Menstrual stigma rearticulated as environmental pollution in contemporary Scottish policy-making

Bettina M Bildhauer; Lara Owen

doi:10.1080/23293691.2022.2097034

Menstrual stigma rearticulated as environmental pollution in contemporary Scottish policy-making

Bettina M Bildhauer^*, Lara Owen

^*Corresponding author for this work

German

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Scotland is a global leader in public policy concerning menstrual products. We bring Critical Menstruation Studies concepts and textual analysis methods to a corpus of Scottish reports on menstrual product access and waste, along with interviews with regional experts. Our analysis indicates that while promotion of reusable menstrual products is intended to dismantle menstrual stigma, this stigma can become displaced via environmental concerns to other contexts, retaining key characteristics. The notion that menstrual blood is unhygienic and transgressive leaks into the discourse, which uses the same fundamental concepts to identify disposable menstrual products as environmental hazards affecting waterways and beaches.

Original language	English
Article number	2097034
Pages (from-to)	167-184
Number of pages	18
Journal	Women's Reproductive Health
Volume	10
Issue number	2
Early online date	22 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/23293691.2022.2097034
Publication status	Published - 22 Jul 2023

Keywords

Menstrual products
Sustainability
Pollution theory
Embodiment
Environment

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1080/23293691.2022.2097034Licence: CC BY

Bildhauer_2022_WRH_Menstrualstigma_CC
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 1.88 MBLicence: CC BY

Menstrual cups vs tampons: Menstrual cups vs tampons: An interdisciplinary analysis of barriers and changing attitudes to sustainable period products in contemporary Scotland
Bildhauer, B. (PI)
1/12/20 → 31/07/21
Project: Standard

Cite this

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title = "Menstrual stigma rearticulated as environmental pollution in contemporary Scottish policy-making",

abstract = "Scotland is a global leader in public policy concerning menstrual products. We bring Critical Menstruation Studies concepts and textual analysis methods to a corpus of Scottish reports on menstrual product access and waste, along with interviews with regional experts. Our analysis indicates that while promotion of reusable menstrual products is intended to dismantle menstrual stigma, this stigma can become displaced via environmental concerns to other contexts, retaining key characteristics. The notion that menstrual blood is unhygienic and transgressive leaks into the discourse, which uses the same fundamental concepts to identify disposable menstrual products as environmental hazards affecting waterways and beaches.",

keywords = "Menstrual products, Sustainability, Pollution theory, Embodiment, Environment",

author = "Bildhauer, {Bettina M} and Lara Owen",

note = "Funding: St Andrews Restarting Research Fund grant SML0-XRR046.",

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AU - Bildhauer, Bettina M

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PY - 2023/7/22

Y1 - 2023/7/22

N2 - Scotland is a global leader in public policy concerning menstrual products. We bring Critical Menstruation Studies concepts and textual analysis methods to a corpus of Scottish reports on menstrual product access and waste, along with interviews with regional experts. Our analysis indicates that while promotion of reusable menstrual products is intended to dismantle menstrual stigma, this stigma can become displaced via environmental concerns to other contexts, retaining key characteristics. The notion that menstrual blood is unhygienic and transgressive leaks into the discourse, which uses the same fundamental concepts to identify disposable menstrual products as environmental hazards affecting waterways and beaches.

AB - Scotland is a global leader in public policy concerning menstrual products. We bring Critical Menstruation Studies concepts and textual analysis methods to a corpus of Scottish reports on menstrual product access and waste, along with interviews with regional experts. Our analysis indicates that while promotion of reusable menstrual products is intended to dismantle menstrual stigma, this stigma can become displaced via environmental concerns to other contexts, retaining key characteristics. The notion that menstrual blood is unhygienic and transgressive leaks into the discourse, which uses the same fundamental concepts to identify disposable menstrual products as environmental hazards affecting waterways and beaches.

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KW - Sustainability

KW - Pollution theory

KW - Embodiment

KW - Environment

U2 - 10.1080/23293691.2022.2097034

DO - 10.1080/23293691.2022.2097034

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ER -

Menstrual stigma rearticulated as environmental pollution in contemporary Scottish policy-making

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Menstrual cups vs tampons: Menstrual cups vs tampons: An interdisciplinary analysis of barriers and changing attitudes to sustainable period products in contemporary Scotland

Cite this