Syllabus
Working lesson plan:
W1. 04.10.2023 – Introductory lesson (class orientation, main themes, course outlook)
W2. 11.10.2023 – Evolution of menstruation research
· Definition and scope of Critical Menstruation Studies
· Intersectionality and the study of menstruation
Required readings:
Bobel, Chris, and Elizabeth Alverda Kissling. "Menstruation matters: Introduction to representations of the menstrual cycle." Women's Studies 40.2 (2011): 121-126.
Bobel, Chris, and Breanne Fahs. "From bloodless respectability to radical menstrual embodiment: Shifting menstrual politics from private to public." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 45.4 (2020): 955-983.
Recommended readings:
Patterson, Ashly. “The social construction and resistance of menstruation as a public spectacle.” Illuminating how identities, stereotypes, and inequalities matter through gender studies (2014): 91-108.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing research: Indigenous story work as methodology. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019
W3. 18.10.2023 – Theories & Concepts
· Feminist perspectives on menstruation
Required readings:
Bartky, Sandra Lee. Femininity and domination: Studies in the phenomenology of oppression. Routledge, 2015: 83-98
Bobel, Chris. New blood: Third-wave feminism and the politics of menstruation. Rutgers University Press, 2010: 28-41
Recommended readings:
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We should all be feminists. Vintage, 2014.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé W. On intersectionality: Essential writings. The New Press, 2017.
Golub, Sharon. Lifting the curse of menstruation: A feminist appraisal of the influence of menstruation on women's lives. Routledge, 2017: 1-36
Shuttle, Penelope, and Peter Redgrove. The wise wound: Myths, realities, and meanings of menstruation. New York: Grove Press, 1988: 42-54
W4. 25.10.2023 - Menstruation and Culture
· Taboos, stigma, and menstruation
· Menstruation in religion
· Menstruation: media and pop culture
Required readings:
Cohen, Ilana. "Menstruation and religion: developing a critical menstrual studies approach." The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (2020): 115-129
Douglas, Mary. Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge, 2003: 7-30
Recommended readings:
Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon and Schuster, 2009: 126-139
Przybylo, Ela, and Breanne Fahs. "Empowered bleeders and cranky menstruators: Menstrual positivity and the “liberated” era of new menstrual product advertisements." The Palgrave handbook of critical menstruation studies (2020): 375-394.
W5. 01.11.2023 – Menstrual Lens
· The global North and South division in menstruation
· Medicalization of menstruation
· Menstrual technology
Required readings:
Bobel, Chris, and Pitt. Managed Body. Springer International Publishing, 2019: 111-131
Khoja-Moolji, Shenila, and Esther O. Ohito. "Containing the Leakiness of Impure Inhumans: Bleeding Third-World Bodies and the Confining Cultural Politics of Menstrual Hygiene Campaigns." Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics (2018): 107-28
Recommended readings:
Gaybor, Jacqueline, and Wendy Harcourt. "Seeing the colour red: Menstruation in global body politics." Global Public Health 17.10 (2022): 2388-2400
Laws, Sophie. Issues of blood: The politics of menstruation. Springer, 1991: 48-50, 69-92
W6. 08.11.2023 – Follow up lecture of W.5 https://allpoetry.com/poems/about/Menstruation
W7. 15.11.2023 – Screening of the short film ´Period. End of the Sentence´ (2018) and interactive seminar (followed in Week 8)
W8. 22.11.2023 – Menstruation: Health, Hygiene, and Policy
· Reproductive Health Inequalities
· Menstrual health: access, disparities, and healthcare
Required readings:
McMahon, Shannon A., et al. 'The girl with her period is the one to hang her head: Reflections on menstrual management among schoolgirls in rural Kenya." BMC international health and human rights 11 (2011): 1-10.
Sommer, Marni, Jennifer S. Hirsch, Constance Nathanson, and Richard G. Parker. 2015. “Comfortably, Safely, and Without Shame: Defining Menstrual Hygiene Management as a Public Health Issue”. American Journal of Public Health. 105 (7): 1302-1311.
Recommended readings:
Herbert, Ann C., et al. "Puberty experiences of low-income girls in the United States: a systematic review of qualitative literature from 2000 to 2014." Journal of Adolescent Health 60.4 (2017): 363-379.
W9 29.11.2023 - Gendered embodiment: justice and contemporary body politics
· Menstruation and body image
· Trans/non-binary menstruation
· Menstruation and reproductive rights
Required readings:
Csordas, Thomas J. "Embodiment as a Paradigm for Anthropology." Body/meaning/healing. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2002. 58-87.
Lowik, A. J. "“Just because I don't bleed, doesn't mean I don't go through it”: Expanding knowledge on trans and non-binary menstruators." International Journal of Transgender Health 22.1-2 (2020): 113-125.
Steele, Linda, and Beth Goldblatt. "The human rights of women and girls with disabilities: sterilization and other coercive responses to menstruation." The Palgrave handbook of critical menstruation studies (2020): 77-91.
Have a look at: https://vuokkoset.fi/en/my-body/vuokkoset-for-men-tampon/
W10. 06.12.2023 – Menstrual activism: goals and challenges
· Contemporary menstrual activism and climate action
· Menstruation/Reproductive health technology: Capitalism and body autonomy
Required readings: https://nursingclio.org/2023/10/04/exploring-critical-menstrual-studies-in-the-nordic-region-the-importance-of-local-specificities/
Røstvik, Camilla Mørk. "'Do Not Flush Feminine Products! ' The Environmental History, Biohazards and Norms Contained in the UK Sanitary Bin Industry Since 1960." Environment and History 27.4 (2021): 549-579. Pdf available here https://doi.org/10.3197/096734019X15740974883807.
Nyanzi, Stella. "Personal narrative: Bloody precarious activism in Uganda." The Palgrave handbook of critical menstruation studies (2020): 551-559.
Recommended readings:
Persdotter, Josefin. Menstrual dirt-An exploration of contemporary menstrual hygiene practices in Sweden. 2022: 115-139. Pdf available here (Open access book): https://arkiv.nu/butik/menstrual-dirt
W11. 13.12.2023 -
Required readings:
Ahamed, Farah. Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia. Pan Macmillan, 2022 (selected interviews)
W12. 20.12.2023 -Discussion:
· “If men could menstruate” by Gloria Steinem
· “I being born woman and suppressed” by Heather Corrina
Annotation
Time and place: Wednesday 14:00-15:20, B103B
Course credit: 6
Language: English
Tutor: Aysha Farhana Chakkampully
E-mail: 30486391@fsv.cuni.cz
Abstract:
Critical Menstruation Studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores the social, cultural, and political dimensions of menstruation. This course seeks to challenge traditional approaches to menstruation by examining it as a significant aspect of reproductive health and a subject of public discourse. Students will develop a thorough awareness of current body politics to foster critical thinking learning theories, research and activism on menstruation, reproductive health, and gender justice in contemporary society.
Course objectives:
• Explore the evolution of Critical Menstruation Studies as a contemporary discipline.
• Examine theories, methods, and concepts in menstrual research.
• Trace contemporary menstrual activism and its impact on social change.
• Analyze the intersection of body, power, and agency in embodiment research