Menstruation Of Women Analysis

The one part of a woman's body that makes her unique is also the one part that stigmatizes her and gives rise to negative connotations. The vagina: the fountainhead of female sexuality, femininity, and the place of gestation. A woman's vagina is capable of nature's most miraculous event, that is, the birthing of young. This body part also assists with the expulsion of “one of nature’s most stigmatized fluids” (Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 9). Along with the ability of sustaining a fetus, the vagina will expel menstrual fluid from the uterus if fertilization does not occur when an egg is released from the ovaries. It is the menstrual fluid that creates such a negative image and elicits feelings of disgust in American culture (and around the world).
There are stereotypes that many woman endure because of menstruation. Stereotypes of menstruating and premenstrual women include: “ tearful, tense, weak, physically ill, mentally unstable, easily enraged, out of control and potentially violent” ( Marvan, Vasquez-Toboada, and Chrisler 280). These stereotypes are carried down to the very symptoms of menstruation. Menstrual-cycle related symptoms are heavily related to society's expectations on how woman should act and feel during their period. I conducted a poll in which I asked participants to respond to the following: “woman on their periods are often.... (1) Emotional, (2) Grumpy, (3) Tired, (4) and Indifferent.” Participants were allowed to select up to two
This also shows that all men who participated follow the trend of the stereotyping of menstruation in which emotional, grumpy, and tired could be expected of a menstruating woman. Further studies revealed that if women were primed to think about their periods before receiving a test of cognition, their cognition would diminish. Josepher Wister, Margaret Stubbs, and Chaquica Shipman conducted a study in which 92 participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Of those assigned, 20 were placed into the group where they were negatively primed about their periods. The 20 females were asked to take a 6-item survey that asked the participants “to provide descriptive information about their own menstrual cycles including: age of first menstruation, length of a typical menstrual period, an estimation of how many days since the last day of the last period, and how many days until the first day of the next expected period” (Wister, Stubbs, Shipman 24). Upon completion of the menstrual history survey, the females then completed a cognition test. This group completed significantly less items correctly than the groups that did not experience menstrual threat conditions. The resulting conclusion was that the mention of menstruation negatively effected the cognition of the participating