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Chargement... The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruationpar Karen Houppert
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A provocative look at the way our culture dealswith menstruation. The Curse examines the culture of concealment that surrounds menstruation and the devastating impact such secrecy has on women's physical and psychological health. Karen Houppert combines reporting on the potential safety problems of sanitary products--such as dioxin-laced tampons--with an analysis of the way ads, movies, young-adult novels, and women's magazines foster a menstrual etiquette that leaves women more likely to tell their male colleagues about an affair than brazenly carry an unopened tampon down the hall to the bathroom. From the very beginning, industry-generated instructional films sketch out the parameters of acceptable behavior and teach young girls that bleeding is naughty, irrepressible evidence of sexuality. In the process, confident girls learn to be self-conscious teens. And the secrecy has even broader implications. Houppert argues that industry ad campaigns have effectively stymied consumer debate, research, and safety monitoring of the sanitary-protection industry. By telling girls and women how to think and talk about menstruation, the mostly male-dominated media have set a tone that shapes women's experiences for them, defining what they are allowed to feel about their periods, their bodies, and their sexuality. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)612.662Technology Medicine and health Human physiology Reproduction; Development; Maturation Period of Full Development MenstruationClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Houppert's critique falls short, however, when she fails to apply her scrutiny to the realm of sexuality. Oftentimes in her analysis, Houppert blames sex-negative American culture, rather than misogynist American culture, for the silence around menstruation. Her suggestion that coed puberty classes would solve menstrual taboos seems short-sighted, and she never reflects on the role of compulsory heterosexuality in the lives of women.
The book explores alternatives to menstrual taboos, including 1970s cultural feminism and its descendants into the '90s, but her ire towards these movements seems disproportionate.
I was also confused by her complete denial that (1) women might have valid reasons to modify their behavior when menstruating (for example, not wearing a bikini or going swimming), and (2) menstrual blood has a distinct smell (the term "odor" constantly accompanied by scare quotes). Houppert goes out of her way to dismiss these realities as false beliefs, failing to acknowledge that some women might bleed more heavily than her prescriptive view of a modern-day, liberated period.