Issues of Blood - The Politics of Menstruation (Paperback, 1990 Ed.)

Why do women so often feel ashamed of having periods? Sophie Law's research convinced her that the answer lay in men's attitudes to menstruation. This book takes a unique approach to the subject, investigating what men really know and think about menstruation, and how, as lovers, fathers, husbands, doctors or 'experts', they impost their views on women.

Men's attitudes to menstruation are impossible to separate from how they see women generally. Ideas about women's 'natural' inferiority, and concern that women's needs and problems may inconvenience men are common themes. Women are not allowed to create their own meanings for bodily events like menstruation, and may meet with angry hostility if they fail to observe the etiquette of silence. Such oppressive attitudes make it very difficult for women to feel in any way positive about something which is undeniably about being a women - this book shows how an understanding of what women are up against may be needed to bring release form the negative messages of patriarchal cultures.