The Assault on Ignorance
Teaching Menstrual Etiquette in England, c. 1920s to 1960s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12209758 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J-M Strange, J Strange (University of Liverpool, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 247-265 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social History of Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-631X • E-ISSN: 1477-4666 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/shm/14.2.247 |
| PMID | 11697352 |
| OpenAlex | W2069220405 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
At the end of the nineteenth century, medical paradigms of menstruation were located in a language of pathology and disability. Women were, therefore, perceived as incapable of competing with men in the world of education, work, and economics on account of their erratic and debilitating biology. This essay examines the challenge posed to this vision of menstrual disability by female medical practitioners in the early decades of the twentieth century. The new narratives of menstruation authored by these women not only re-cast normative menstrual experience as non-disabling, but were also formulated on the basis of canvassing the opinions of healthy schoolgirls rather than developing theories based on clinical contact with a minority of women defined as 'ill'. Yet female practitioners remained tied to a culture of 'menstrual discretion', thus perpetuating the secrecy and taboo associated with menstruation in the nineteenth century. This essay explores the tensions inherent in striving to overturn an oppressive medical model of menstruation whilst promoting menstrual discretion, and aims to place such apparent contradictions within the context of cultural notions of gendered identity and feminine sexuality
Art · Context (archaeology · Human sexuality · Literature · Menstruation · Narrative · Normative · Political science · Sociology · Taboo · Anthropology · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Menstrual Health and Disorders · Psychology · Gender Studies · History · Law
Tampon Technology in Britain
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Practices and Attitudes Concerning Endometriosis Among Nurses Specializing in Gynecology
A Moralist and Modernizer
Do N3ot Flush Feminine Products!' The Environmental History, Biohazards and Norms Contained in the UK Sanitary Bin Industry Since 1960
Gender, Criminal Opportunity and Landscape in Nineteenth-Century Wales
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.73 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2022 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |