Elissa Stein

This book has produced interesting feelings for me. On the one hand, I'm so glad someone has decided to write an entire damn book about menstruation and it's cultural history. That's fantastic. And it's presented in a way that might invite those who are not strident feminists to pick it up. On the other hand, the joke-y tone and the lack of deeply researched content, kind of put me off. That and the fact that they sort of write off the fact that periods do cause some amount of suffering for a lot of women, more than mere inconvenience.

This book feels to me more like a collection of opinion essays more than a historical look at period culture. This is most evident in the early chapters where the authors talk about period experiences with the apparent assumption that most women bleed for four days, experience a few minor aches, pains, and bloating, and go on with their lives. I don't like this assumption because I feel that it invalidates the experiences of women whose periods are not nice and tidy. I'm sure this is not the authors' intent, but it is off-putting. The chapter where they discuss alternatives to disposable femcare also irked me. Mainly the feeling of closed-mindedness relating to these products. I get that it's something they were testing and something that takes most a while to get used to. But their reactions seemed so out of character with the rest of the book.

Overall, I think this is a great book for someone who is just beginning to dip a toe into feminist waters. It's cute, friendly, and ultimately non-threatening.… (meer)

First, I want to point out that I like the idea of this book. The argument that women have always been period-hating victims of men and the femcare industry's judgement and marketing is cool with me; I hate the femcare industry and like yelling about misogynism as much as the next lady. The many vintage advertisements and illustrations are nice, and realizing that "water cure" meant "water-stimulated orgasm to relieve hysteria" was pretty cool.

However.

Several things about the book rubbed me the wrong way. The greatest of these was the mini-section on alternatives to big femcare products (tampons and disposable pads). Menstrual cups (my personal torch) rated just one, mostly positive, page, although any convincing of reluctant readers is undermined by the writers suggesting that removal will cause you to be covered in "bloody goo." For two women who want us to view our periods more holistically and without the shame industry has assigned them, that seemed like a strange choice of words. Even more strange, though, is the section on cloth pads (which have a pretty long history to back them up). The strange part, though, was a side-quote from one of the authors, who writes that she "delved into the world of reusable pads" (241) in the spirit of conservation and book-research. Well, congratulations to you. Unfortunately, she admits that she was squicked out by seeing blood on her happy little flannel robots and that pads are hot in August. (Personal-torch-rant: TRY A CUP! THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE RESEARCH AND THEN YOU MIGHT BE FREE FROM THE DISPOSABLES COMPANIES!) I'm a little surprised that authors of a book that is so damning of the femcare industry and all that they market to us come off as so personally unadventurous toward reusable products. Why else have you been spending five chapters telling us about TSS and deoderized tampons and landfills and et cetera et cetera et cetera?

Anyway.

Other minor gripes include the occasionally off-putting conversational/breezy tone of the writing, the relatively thin coverage of menopause and menarche, and the overall focus on white, middle-class American women throughout history. (Yes, I know the book is about America and that advertising for 200 years has tended to target the middle- and upper-classes, but STILL. Token mentions of the working poor and minorities do not constitute coverage.)

All in all, I enjoyed my trip down bio-feminism lane, or whatever you want to call it. I've been embracing my period (and menstrual cup) for five years now, though, so the choir was feeling a little superior to the preachers' revelations about alternatives to big femcare.… (meer)