Issues of Blood: The Politics of Menstruation

This unique approach to the subject of menstruation, claims that women's feelings about their periods are shaped by men's attitudes and by the imposition of their views on women. Sophie Law's research covered men as lovers, fathers, husbands, doctors and "experts'. She suggests that men's attitudes to menstruation are inseperable from their ideas about women in general. These attitudes include the feeling that women are "naturally" inferior and that their problems may inconvenience men. Women are therefore prevented from creating their own meanings for bodily events, and are forced to observe the etiquette of silence. They are unable to have positive feelings about an undeniable aspect of being a woman. Sophie Laws is the author of "Seeing Red: The Politics of Premenstrual Tension" and "Living with Sickle Cell Disease".