The social form of the secret. Gendered bodies, senses and menstruation

Abstract

In this article, I am going to show how the social form of the secret in Simmel’s sense traverses the sensorial experience of menstruation and perception policies towards menstruation. To achieve the above, I have divided the article into three sections. In the first, I give a summary of state-of-the-art critical studies on menstruation, which allow us to think of menstruation as an object of study in sociology and to underpin this proposal. Second, using Simmel’s relational sociology and sensory studies approach, I show that one of the mechanisms of perception policies towards menstruation has been to keep it secret. Third, I present a sociology of senses related to the secret of menstruation based on the findings of a recent study. The findings show that, although there are tendencies to re-signify the experience of menstruation in solidarity with friends, perception policies prevail that lead women to hide menstruation from intimates and strangers. On the other hand, although the odours of menstruation have been and continue to be stigmatized, the use of new artifacts or menstrual hygiene techniques allows a certain resignification of the menstrual smell, although this requires certain material conditions of possibility.