Blood Stories: Menarche and the Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary U.S. Society

Blood Stories focuses on menarche (first menstrual period) as a central aspect of body politics in contemporary US society, emphasizing that it is through the body that women are integrated into the social and sexual order. Using oral and written narratives of 104 diverse women, the authors address the central question of how menarche as a bodily event signifying womanhood takes on cultural significance in a society that devalues women.

Blood Stories explores how women have both provided support for and resisted gendered social relations of power through their negotiation of this crucial life transition. Exploring issues of contamination and concealment and the sexualization of women's bodies that occurs at menarche, the authors emphasize how the politics of gender are negotiated on/through women's bodies. They focus on girls, their families and friends at menarche, and explore issues of resistance and change.


Author: Janet Lee
Publisher: Routledge