Organization and menstruation

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explains what is meant by ‘organizing’ and ‘reorganizing’ menstruation. It gives an overview of the historic and contemporary contexts to show how the organizing structures of work, consumption, and commodification are tightly interwoven with regard to menstruation, and how these are changing. The first half of the chapter explores conventional menstrual organization with a focus on how menstrual stigma has been deployed: the impact of menstrual stigma on female psychology; the role of silence and respectability codes surrounding menstrual blood and the products used to conceal it; the androcentric workplace and how menstruation has been normatively constructed at work; the interplay between medical attitudes and working life; microaggressions and workplace confidence; the impact of menstrual stigma on career development; how menstruation has been commodified and commercialized; the ways menstrual products are marketed to increase fears of transgression through leaking; and the rise in menstrual suppression through pharmaceuticals. The second part of the chapter explores the increase in menstrual activism following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, coinciding with the rise of new technologies (including the smartphone, social media, and cycle-tracking apps) enabling menstrual communication and education, and new material technologies changing the nature of menstrual products. Accompanying these radical changes in daily life has been the impact of neoliberalism in enabling the breakdown of taboos, allowing more public conversation about the realities of menstruation and leading to the introduction of workplace policies and new laws.