Periods and the Menstrualscape: Menstrual Technology and Economic Imperatives in Scotland and the United States, 1870-2020

IF 0.3 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Open Library of Humanities Pub Date : 2022-06-09 DOI:10.16995/olh.6347
Sharra L. Vostral
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Abstract

The Free Provisions Act is the first national legislation of its kind to provide menstrual products at no cost to women and menstruators throughout Scotland. Yet, this did not happen by accident, and follows historical trends in technoscientific progress and social change. This essay tracks the relationship of women’s acceptance of menstrual technologies with prevailing social and political vectors in United States and Scotland. There are four significant historical moments marking technological change and adoption: the late-Victorian period and the first menstrual product commodities; the modern period marked by World War I through the 1930s that included broadly produced and advertised sanitary napkins; World War II to the mid-twentieth century and the acceptance of tampons; and the 1970s women’s rights movement including the emerging transition to menstrual cups. Within each are differing pressures exerted by both world events and internal societal changes that encourage women to adopt new products. But at moments when wage labor benefits the state, some institutions, heath providers, and educators exert pressure to disregard forms of menstrual stigma and use menstrual products instead. These shifts and movements, along with the prevailing visual culture of advertising and product branding, encompass the menstrualscape. These historical moments and the contemporary menstrualscape signal a current transition in the making, with the promotion of menstrual cups as an environmentally sustainable way to manage menstruation. This aligns with the Free Provisions Act, in which state-sponsored provision of menstrual products serve the needs of the economy, the environment, and concern for gender equity.
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经期与月经情况:1870-2020年苏格兰和美国的月经技术和经济要求
《免费用品法》是第一个向苏格兰各地的妇女和月经者免费提供月经用品的全国性立法。然而,这并不是偶然发生的,它遵循着科技进步和社会变革的历史趋势。本文追踪妇女接受月经技术与盛行的社会和政治向量在美国和苏格兰的关系。有四个重要的历史时刻标志着技术的变革和采用:维多利亚时代晚期和第一批月经产品;从第一次世界大战到20世纪30年代的现代时期,大量生产和宣传卫生巾;第二次世界大战到二十世纪中期,卫生棉条的普及;以及20世纪70年代的女权运动,包括向月经杯的转变。在每一种产品中,都有来自世界事件和内部社会变化的不同压力,这些变化鼓励女性采用新产品。但是,当雇佣劳动对国家有利的时候,一些机构、医疗服务提供者和教育工作者施加压力,要求人们忽视各种形式的月经耻辱,转而使用月经产品。这些转变和运动,以及广告和产品品牌的流行视觉文化,涵盖了月经景观。这些历史时刻和当代月经景观标志着当前的转变正在形成,月经杯作为一种环境可持续的方式来管理月经。这与《免费供应法案》相一致,根据该法案,国家资助的经期产品供应服务于经济、环境和对性别平等的关注。
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来源期刊
Open Library of Humanities
Open Library of Humanities HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
1.30
自引率
20.00%
发文量
24
审稿时长
15 weeks
期刊介绍: The Open Library of Humanities is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal open to submissions from researchers working in any humanities'' discipline in any language. The journal is funded by an international library consortium and has no charges to authors or readers. The Open Library of Humanities is digitally preserved in the CLOCKSS archive.
期刊最新文献
(Un)staþolfæstnes and its Problems: Grounding Minds in Early Medieval England Briefing Paper: Assessing the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 as Model Menstruation Legislation Lost in Fragmentation: On how to deal with Fragments of a special Performance Form from Mali in the Collection KOLK 17 in Lübeck Confinement and the Transnational in Emma Donoghue’s Room Periods and the Menstrualscape: Menstrual Technology and Economic Imperatives in Scotland and the United States, 1870-2020
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