REPRESENTATION OF MENSTRUATION IN SELF HELP GUIDES :AN ANALYSIS OF MENSTRUPEDIA COMIC

Abstract

ABSTRACT As part of trying to reclaim the status of women's body, by third wave feminists, discussions on the female body, have led to the question of how well women biological concerns have been discussed in public. Recent studies show that while pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and other maternal aspects have been discussed more under the label of health and well being of women, menstruation remains a topic that has seldom been conversed in public. Even though the process is a natural biological one that women have been undergoing since the time of evolution, it needs to be noted that in everyday life, menstruation has been viewed as a stigma. This leads us to think of the various platforms through which stigmatized discourses like menstruation can be openly talked about in the process of carrying out de stigmatisation. Literature and arts serve as a primary platform to bring into the forefront, issues least discussed. This paper is an attempt to look into the recent trend of the upsurge of self help guides, mostly graphic, like the Menstrupedia Comic, by Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul, which has moved on to inform and empower adolescent girls, by presenting key ideas on menstruation, in a way that normalization and sensitization is carried out. The central research question here is how such representations of menstruation can help to develop a sense of empathetic awareness among readers, and thereby in the longer term lead to strengthening women’s access to and inclusion in health systems. In due course, the paper undertakes a critical analysis of the structure and the thematic concerns of the comic, as well as the ideologies and the limitations, that have informed the production of such a guide.