Just out from Temple University Press is a new book edited by Jeffrey Bruen and Daniel Wilson titled Disability and Passing: Blurring the Lines of Identity. I am honored to have a chapter in it about how menstruation has been socially constructed as a disabling condition and thereby has required acts of denial and pretense similar to those imposed on individuals with either physical of cognitive impairments.
Perhaps the best way to get the gist of the approach taken in the chapter is simply to reproduce the opening paragraphs:
“The social menstrual ecology is a most peculiar environment, full of contradictions, ambiguities, and layers of cultural construction. Over half the population of the globe is presumed to be a future menstruator, a periodic menstruator or a former menstruator, and yet at the same time all of the members of the menstrual class are expected, even required at the risk of shame, embarrassment and ostracism, to deny their membership.
The importance of passing as a non-menstruator – we might call it “menstrual denial” – is taught in the home and school, strenuously reinforced by social custom, and promoted through the marketing of a variety of products that are guaranteed to help one pass as having a uterus that does not occasionally shed its lining. The menstrual market place, traditionally dominated by pad and tampon manufacturers, now sees the arrival of a new generation of drugs that promise to eliminate, or at least sharply curtail, the menstrual cycle, thereby altering the landscape. However, the expectation that one is to hide the physical evidence of one’s cycle remains as strong as ever. This essay explores the nuances and history of the menstrual masquerade.”
