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The purpose of this essay is to examine film and television representations of menarche from a critical, feminist perspective. A close analysis of scenes about menarche in 3 films and 4 television programs reveals implicit ideological messages of gender difference and gender stereotypes. Although these scenes appear to be positive and powerful challenges to menstrual communication taboos, they ultimately serve to reinforce media stereotypes of gender difference.
KEY WORDS: menarche; menstruation; feminist criticism; gender stereotypes; gender ideology.
Menstruation, the approximately monthly shedding of the uterine lining in most women of reproductive age, is both a biological event and a cultural event. The biology cannot be separated from the culture, and interpretation of menstruation is always ideological. Menstruation and its associated practices and rituals are important symbols of femaleness; indeed, how a society deals with menstruation may reveal a great deal about how that society views women.
As a cultural critic and scholar of feminist cultural studies, what I find most fascinating about menstruation in American life is our paradoxical understanding. Being or becoming a menstruating woman creates a paradox for women and girls: Women often feel joy in their ability to reproduce, but shame and sadness at living in a society that considers menstruation taboo and prohibits women from talking openly about normal bodily processes (Meinersmann, 1995). In my earlier research with adolescent girls (Kissling, 1996a, 1996b), I discovered that the sense of contradiction surrounding menstruation is particularly strong for young women. Girls are told that menarche is traumatic and upsetting, yet they should act "normal"; menarche is an overt symbol of sexual maturity, yet menarche is a mysterious, secret event (Brooks-Gunn & Ruble, 1980). It is estimated that about half the world's cultures celebrate menarche with rituals and ceremonies as a religious, community, or economic event (Beausang & Razor, 2000). In the United States, rituals or celebrations of menarche are rare and usually private (Chrisler & Zittel, 1998; Kissling, 1996a). An event that symbolically marks initiation and welcome into a community of women is frequently experienced as a moment of isolation, embarrassment, or shame.
The idea that menstruation must be hidden is the basis of social practices and meanings regarding menstruation in Western industrial societies (Laws, 1990). The taboos that enforce this...