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'Our Revolution Has Style': Menstrual Product Activists 'Doing Feminism' in the Third Wave Chris Bobel

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'Our Revolution Has Style': Menstrual Product Activists 'Doing Feminism' in the Third Wave Chris Bobel University of Massachusetts Boston From the SelectedWorks of Chris Bobel 2006 'Our Revolution Has Style': Menstrual Product Activists 'Doing Feminism' in the Third Wave Chris Bobel Available at: http://works.bepress.com/chris_bobel/6/ Sex Roles (2006) 54:331–345 DOI 10.1007/s11199-006-9001-7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE “Our Revolution Has Style”: Contemporary Menstrual Product Activists “Doing Feminism” in the Third Wave Chris Bobel Published online: 3 October 2006 C Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006 Abstract An in-depth content analysis of five web sites that gobbles and trashes and fucks us over ... and eight paper zines (self-produced and distributed maga- in response to the dirty business ... zines) was conducted to uncover the inspiration, content, and we have made this recipe book. unique strategies associated with text -based contemporary as an act of resistance to the system menstrual product activism. Menstrual product activism is that tramples over the homegrown d.i.y. style loosely defined as various attempts to expose the hazards we are sick of how they co-opt our life of commercial “feminine protection” to both women’s bod- to spit out into franchises ... ies and the environment and the promotion of healthier, less to over package our needs into taxed luxuries ... expensive, and less resource-intensive alternatives. This ac- we are sick of the garbarators tivism’s discourse draws on many traditions to produce its re- that insists to dismember ... sistance to mainstream menses management. The movement, we are sick of how it insists to hide first and foremost, is the legacy of several decades of related and disguise our experiences activism, dating to the mid1970s. Contemporary menstrual fuck the mark up they make on their lies ... product activism updates and modifies this tradition with the “do it yourself” ethic and anti-corporate philosophy of Punk DOWN WITH THE INVENTORS OF NECESSITIES! culture and Third Wave feminist ideals of anti-essentialism, to the uprise when we stop popping tampons inclusion, humor, irony, and reappropriation. To date, this and the popping big business medicines ... activist agenda has received little scholarly attention, yet it we fuck the poisons promises to yield meaningful insight into so called Third that kill our free remedies ... Wave feminist theory and practice and reveal the resilience when we fuck the complacency of a woman-centered modern history of resistance. to build the uprising ... to bleed and use weeds . Keywords Menstruation Women’s health activism to stop feeding the corporate greed Third wave feminism when we ax tampax and what it embodies (The Bloodisters, Red Alert #3, circa late 1990s, p. 3). ax tampax. This piece–part poetry, part manifesto, and part statement in spirit of challenging and collapsing of conscience–shouts from a publication produced and the insidious nature of the corporate monster distributed by a Montreal-based activist group called “The Bloodsisters.” They are dedicated to exposing the risks as- C. Bobel () sociated with conventional so-called “feminine protection,” Department of Women’s Studies that is, menstrual products, and raising awareness about University of Massachusetts, Boston alternatives, such as reusable cloth pads, internal collection 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA e-mail: [email protected] devices, including sea sponges and various cups, such as the Keeper, and organic and/or natural commercial tampons and Springer 332 Sex Roles (2006) 54:331–345 pads (For a more detailed description of menstrual care prod- precedented activism when they penned a brochure enti- ucts taken from the perspective of a menstrual product ac- tled “Menstruation,” which devoted a full page to menstrual tivist, see Appendix A). Their writing (never attributed to an product use including a discussion of the sponge and the individual but always to the group) is a poignant example of diaphragm as alternatives to conventional pads and tampons the kind of discourse typical of the contemporary “menstrual (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 1977). At the product activism” practiced by a small but spirited number same time that BWHBC released this brochure, the Society of mostly young women in the US and Canada. Angry, for Menstrual Cycle Research was founded. These events inventive, tongue-in-cheek, anti-corporate, and evocative of marked the legitimization of the menstrual cycle as a worthy an earlier era, menstrual product activists are simultaneously subject of scholarly research and provided an active context the product of an earlier phase of this movement–inspired and network for members to promote menstrual health. In by the Second Wave feminist health movement—and the 1979, Jeanne Pavarti published her now classic Hygieia: A creators of a new style of activism infused with the energy Woman’s Herbal. In addition to promoting a positive view and attitude of contemporary young women. Before delving of menstruation as a source of women’s pride and power, deeply into contemporary menstrual product activism, I will the book included a pattern for homemade cloth menstrual offer a brief overview of the roots of this movement. pads. Still, at that time, only the fringe of the women’s health movement took notice of menstrual products and considered A Brief History of Menstrual Product Activism alternatives until a medical crisis hit and thrust tampon safety into the public consciousness. Menstrual health activism is rooted in the women’s health movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which challenged the The Toxic Shock Syndrome Crisis male-dominated medical establishment and empowered women to take control of their bodies and their health. Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is a rare but potentially fatal Through the development of various self-help methods, disease caused by a bacterial toxin, most commonly strep- feminist-run clinics, and a plethora of resources (such as the tococci and staphylococci. TSS struck very small numbers ubiquitous Our Bodies, Ourselves first published as Women of people until Procter & Gamble, a newcomer to the san- & Their Bodies in 1970 by the Boston Women’s Health Book itary protection market, introduced a new super absorbent Collective), women learned to rely on themselves and each synthetic tampon called Relyr . The TSS epidemic reached other to meet their health care needs (Morgen, 2000; Ruzek, its peak in 1980 with a total of 813 cases of menstrual- 1979; Weisman, 1998; Zimmerman, 1987). This movement, related TSS, including 38 deaths (Food and Drug Adminis- which interrogated the status quo surrounding every aspect tration [FDA], 1999). By 1983, more than 2,200 cases had of a woman’s embodied experience, naturally led some been reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and activists to ask questions about how women managed their the majority of those cases involved menstruating women menstrual cycles. For example, early in the movement, (Tierno, 2001). Under extreme pressure from the FDA and Lorraine Rothman pioneered menstrual extraction, primarily to avoid the imminent threat of a damning product recall, as a self-help means of abortion, but some women used P&G “voluntarily” withdrew Relyr from the market and her patented “Del Em” apparatus to shorten their menstrual removed itself from the tampon production business until it period from a matter of days to a matter of hours (Copelton, bought Tambrands (makers of Tampaxr ) in 1997. 2004; Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers, The TSS crisis stimulated a wave of activity aimed at 1991, 1995; Ruzek, 1979). Menstrual extraction involves tampon safety. Tampon manufacturers themselves, engaged manually extracting the contents of the uterus around the in a bit of damage control, ceased using polyester foam— time of the month when a woman anticipates her menses implicated in toxin production—in their products. In 1981, or up until approximately 8 weeks from the first day of journalist Nancy Friedman (1981) published Everything You the last menstrual period (Federation of Feminist Women’s Must Know About Tampons. The book with the arresting ti- Health Centers, 1991, 1995). But the dawning of a critical tle discusses the tampon-TSS link and alternative products. menstrual product consciousness did not occur until the mid Also in 1981, Rome and Culpepper updated their brochure 1970s. In Delaney, Lupton, and Toth (1977) published The “Menstruation” with an addendum titled “Toxic Shock Syn- Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation, which devoted a drome: A 1981 Update,” a very clear message of extreme full chapter to the “sanitary protection” industry, questioning caution for consumers. Around the same time, ostensibly in the biodegradability of disposable products and challenging response to activist demands in the wake of the TSS crisis the industry’s use of “gimmickry to liven up sales” (p. 110). but unwilling to issue a mandate, the FDA requested the A year later, Boston Women’s Health Book Collective Association of Testing & Materials (ATSM) to convene a (BWHBC) members Esther Rome and Emily Culpepper group that consisted of tampon manufacturers, consumers, launched what would become more than a decade of un- the FDA, and other interested parties to write a private, Springer Sex Roles (2006) 54:331–345 333 voluntary, tampon standard. Three members of the BWHBC, During the next several years, a vigorous wave of activity Judy Norsigian, Esther Rome, and Jill Wolhandler attended took place. Several alternative menstrual product companies on behalf of consumers. Sadly, the ATSM group disbanded were founded: Lunapads (1993), Ecologique (1994), after 3 years of virtual intransigence (Rome & Wolhandler, Organic Essentials (1996), Instead (a disposable menstrual 1992). cup) (1996), and Goddess Moons (1997). Harry Finley Although the FDA was unwilling to mandate safety and opened his “Museum of Menstruation” in the basement of his performance standards, it did issue a regulation that requires Maryland home in 1994; the museum tells the history of the tampon package labels to advise women to use the lowest industry and raises questions about product safety.
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