warin, and Nadine Levy for the insightful conversations that have prompted me to revisit these data. I would like to thank Sarah Connell and the two reviewers for suggesting helpful revisions to the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCiD

Jessica Shipman Gunson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5680-6749

Additional information

Funding

The preparation of this article was jointly supported by the School of Health Sciences, Flinders University, and an Early Career Researcher Grant from the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide.