Sex Roles (2006) 54:331345 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 ve web sites and eight paper zines (self-produced and distributed magazines) was conducted to uncover the inspiration, content, and unique strategies associated with text -based contemporary menstrual product activism. Menstrual product activism is loosely dened as various attempts to expose the hazards of commercial feminine protection to both womens bodies and the environment and the promotion of healthier, less expensive, and less resource-intensive alternatives. This activisms discourse draws on many traditions to produce its resistance to mainstream menses management. The movement, rst and foremost, is the legacy of several decades of related activism, dating to the mid1970s. Contemporary menstrual product activism updates and modies this tradition with the do it yourself ethic and anti-corporate philosophy of Punk culture and Third Wave feminist ideals of anti-essentialism, inclusion, humor, irony, and reappropriation. To date, this activist agenda has received little scholarly attention, yet it promises to yield meaningful insight into so called Third Wave feminist theory and practice and reveal the resilience of a woman-centered modern history of resistance. Keywords Menstruation . Womens health activism . Third wave feminism ax tampax. in spirit of challenging and collapsing the insidious nature of the corporate monster
C. Bobel ( ) Department of Womens Studies University of Massachusetts, Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA e-mail: chris.bobel@umb.edu

that gobbles and trashes and fucks us over . . . in response to the dirty business . . . we have made this recipe book. as an act of resistance to the system that tramples over the homegrown d.i.y. style we are sick of how they co-opt our life to spit out into franchises . . . to over package our needs into taxed luxuries . . . we are sick of the garbarators that insists to dismember . . . we are sick of how it insists to hide and disguise our experiences fuck the mark up they make on their lies . . . DOWN WITH THE INVENTORS OF NECESSITIES! to the uprise when we stop popping tampons and the popping big business medicines . . . we fuck the poisons that kill our free remedies . . . when we fuck the complacency to build the uprising . . . to bleed and use weeds to stop feeding the corporate greed when we ax tampax and what it embodies (The Bloodisters, Red Alert #3, circa late 1990s, p. 3). This piecepart poetry, part manifesto, and part statement of conscienceshouts from a publication produced and distributed by a Montreal-based activist group called The Bloodsisters. They are dedicated to exposing the risks associated with conventional so-called feminine protection, that is, menstrual products, and raising awareness about alternatives, such as reusable cloth pads, internal collection devices, including sea sponges and various cups, such as the Keeper, and organic and/or natural commercial tampons and
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pads (For a more detailed description of menstrual care products taken from the perspective of a menstrual product activist, see Appendix A). Their writing (never attributed to an individual but always to the group) is a poignant example of the kind of discourse typical of the contemporary menstrual product activism practiced by a small but spirited number of mostly young women in the US and Canada. Angry, inventive, tongue-in-cheek, anti-corporate, and evocative of an earlier era, menstrual product activists are simultaneously the product of an earlier phase of this movementinspired by the Second Wave feminist health movementand the creators of a new style of activism infused with the energy and attitude of contemporary young women. Before delving deeply into contemporary menstrual product activism, I will offer a brief overview of the roots of this movement. A Brief History of Menstrual Product Activism Menstrual health activism is rooted in the womens health movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which challenged the male-dominated medical establishment and empowered women to take control of their bodies and their health. Through the development of various self-help methods, feminist-run clinics, and a plethora of resources (such as the ubiquitous Our Bodies, Ourselves rst published as Women & Their Bodies in 1970 by the Boston Womens Health Book Collective), women learned to rely on themselves and each other to meet their health care needs (Morgen, 2000; Ruzek, 1979; Weisman, 1998; Zimmerman, 1987). This movement, which interrogated the status quo surrounding every aspect of a womans embodied experience, naturally led some activists to ask questions about how women managed their menstrual cycles. For example, early in the movement, Lorraine Rothman pioneered menstrual extraction, primarily as a self-help means of abortion, but some women used her patented Del Em apparatus to shorten their menstrual period from a matter of days to a matter of hours (Copelton, 2004; Federation of Feminist Womens Health Centers, 1991, 1995; Ruzek, 1979). Menstrual extraction involves manually extracting the contents of the uterus around the time of the month when a woman anticipates her menses or up until approximately 8 weeks from the rst day of the last menstrual period (Federation of Feminist Womens Health Centers, 1991, 1995). But the dawning of a critical menstrual product consciousness did not occur until the mid 1970s. In Delaney, Lupton, and Toth (1977) published The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation, which devoted a full chapter to the sanitary protection industry, questioning the biodegradability of disposable products and challenging the industrys use of gimmickry to liven up sales (p. 110). A year later, Boston Womens Health Book Collective (BWHBC) members Esther Rome and Emily Culpepper launched what would become more than a decade of unSpringer

precedented activism when they penned a brochure entitled Menstruation, which devoted a full page to menstrual product use including a discussion of the sponge and the diaphragm as alternatives to conventional pads and tampons (Boston Womens Health Book Collective, 1977). At the same time that BWHBC released this brochure, the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research was founded. These events marked the legitimization of the menstrual cycle as a worthy subject of scholarly research and provided an active context and network for members to promote menstrual health. In 1979, Jeanne Pavarti published her now classic Hygieia: A Womans Herbal. In addition to promoting a positive view of menstruation as a source of womens pride and power, the book included a pattern for homemade cloth menstrual pads. Still, at that time, only the fringe of the womens health movement took notice of menstrual products and considered alternatives until a medical crisis hit and thrust tampon safety into the public consciousness. The Toxic Shock Syndrome Crisis Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is a rare but potentially fatal disease caused by a bacterial toxin, most commonly streptococci and staphylococci. TSS struck very small numbers of people until Procter & Gamble, a newcomer to the sanitary protection market, introduced a new super absorbent synthetic tampon called Rely r . The TSS epidemic reached its peak in 1980 with a total of 813 cases of menstrualrelated TSS, including 38 deaths (Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 1999). By 1983, more than 2,200 cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the majority of those cases involved menstruating women (Tierno, 2001). Under extreme pressure from the FDA and to avoid the imminent threat of a damning product recall, P&G voluntarily withdrew Rely r from the market and removed itself from the tampon production business until it bought Tambrands (makers of Tampax r ) in 1997. The TSS crisis stimulated a wave of activity aimed at tampon safety. Tampon manufacturers themselves, engaged in a bit of damage control, ceased using polyester foam implicated in toxin productionin their products. In 1981, journalist Nancy Friedman (1981) published Everything You Must Know About Tampons. The book with the arresting title discusses the tampon-TSS link and alternative products. Also in 1981, Rome and Culpepper updated their brochure Menstruation with an addendum titled Toxic Shock Syndrome: A 1981 Update, a very clear message of extreme caution for consumers. Around the same time, ostensibly in response to activist demands in the wake of the TSS crisis but unwilling to issue a mandate, the FDA requested the Association of Testing & Materials (ATSM) to convene a group that consisted of tampon manufacturers, consumers, the FDA, and other interested parties to write a private,

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voluntary, tampon standard. Three members of the BWHBC, Judy Norsigian, Esther Rome, and Jill Wolhandler attended on behalf of consumers. Sadly, the ATSM group disbanded after 3 years of virtual intransigence (Rome & Wolhandler, 1992). Although the FDA was unwilling to mandate safety and performance standards, it did issue a regulation that requires tampon package labels to advise women to use the lowest absorbency tampon to meet their needs. This regulation, enacted in 1982, encouraged companies who had voluntarily printed such information on the exterior of boxes to move the statement to box interiors. Around the same time, Nancy Reame, nursing professor and reproductive science research scientist at the University of Michigan and SMCR member, appeared on The Today Show with Jane Pauley to discuss tampon safety (Reame, personal communication, June 9, 2004). In the fall of 1983, the FDA, independent of ATSM, extracted an agreement from tampon manufacturers to put lowest-absorbency-needed advice on the outside of packages. This advice, however, was practically meaningless, because there was no uniform product labeling across the industry. In response, activists Rome, Wolhandler, Reame, and the not-for-prot public advocacy group Public Citizen initiated a campaign to standardize absorbency ratings. This battle was won in 1990. In 1989, microbiologists Philip Tierno and Bruce Hanna (1989) published the results of their research on tampon ingredients and the link to Toxic Shock Syndrome in the Review of Infectious Diseases. Their research established a link between super absorbent synthetic materials and the production of the bacteria-causing TSS, legitimized fear of tampons, and helped to create and maintain a market for alternative products in the US. In Britain, 1989 was a watershed year. A small group of feminist environmental activists led by Bernadette Vallely organized a national media blitz designed to enrage consumers and motivate them to take action. Vallely and fellow activists Josa Young and Allison Costello published the Sanitary Protection Scandal, which inspired the national network television program World in Action to air a program on the hazards of chlorine gas bleached paper products. In a mere 6 weeks, all of the major British sanitary protection producers, except tampon manufacturers, pledged to eliminate the use of the chlorine gas bleaching process (Armstrong & Scott, 1992; Vallely, personal communication, September 5, 2003). In 1990, while listening to a keynote address delivered by Vallely, nature photographer Liz Scott was inspired to export the British success to North America (Armstrong, personal communication, November 5, 2003). Two years later, Armstrong, together with environmental lawyer Adrienne Scott, published Whitewash: Exposing the Health and Environmental Dangers of Womens Sanitary Products an Disposable DiapersWhat You Can Do about It.

During the next several years, a vigorous wave of activity took place. Several alternative menstrual product companies were founded: Lunapads (1993), Ecologique (1994), Organic Essentials (1996), Instead (a disposable menstrual cup) (1996), and Goddess Moons (1997). Harry Finley opened his Museum of Menstruation in the basement of his Maryland home in 1994; the museum tells the history of the industry and raises questions about product safety. In 1995, Penny Wheelwright and Theresa MacInnes (1997) released their independent documentary lm Underwraps: A Film About Going with the Flow (it has since been renamed Menstruation: Breaking the Silence). Their lm featured a number of members of what they called the menstrual underground, and brought visibility to an otherwise little-known movement. In the next several years, several key texts appeared and stimulated young women to pick up and continue the work that Rome and others began in the mid 1970s. In 1995, writer Karen Houppert, angered by the rising cost of tampons while the number of tampons per box decreased, wrote an investigative expose for the Village Voice titled Pulling the Plug on the Sanitary Protection Industry. This widely read and very controversial feature later grew into her 1999 book The CurseMenstruation: The Last Unmentionable Taboo. In 1998, Third Wave feminist Inga Muscio published Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, which challenged (mostly young radical feminist) readers to rethink the ways they manage their bleeding. Soon thereafter, the Student Environmental Action Coalition, a national, grassroots, student, environmental organization, founded its Dioxin Out of Tampons campaign in 1999, and the rst ever Anti -Tampon conference was held in 2000 at James Madison University. Also in 2000 the poet/writer Geneva Kachman and lmmaker Molly Strange established Menstrual Monday, a holiday designed to challenge menstrual taboos, secrecy, and negativity (see www.moltx.org). It is in this context that contemporary menstrual product activists articulated their call to arms to Ax Tampax!

Contemporary Menstrual Product Activism Concerns Todays menstrual product activism, sometimes called radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, anti-tampon activism, alternative menstruation and my favorite (the name of an e-zine) menarchy, is loosely dened here as various strategic attempts to expose the hazards of commercial feminine protection to both womens bodies and the environment and the promotion of healthier, less expensive, and less resource-intensive alternatives. But why? Whats wrong with feminine protection in its current form? Why
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arent some consumers satised with the gains already made in the area of tampon safety? In short, menstrual product activists advance ve main concerns and focus their disapproval primarily with whats now called the femcare industry. First, the activists are troubled by the environmental and personal health impacts associated with the bleaching process used to make products whiter than white. Tampons sold in the US are made of cotton, rayon (made from cellulose bers derived from wood pulp), or blends of rayon and cotton. A bleaching process is employed to transform the wood pulp into rayon. Until the late 1990s, chlorine gas was used to bleach the wood pulp, and this process produced trace levels of dioxin in tampons. Dioxin is a part of a large class of chemicals called organochlorines, which have been linked to cancer, toxic shock syndrome, endometriosis, and birth defects among other health problems (see Armstrong & Scott, 1992; Costello, Vallely, & Young, 1989; Houppert, 1999). These very toxic compounds are the source of much controversy. In the late 1990s, the major commercial tampon brands began switching from dioxin-producing chlorine gas bleaching methods to either elemental chlorine-free or totally chlorine free bleaching processes (FDA, 1999). But whereas the industry maintains that the dioxin risk is non-existent, even the FDA admits that the rst method, elemental chorine-free, can theoretically generate dioxins at extremely low levels, and dioxins are occasionally detected in trace amounts in mill efuents and pulp. In practice, however, this method is considered to be dioxin free (FDA, 1999). Activists, such as the organizers of the national Tampaction campaign (formerly known as the Dioxin Out of Tampons campaign mentioned earlier), a campaign of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), question industry claims of total safety because: the tests that have been done were provided by the tampon manufacturers, and no tests that have been done can prove that any tampons are completely dioxin free. When dealing with the most absorbent part of your body, why take the risk? (SEAC, 2004, n.p.) Second, contemporary menstrual product activists question the safety of the common tampon material, rayon, independent of the bleaching process used. Miniscule amounts of rayon can be left behind in a menstruators vagina when she wears a tampon (especially after prolonged use), activists allege, and ber loss has been implicated as a health risk. In addition, rayon has been linked to vaginal ulceration and peeling of the mucous membrane, thus producing a breeding ground for infection (Bloodsisters, n.d.; SEAC, 2004, Wilkins, 2000). A third activist concern regarding conventional menstrual products is the environmental devastation brought on by the use of commercial, non-biodegradable, disposable products.
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Not only does the production process generate contaminated wastewater, but also tampon applicators wash up on beaches and pads and tampons and their packaging clog landlls, sewers, and water treatment plants. Estimates vary, but if a woman uses ve tampons a day for 5 days per month for 38 total menstruating years, she consumes and disposes of 11,400 items (see Fawn, 2001; Houppert, 1999; SEAC 2004) Activists regard this amount of waste as irresponsible and unnecessary. A fourth concern is cost. Activist Fawn P., as cited in Wilkins (2000, p. 17) stated the average menstruating consumer will spend at least $2,137.00 on feminine products during her lifetime (though this appears a low estimate given rising costs). Activists encourage women to avoid supporting an industry they regard as potentially hazardous to both menstruators bodies and the environment and to channel their resources elsewhere. The fth and nal activist concern is more abstract but nonetheless potent. Activists resist the use of commercially produced disposables because, in their view, they are designed to obscure the reality of menstruation. Products are marketed to women to hide the fact of their bleeding by using materials that can be wrapped up and tidied away. Menstruation is constructed as a problem that needs to be solved. Premiums on discretion, convenience, modesty, and cleanliness, activists say, are industry-promoted (if not created) and cost women their self esteem and a positive, afrming, menstrual experience (Houppert, 1999; SEAC 2004). Inuences As shown, contemporary menstrual product activism springs from a tradition of agitation and progress of nearly 30 years. Yet, although it is inspired by this history, it is also a movement shaped by other recent cultural and ideological developments. In particular, contemporary menstrual product activism is inuenced by the Punk movement and emerging Third Wave feminism. Punk The Punk movement dates back to the late 1960s in North America and the 1970s in the United Kingdom (see Leblanc, 2001). It is difcult to provide a coherent history of Punk because, as ethnographer of girls Punk subculture Lauraine Leblanc (2001, p. 33) stated, there is little agreement about its geographic origins, its ideologies, its membership, and even . . . its continued existence. There is agreement, however, that Punk began as a subculture based on music that more generally enacted a disgruntled and direct opposition to authority and mainstream culture. Further, it is agreed that

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Punk has historically existed as an overwhelmingly white subculture. Rather than subscribing to norms of compliance and obedience expected of youth, Punks, including hardcore, Spirit of 77, gutter, crusty, postcard, new school, and old school (see Leblanc, 2001, for in depth descriptions of each Punk type) embrace their own stylized norms of opposition as members of a reexive subculture. Punks seek to remain outside the dominant culture, while illuminating central features of it (Levine & Stumpf, 1983, as quoted in Leblanc, 2001, pp. 6364). A key feature of Punk, called DIY: Do It Yourself, rst materialized as a form of self-reliance when Punks picked up guitars and taught themselves and each other how to play. This enabled them to found their own self-styled garage bands. DIY is also the means used to produce homemade, handmade, photocopied, and self-distributed magazines, called zines (more information on zines will follow). Self-help or DIY is the bridge that links the womens health movements focus on self-help with Punk. Third Wave Feminism Existing alongside and often intersecting with Punk is another movement mostly associated with youth, though recent scholarship has disputed a generational specicity (Henry, 2004). Third Wave feminism, the newest wave of the womens movement, is gaining increasing attention as a force to be reckoned with among activists, academics, and anyone who takes seriously the theory and practice of contemporary feminism (Bail, 1996; Baumgardner & Richards, 2000; Garrison, 2000; Henry, 2004; Heywood & Drake, 1997; Orr, 1997). Scholars and activists struggle with the notion of the Third Wave. Is it a movement? Is it a generational variant of the Second Wave? Because Third Wave is very much in development, a consensus has not yet been established, but certain themes have emerged that seem to characterize Third Wave and set it apart from its First and Second Wave feminist predecessors. Most signicantly, Third Wavers are noted for their attempt to break with the past of the Second Wave, especially the racism, heterosexism and classism of much of that eras theory and practice and to reckon openly with contradictions such as critiquing consumerism while participating in it, or, as Rebecca Walker (1995) wrote, using and much more than we use either/or (p. xxxv). Method In order to better understand contemporary menstrual product activism, I conducted an in-depth content analysis of ve web sites or e-zines (I will use these terms interchangeably) accessed during the period September 2001January 2003

and eight zines produced by various menstrual product activists. Most of the paper zines are still available through various zine distribution services, called distros in the DIY/Punk community. For a complete listing of the materials included in this analysis, see Appendix B. Zines are dened as noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines, which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves (Duncombe, 1997, p. 6). According to Duncombe (1997), zines in their distinct form were born in the 1930s when fans of science ction began producing what were then called fanzines as a means of communicating with each other as consumers, critics and producers of science ction. In the 1970s, fans of Punk rock music started producing their own zines in which they discussed the genre and culture unique to Punk. In the 1980s, the Sci Fi and Punk tradition of zine making was joined by fans of myriad other cultural genres, alienated self-publishers ignored by the mainstream, and political dissenters from the 1960s and 1970s, and thus, the current generation of zines were born. The fan has been dropped, and, according to Duncombe and others (see Vale, 1996, for example) the culture of zines has grown dramatically. Due to the ephemeral nature of any self-published and distributed product, however, it is difcult to nd an accurate number of zines in circulation, let alone track a growth curve from past to present. One zine researcher cited between 10,000 and 50,000 zines traded or sold to an estimated readership of 13 million (Chu, 1997). Regarding e-zines specically, the Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists includes over 3,400 titles, a 100% increase over the previous years count of 1,689. The number of e-journals (which includes titles classied as e-zines, or magazines) makes up 72% of the total, with 2,459 listings, whereas e-newsletters account for 955 entries (Mogge, 1998). Why study zines to better understand contemporary menstrual product activism? According to Chrisler and Kaufman (1988) magazines are a popular source of health information for women. In fact, they found that young women prefer magazines as a source of their information about health. It may follow, then, that zines, the magazines of many contemporary youth, serve a similar function. In order to locate the materials appropriate for this study, I engaged in a thorough search between September 2001 and January 2003. During that time, I searched various on line distros, using the key words menstruation and tampons. I also searched using the engines google.com and yahoo.com for appropriate web-based or e-zines. I quickly discovered the self-reexive community doing the work of menstrual product activism. The websites linked to one another and often referenced the paper zines I then set out to acquire. In some cases, a website also has a paper zine version. Most of the materials I located were produced from the late 1990s through 2002.
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In general, the websites and zines utilized a similar format. In most cases, the zines and websites begin with an explanation of whats wrong with the conventional or mainstream feminine protection industry in terms of hazards to womens health and devastation to the environment. Typically, this expos is followed by a detailed discussion of ale ternatives to mainstream, commercial, sanitary napkins and tampons. Usually, this in-depth description is written as a personal narrative in which the writer shares her experiences with each of the alternatives. Finally, the zines and websites typically provide a list of resources for further information other zines, websites, and sources for purchasing alternative products. Sometimes, the zine or website includes a pattern for making ones own homemade, reusable, cloth, menstrual pads. It is important to note that the zines, as self-published, independent publications, typically lack dates of publication and page numbers, which is often frustrating for researchers studying the materials. Once I collected all available zines and identied all currently active web sites/e-zines,1 I employed the axial coding method of thematic analysis (Loand & Loand, 1995) to reveal how the selected texts aimed to expose the industry and promote the use of alternatives. In particular the key themes, tensions, and strategies employed to meet the activists goals were interrogated.

of resistance update menstrual product activism. These inuences, I show, produce a unique form of activism that is contemporary and innovative. Part One: Legacies of the Past in Contemporary Menstrual Product Activism Theme 1: Im working at familiarization: Promoting down and dirty self-awareness. A key theme that recurs in the menstrual product activist discourse is self-awareness, or as one zinester put it, familiarization. The narrative unfolds similarly: social stigma and an exploitative industry have discouraged women from knowing their bodies. A necessary step in liberating women from this dual oppression is to unlearn the shame, resist the corporate brainwashing, and, literally, get our hands dirty learning how our bodies work. This newfound awareness will lead us to care better for our menstruating (and non- menstruating) bodies. The excerpt below exemplies this approach to developing a new menstrual consciousness. The author of the zine Its Your Fucking Body #2: Reclaim Your Cunt (n.d.) wrote: I think it has denitely been ingrained in all of us to not want to touch ourselves when were menstruating. There is an intrinsic fear of that blood. And that just seems really fucking unnatural. Its just blood (sic). I dont have nearly as many weird mental ties with the blood that comes out of my knee when I scrape it as I do with the blood that comes out of my cunt. And I mean, the blood coming out of my cunt on this somewhat regular cycle SHOULD be comforting and normal to me. Ive come a really long way I think as far as familiarizing myself with my vagina goes, but I STILL have this innate fear of getting blood on my hands and on my sheets. Im working at it, though. Im working at familiarization. (p. 3) The commitment to self and body awareness is clearly a legacy of the feminist health movement when women gathered in their living rooms armed with hand held mirrors, ashlights, and plastic specula and began to examine their own cervices (Federation of Feminist Health Centers, 1991, 1995) Usually, however, cervical self-exam was conducted in a group setting. I am not aware of a similar group dynamic at work among the menstrual product activists. Bleeding is still a private matter, even if less stigmatized and shamed. It would be a bit more logistically challenging to gather a group of menstruating women to examine their blood or experiment with their new Keepers, for instance, but it would not be impossible. Why, then, are women not working at familiarization together? Women do, however, gather for pad making workshops, sometimes called Stitch n Bitch,2 in
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Results The present analysis is divided in two parts. Part One demonstrates how contemporary menstrual product activism is reective of the philosophy and strategies associated with the earlier phase of this movement, positioned as a direct descendant of the Womens Health Movement. Through the discussion of three interrelated themes, I attempt to show specically the legacy of previous activists in the work of todays menstrual product activist zine producers. In brief, earlier effortsinspired by the feminist health movementare evident in contemporary menstrual product activists attempts to displace authority and challenge the secrecy and misinformation about womens bodies. The activists perceive corporations as nefarious institutions that engineer campaigns to keep women ignorant and therefore dependent on unsafe and expensive commercial products when in reality, they claim, the products are hardly problem-free, and alternatives do indeed exist. Part Two reveals legacies as well, but of different sources. I aim to show how a Third Wave feminist sensibility combined with a Punk critique of consumer culture and various tactics
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Since conducting this analysis, I have identied several more menstrual activist zines in circulation; thus, this analysis should not be construed as exhaustive but, more accurately, representative. Springer

Feminist legend has it that sewing societies of the 19th century operated as places where women surreptitiously hatched strategies for

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which they teach one another how to make their own cloth, reusable, menstrual pads. Theme 2: Prot(ing) from my misadventures: Using personal narratives to educate and inform. A related theme involves using the self as guinea pig and sharing the results of a self-study, as done in the e-zine S.P.O.T. On her web page, creator Tracy Bennett provided a detailed personal account (written by journalist Karen Houppert, 1995) of trying each of several alternative products, including cloth pads, the Keeper, the Diva Cup, the Moon Cup, the Sea Sponge, Chlorine-free Disposable Pads, and Non-chlorine Bleached 100% Cotton Tampons. Her strategy is widely used in the zines and websites of menstrual product activists. (Whirling Cervix, an e-zine, does the same, for example). The narrative reads nothing like a series of commercials, but rather, like personal testimonies that expose the pros and cons of using each product from one womans perspective. No general claims or promises are made, but rather an offer of experiences readers might consider as they embark on their own misadventures. This self-as-example/selfas-study approach enjoys a rich tradition in the history of feminist self-help. For instance, when self-helper Lorraine Rothman rst developed and practiced menstrual extraction in 1971, she insisted on trying the controversial procedure on herself before offering it to others; she provided an if its good enough for me, its good enough for you form of reassurance (Copelton, 2004). For instance, read the following less than rousing description of using cloth pads mounted on S.P.O.T.s page and attributed to Karen Houppert (1995): Major bummer for the city dweller who hasnt got her own washer and dryer and sometimes doesnt do laundry for weeks at a time. Plus, its very much a drag when you discover, a week or two after the fact, that youve forgotten a used pad, now buried and fermenting at the bottom of your gym bag. True, cloth pads are comer and less bulky than commercially sold paper ones, but its a little like comparing a corset with a girdle. (n.p.) This strategy of sharing personal experiencethe good, the bad, and the uglyserves to reassure the reader that she is getting a (at least one womans) true account, one she can trust to be reliable. These raw stories contrast sharply with the slick advertising campaigns most of us are left to decode and decipher when faced with making a product choice. The activists, it seems, work very hard at speaking woman-towoman, consumer-to-consumer, and steer painfully clear of
gaining suffrage and staged other gender-based social change actions. For example, a popular contemporary T-shirt worn by young feminists reads Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society. It also appears on the back cover of one of the Bloodsisters zines. Whether the women designing and naming these events are conscious of this historical (though undocumented) historical reference is a matter for further inquiry.

presenting a picture void of negativity. Personal experiences are not sanitized here. They are real and messy and sometimes contradictory. You, the reader, are smart enough to make your choicesso goes the discourseand we refuse to insult your intelligence (and buy into the corporate model) by leading you to purchase a product that may not be right for you. Or as S.P.O.T. stated on page 1, Explore the site, read articles written by others, look at alternatives, and then make up your own mind. Theme 3: Just a little Random Girl: Self -effacement as strategy. At times, the approach of foregrounding personal experiences as a tool of decision-making crosses the boundary to self-effacement. Take for instance, e-zinesters pen name: RandomGirl which seems to imply that she is neither an expert nor attached to an institution, but simply just one girl with something to say. At one point in her website (when she is marketing herself as a distributor of the Keeper), she undermines herself as the best source for this product, perhaps communicating her ambivalence about participating in the world of commerce, as she stated (RandomGirl, n.d.): And if you dont feel comfortable getting a Keeper from me, but you still want one, PLEASE check out Eco Logique, Inc, which is the major distributor of The Keeper. You should denitely go and buy from them, if you feel funny mailing your payment to a little RandomGirl . . . or if you want to use a credit card . . . then again, they probably deserve your business more than I do regardless, cuz they were doing this when I was still running around wearing o.b. (p. 3) Another convention of de-centering the self as omniscient is the use of ramble. Random Girl titled her 1997 webpage, Random Girl Rambles About the Keeper, in which she did little actual rambling and much dispensing of detailed clearly organized information. Similarly, the e-zine Whirling Cervix heads the rst of 11 well-organized and comprehensive pages of information with the title I babble about menstruation, again suggesting that the information the reader encounters is to be taken as nothing more than one individuals take on one topic. I do not wish to overstate the self-effacing tone because it must necessarily be seen in context. The purpose of diminishing the self as authority has two functions. First, by making very clear that the writer is just one RandomGirl for instance, the reader is empowered to value her own experiences and opinions. Critical thinking and personal exploration is modeled and championed. If I did this (resisted, experimented and even wrote a zine or website about it) so can you, goes the narrative. The point is not to suppress free expression but stimulate more of it. The second related purpose of the tone of little ole me is to place noticeable distance between so-called, often self-described, experts who disempower women by dictating what is right and wrong
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and invite no dialogue (often purveyed as paternal reassurance). In the context of menstrual product activism, public enemy number 1 is, of course, the feminine protection industry (a.k.a, the corporate creeps as one zinester put it). According to the activists, the obvious agenda of the marketers of the feminine protection industry is to position themselves as knowing best what women need and want when it comes to managing menstruation. Arguably, thinking for ones self and making informed choices that take into consideration both personal and environmental health are not the concern of the industry. The activists vehemently resist this message and, thus, perhaps overcompensate by packaging their own message as individualized and part of a plurality of voices unafraid, even encouraging, to be challenged. The activists, then, seem very aware of the threat of cooptation and work hard to keep their distance from the tactics of the offenders. Keeping in mind the ways that menstrual product activism echoes earlier womens health activism, I turn now to the ways the movement departs from this tradition. Part Two: Reections of Punk and Third Wave in Contemporary Menstrual Product Activism Theme 1: Im desperately attempting to not sound really cheesy and wombmoon-ly: Menstrual product activists discomfort with Cultural Feminism. A recurrent theme in the discourse of menstrual product activists centers, not surprisingly, on identity. In particular, many activists seem compelled to enunciate very clearly who they are not. They are not, as the writer of e-zine Whirling Cervix (n.d.) stated, the type to enthuse about becoming one with the chalice and the Goddess . . . but, she continued, cramps still suck, but its nice to be a little more in touch with that time of the month (p. 7). Her words suggest that although she intentionally dissociates from a particular tradition of body awareness-the cultural feminist celebration of the body, the goddess, and all things natural and earthyshe connects with the tradition inasmuch as she nds value in getting a little more in touch with her bodys cycle.3 Repeatedly, in many of the various texts I studied, this theme of distancing from the goddess strain of feminist discourse was present. In some cases, this disenchantment with a goddess-inspired
3

menstrual politics manifested outright hostility. For instance, the S.P.O.T. included the following superhero-inspired tale written by journalist Karen Houppert (1995): My foray into the world of alternative menstrual products takes the shape of a super heros quest. Special powers: a death-defying ability to contort my vagina around recalcitrant products. Shazam! An unruly sponge is tamed. Holy nappies! One more double-thick pad is wrestled into submission beneath jeans. My mission: to make the world safe for femi-nazis. My motto: no super plus is too great, no junior/lite too insignicant. Only one thing can bring me to my knees. The Kryponite of the body-and-blood set: celebrate-our-cycles liturgy. Sadly, New Ageans dominates this market. Take New Cycle Products for example. The catalogue cover looks innocuous enough. Just another sea nymph dangling from a slivered moon. But inside afrmationsMay our sunlight-consciousness illuminate the vessel of our moon-womb-chaliceattack me from all directions. Moon Bowls, pots to soak used pads in before washing them and returning this rich soaking water to plants and gardens for amazing results, reinforce the over-riding theme: Women have an innate understanding of the Universe that is directly linked to their ability to cycle. And catalogue copy is not content with your cycles. It wants your rstborn as well. First timers are sucked into celebrating menarche with the Cycle Celebration Crown Kits. (n.p.) What is being resisted here, exactly? Mama Sutras Menstrual Moon Magick, a now-defunct e-zine originated in 1998 by Kirsten Anderberg,4 is an example of the approach some zinesters oppose. It focuses more on cultivating menstrual pride and less on exposing hazards of conventional products. Anderberg invoked goddess imagery, especially of lesser-known goddesses Baubo and Sheela-na-gig and proclaimed, By exalting our menstrual cycles in art and myth, we honor the womb of all things (p. 1). For Anderberg, a self-identied anarchist, Punk, and DIY zinester, reclaiming the Goddess is a political act, one that challenges patriarchal control of womens bodies by referencing powerful images of women throughout history, an alternative to the shame, secrecy, and misinformation that surround womens experiences of menstruation. On the opening page just below an illustration of a naked, bejeweled woman squatting and menstruating, the site stated: Women give blood without hurting ourselves. Our blood is the womb for life to grow if that is to be. It is a powerful,
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Simply, cultural feminism, a branch of radical feminist theory, refers to the body of feminist theory and political action that celebrates the differences between women and men and invests energy into the reclamation, creation and nurturance of womens culture (see Gilligan, 1982; Rich, 1977; Ruddick, 1983) for poignant examples. One product of this orientation is the study and practice of goddess-centered spiritual traditions (see Christ, 1997; Christ & Plaskow, 1979; Gimbutas, 1989; Starhawk, 1982, Stone, 1976, for just a sampling of this vast literature that exploded primarily in the 1980s).

While Mama Sutras Menstrual Moon Magick is no longer online, Anderbergs vulva museum expresses a celebration of the historical Goddess tradition and its potential for reclaiming womens power as embodied agents. See http://resist.ca/1kirstena/pagevulvamuseum1. html.

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heavy, magic, life-giving force. It comes as no surprise that in a Patriarchy, menstruation is shrouded in shame and feelings of dirtiness. Women are something to be sanitized, we need protection from our life-giving forces! The medical profession has treated menstruation as a female problem for a long time. This mentality regarding womens monthly ow has raised generations of women who are embarrassed, rather than empowered by their natural state. (p.1) However, most activists spent less time and energy creating marked distance between themselves and the goddess feminists. In the bulk of instances, a more mild form of detachment, still often expressed with the humor and irony of the S.P.O.T.s approach, sufced to make readers aware that this kind of menstrual product activism isnt soft or sappy or at risk of breaking into a round of chants, however inaccurate or unfair this characterization. For example, the author of Its Your Fucking Body #2: Reclaim Your Cunt confessed: for me, personally, making my own pads and using the Keeper has created so much more intimacy between me and my menstruating cunt. That sounds really granolawomyn-dykey but its true for me at least (p. 4). Later, regarding the making and washing of reusable cloth pads, she wrote: I dont really know what Im trying to say here and Im desperately attempting to not sound really cheesy and wombmoon-ly, but it think there is a denite value to radical menstruation because it breaks down those sterile walls of individually wrapped plastic devices that keep us from becoming friends with our vaginas. (Its Your Fucking Body #2: Reclaim your Cunt, n.d., pp. 67). One piece of evidence that a real rift exists between the pragmatic menstrual product activists and the goddessinspired activists is a brief bit of prose attributed to the Bloodsisters and published in Femmenstruation Rites Rag. Might the Bloodsisters, clearly seen by activists as the most accomplished and most well known group of menstrual product activists (nearly every zine mentions them; nearly every website and e-zine links to them), be attempting unication of the two camps? The following passage suggests that they regard the schism as unproductive and a product of patriarchal patterns of inghting that distracts from issue-oriented solidarity. With these words, they imply that the movement must make room for a diverse range of perspectives and expressions. We are feminist terrorists We are quiet moss bleeders We are riot grrrl boy catchers We are goddess thumpers We are bloody Punk rockers We are moon worshippers

We are terrible singers We are dirty girl power (Attributed to the Blood Sisters in Femmenstruation Rites Rag, n.d., p. 38.)5 Still, a rift does exist. And why? Why are menstrual product activists who emerged from the ground of Third Wave feminism and Punk culture uncomfortable, even hostile, to one particular expression of Second Wave feminist thought and practice? The answer may well lie in one of the main three constitutive elements of menstrual product activism: Third Wave feminism. As mentioned above, goddesscentered thought and practice is an aspect of Second Wave cultural feminism, features of which are the celebration of certain so-called womanly qualities of nurturance, care, empathy, and compassion, and, in some cases, advocacy for women-only spaces in which to cultivate and strengthen such qualities. Women, say cultural feminists, are oppressed because the qualities of womanhood are denigrated. To eradicate sexism, we must challenge this process of demeaning such gendered attributes. The oppression is not in the gender, per se, but in perception of the gender (Dinnerstein, 1976; Gilligan, 1982). Of course, among feminist theorists, this particular strain of feminist theorys promise for effecting social change has been questioned (see, for instance, Grant, 1993). Third Wave feminists who do not necessarily identify with the woman-as-nurturer representation have soundly challenged that kind of thinking. Embedded in a historical post modern moment of cultural relativism, categorizations of any sort are suspect, especially given how race, class, sexuality, and other layers of identity make any monolithic conception of woman impossible. Rather, Third Wave feminists argue, contradiction is the stuff of womens experience, and it must necessarily be incorporated into any feminist politic. In her introduction to her edited anthology To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, Walker (1995) wrote: Constantly measuring up to some cohesive fully downfor-the-feminist-cause identity without contradictions and messiness and lusts for power and luxury items is not a fun or easy task . . . For many of us it seems that to be a feminist in the way that we have seen or understood feminism is to conform to an identity and way of living
5

Further evidence of repair to this rift is represented in the evolution of Kirsten Anderberg herself. She reports a dramatic transformation since the mounting of her e-zine. Forged in the re of street activism and the experience of police brutality, she grew increasingly frustrated with the status quo and grew more militant in her efforts to effect social change. She now identies more with third wave feminists, though she subscribes to neither the separation between the waves nor the differentiation between feminists (Anderberg, personal communication, August 30, 2005). Springer

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that doesnt allow for individuality or complexity or less than perfect personal histories. (p. xxxi) Womb imagery, for instance, rings hollow for women who dont identify with their procreative capacities (or lack of capacities). Calling attention to the uniquely female experience of monthly bleeding excludes young girls, post menopausal women, transgendered and transsexual women and women, who for myriad other reasons, cannot or will not bleed. Third Wave feminists are invested in inclusion, not essentialism and thus, nd cultural feminists ideologically rigid and backward. Furthermore, the (usually temporary) gender-based separatism that is often a part of feminism as a means to build womens community and provide safe spaces for women to explore, question, and heal from the ravages of sexism is anathema to Third Wave feminists, who remain unconvinced that so-called womens culture has caused signicant change in the gender order. Besides, Third Wave feminists argue, we need to build more connections with men, not sever the already weak ties. Furthermore, it is argued, we cant expect Women of Color or poor women to deny their race or class and identify only as women, when their identities are much more complex than that. Furthermore, for socially marginalized women, connections to Men of Color or poor women are necessary for survival and solidarity. Theme 2: Our revolution has style: The use of humor, reappropriation and culture jamming as tactics of resistance. But how do menstrual product activists do their activism? We now have some insight into how they make sense of the issue and conceptualize their identity, but what sorts of tactical moves constitute the very stuff of their activism? Remember that this analysis is limited to text and electronic productions as I transition now to three key tactics common to the writing of menstrual product activists. One unmistakable feature of the zines and websites is the use of humor. When reading these zines, one will likely nd oneself smiling, even sometimes furtively at the ribald writing. Make no mistake about it: menstrual product activism is fun, the zines seem to proclaim. No one can accuse these young feminists of lacking a sense of humor. The writers of both the paper and e-zines utilize a plethora of tactics to engage the reader and infuse an element of playfulness in the work of the movement, a legacy of Third Wave feminism as previously discussed. For example, in Femmenstruation Rites Rag, Cunt Woman, a hand drawn image of a vulva with arms and (hairy) legs, speaks in thought bubbles about key topics such as menarche, sex during menstruation, PMS, and tampon alternatives. Another piece in the same zine includes a Blood Cheer set to a Beastie Boy tune that exhorts women to let it go, let your blood ow and smear it on your face and rub it on your body, its time to start a menstrual party (p. 19). The cheers author performed
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the cheer at a Halloween party while dressed as a bloody tampon. This type of in your face humor, with a clear element of shock to awaken consciousness, is very common in menstrual product activist discourse. Clearly, these tactics prevent the criticism often leveled at Second Wave feminists that they are humorless, dry, or too serious and draw in readers who might otherwise nd this taboo topic too gross or personal to consider. Activists who engage in what is known as radical cheerleading, a stylized action connected with the Punk and anarchist communities, perform cheers like the one described above. Radical cheerleading is one of many means activists use to recycle mainstream practices and subvert them to suit the needs of their particular agenda. Other creative recycling or reappropriation is evidenced in Red Alert #2 (1999) in which the Bloodsisters offered thanks for the (respectfully) stolen images (p. 3) that pepper their pages. Notable images from assorted zines include a skipping, pinafored-and-blackpatent-leather-shoes-clad little girl (n.p.); models posing in a circa 1950s sewing pattern publication (n.p.); cowgirls with the copy why ride the ol cotton pony? GET UNPLUGGED. Choose reusables (n.p.); and a circa 1950 model sporting a high style bathing suit and cat eye sunglasses with the superimposed text our revolution has style (n.p.). Each of these images communicates a message very different than the one the image was originally produced to convey. Sometimes the images are used as expos (e.g., pretty silly e how those women are posing, isnt it?) or reclamation (e.g., lets celebrate the innocence of little girls rather than exploit it, and/or she may look innocent but dont underestimate this someday-woman). In any case, the liberal use of images juxtaposed with self-generated renderings of Punk girls, comic strips of gender ambiguous protagonists, and provocative photographs of women in panties and semi-naked women produce a message that is visually engaging and conceptually complex. Another form of reappropriation used in the zines is the manipulation of existing, familiar images. Raggedy Ann, for example, is pictured in Red Alert #3 (n.d., n.p.) seated alone in the corner of an otherwise blank page looking very angry. Her eyebrows are redrawn as arched, and her mouth is down turned. She sits opposite the page that features a manipulated box of Always r maxi pads. Now it is clear why Raggedy Ann is angry. Reappropration as subversion is not new, certainly, but what is notable here is the way it is so clearly reminiscent of Punk cultures tactic of taking known artifacts (such as sh net stockings paired with baby doll dresses and combat boots) as a direct affront to propriety. Deal with our glaring contradictions, say Punks. I am sexy, I am provocative, and I can kick your butt if you dont respect me on my terms. In Pretty in Punk, ethnographer Lauraine Leblanc (2001) documented the contradictory use of images (in this case projected onto the body instead of onto the page

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or computer screen) to subvert dominant understandings of youth, gender, and sexuality. Menstrual product activists produce movement materials in much the same way. Still another common strategy used by the menstrual product activists involves reproducing advertisements by the feminine protection industry and altering them as a means of parody. Reminiscent of grafti seen on billboards, this strategy directly confronts what the activists regard as the industrys dishonest and empty promises and rewrites the advertisements to reect a more authentic story, for example, that tampons are linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome. The transformation of the Always r advertisement to read Go Away sends a very clear message from activist to industry: We dont want you or your dangerous product. This form of activism is called culture jamming, a term coined in 1984 by the San Francisco-based band Negativland (Klein, 1999), and dened as the the practice of parodying advertisements and hijacking billboards in order to drastically alter their messages (p. 280). Culture jammers, according to Klein, boldly reject the passive absorption of advertising and challenge what is intended as the one way ow of communication from advertiser to hapless, uncritical consumer, to a talk back where the consumer reveals the truth in advertising, the story beneath the advertisement. Taken together, the uses of humor, reappropriation, and culture jamming subvert the feminine protection industrys control over womens bodies. Laughing, cutting and pasting, and ultimately redening the symbols of femininity, the menstrual product activists claim a stylized space where bleeding is normal and every menstruator exercises agency and autonomy. Surely, the ultimate aim of the activists is consistent with the aim of earlier activists, but their means to the end differ. The use of humor, the reworking of images intended to objectify women and girls, and culture jamming are not among the tactics employed by earlier activists. Theme 3: We all come from cunt, but we dont all bleed: Including transfolk in menstrual product activism. A nal theme involves issues of inclusion. As Fawn (2001) writes in her introductory essay to Red Scare #3: Ive been working on menstruation-related stuff for quite a while now, and theres an element of it that makes me uncomfortable (p. 3). She went on to challenge an essentialist denition of woman that necessarily includes bleeding, a denition ostensibly advanced by many activists as a great universalizer that connects women at the most basic level. Referencing the incredibly controversial womyn-born womyn policy of the Michigan Womyns Music Festival, she wrote: Why shut an M to F trannie out of your music festival (or a transitioning F to M)? Just to reduce things to this minimum, to set up a fence, to establish a false qualier for all those who are allowed in? Its like only letting the

real Americans run for president, or only letting the real couples get married in your church. I wonder if this isnt what were doing with menstrual product activism sometimes. Its true, we all come from cunt, but we dont all bleed, and menstruation isnt the thing that makes us all womyn. (p. 3) Marie A produced an insert for the second edition of her Its Your Fucking Body#2: Reclaim Your Cunt (n.d.) with what she considers a realization regarding radical menstruation. She wrote: ive realized over the past few weeks that all of the resources Ive come across concerning radical menstruation (including the ones I have written) seem to neglect these 2 really important facts: 1. Not all women menstruate 2. Not just women menstruate Blanket statements that seem to be really prevalent within this movement like all women menstruate I think are supposed to bring us together but do just the opposite. Statements like that completely invalidate transwomen and nontrans women who do not bleed for a variety of reasons. Not all women menstruate. Lots of nontrans women dont menstruate due to different diseases, cancers, surgical procedures, and just plain menopause and hysterectomy, although transwomen maybe dont have the same need for this information, its still really crappy to exclude them from our denition of WOMAN by basing it completely on a physical function that some of us experience and some us dont. (n.p.) Here, the activist articulated more than a need to include transgendered people and transsexuals, but ANY selfidentied woman who, for any number of reasons, does not menstruate. She argued for a truly inclusive movement rooted in a non-biological denition of woman. She acknowledged that some individuals may not want or need menstrual information, but the point is less about audience as it is about an inclusive denition of woman that resists a false solidarity based on biological realities that do not universally apply. Notably, resistance to the all women bleed sentiment in menstrual product activism is slim. The passages excerpted above may suggest a trend at best, but they certainly do not represent a common awareness. Still, the fact that some activists are engaging this issue of inclusion sets the movement a bit apart from the Second Wave feminism that championed a universal denition of woman as a mobilizing force.6
6

For a classic statement of universal womanhood that obscures differences based on class, race, and sexuality, see Redstockings Manifesto (1969).

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Discussion What has this analysis revealed? And what remains to be explored and understood? Because scholarly study of menstrual product activism has only just begun, it seems safe to say that, at this early point, we have more questions than answers. Nonetheless, some understanding regarding the origins, nature, and character of this particular type of activism is taking shape. Menstrual product activism is clearly an outgrowth of the work of earlier activiststhemselves inspired by the emerging womens health movementwho pushed for product safety and labeling and suggested the use of alternative products. Contemporary menstrual product activisms resistance to andocentric and so-called objective authority is undisputedly a legacy of the same critique advanced by the women who challenged the menstrual product industry and the lack of government regulation by ghting to provide menstruators with safer options. However, a closer look at menstrual product activism forces us to reckon with the myriad ways in which their resistance breaks with the tradition of earlier efforts to develop and promote a critical menstrual product consciousness, as we know it. First, a Punk sensibility opposed to mainstream cultural products, especially commodication and commercialization, inspires activists to critique and resist the femcare industry. Through a process of education and empowermentfacilitated by DIY/self-help paper and e-zines, consumers can take back their menstruation and achieve health at low cost to self and planet. But menstrual product activists past and present meet on the common ground of standing up to misogynist conceptions of womens bodies that deny women their own agency and power. Thus the themes of resisting the dominant/status quo standard of care and replacing it with empowered self-knowledge and self-help (or DIY) are at work in both phases of the movement. Second, contemporary menstrual product activists draws on Third Wave feminism to update the movement and produce a form more relevant to many contemporary young feminists. The challenge to essentialism vis a vis cultural feminist constructions of womanhood; the use of humor, reappropriation, and culture jamming; and the nascent but emerging attention to trans issues all reect the values associated with the feminism that is gaining prominence in the early 21st century. Nevertheless, my analysis leaves many unanswered questions. For one, it fails to address the many other inuences that bear on menstrual product activism such as eco-feminism, voluntary simplicity/simple living and a more careful deconstruction of Punk which focuses on Riot Grrrl, a derivative Punk community that combines the rebelliousness of Punk with a radical critique of patriarchy both within Punk and beyond (Starr, 1999). A fuller and

richer analysis of contemporary menstrual product activism must necessarily acknowledge these inuences as well. Further, a number of limitations of this present study provide portals to future inquiry. Because this article is focused exclusively on a small number of electronic and printed representations of contemporary menstrual product activism, it yields only a limited sense of the intentions and strategies of the activists. This discourse, of course, tells only part of the story. Ethnographic data, including in-depth interviews with a wide range of menstrual product activists, promise to reveal much. Questions guiding future inquiry may include: do activist intentions correlate with their actions? Does the text really tell the story? Are the contemporary activists selfaware of the legacies I see at work in their movement? Do they identify with the activists who preceded them? Do they know the history of their movement? Clearly, this work is not nished. Until then, the present analysis offers a glimpse into an important effort at putting women in control of their bodies and their health. A focus on the menstrual cycle, in particular, the interaction between menstruator and the behemoth femcare industry, illustrates the ways that activists reinvent the movement to keep it alive and resonant. Above all, contemporary menstrual product activism, simultaneously shaped by its past and its present, demonstrates the persistence and resilience of feminist resistance, day-by-day, year-by-year.

Appendix A: An Menstrual Activists Annotated List of Alternative Products (Adapted from RandomGirls e-zine:. http://www. RandomGirl.com/products.html) We all need something we can bleed on. . . Clearly, I think a lot about menstrual products. I think about them, read about them, and try them. Clearly, ALL women bleed and most of us dont feel inclined to just let it ow wherever it may. Its a pretty basic need, but most women really arent informed about the options. Is there life beyond Tampax? So, heres a quick little list for you of your menstrual product options, ranked from what I see (based on what Ive read and experienced) as the best options to the bad ones that you should never ever use. Washable pads Random Girl says: You should DEFINITELY use washable pads! Good aspects They let your blood ow naturally, as it was meant to NO risk of toxic shock syndrome

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No chlorine bleaching, so no worry about dioxin Reusable, hence better for the environment Affordable Soft and comfy

Not-so-good aspects You have to be willing to wash them Not so convenient when youre out. You may have to carry the bloody pads home in a plastic bag Can be bulky If you just wash them by hand, they get pretty hard and crunchy, so a washing machine is needed The Keeper Menstrual Cup Random Girl says: You might want to try out the Keeper! Good aspects COLLECTS blood. Does not absorb blood Reusable, hence better for the environment No chlorine bleaching Lasts for 10 years Affordable 3-month money back guarantee You cant really feel them when youre wearing them, much like a tampon

They can y out if you sneeze or laugh when they are heavily saturated Technically, they are an animal product, so theyre a no-no for vegans The fact that they are being harvested from the ocean seems sketchy to me. this could be causing a problem with the ecology of the ocean Since they dwell on the bottom of the ocean, they are probably chock full o pollutants and toxins They arent generally sold as menstrual products, so you just buy the sponges at any health food store Non-Chlorine Bleached, all cotton tampons Random Girl says: If you absolutely NEED to use a tampon, these are the way to go! Good aspects No chlorine bleaching Convenient to wear and change Organic ones are available and are not laden with pesticides They generally are applicator-free, so cause less waste than traditional tampons Not-so-good aspects There is a chance of TSS More expensive than mainstream tampons Absorb vaginal lubricants that shouldnt be absorbed; alter the environment of the vagina Disposable and wasteful Clog up septic system Disposable pads Random Girl says: These are not so good. if you are using pads, you should go for the washable kind! Good aspects No risk of TSS Let you ow like youre supposed to Never a challenge to nd where to buy them Not-so-good aspects Use chlorine bleaching.. bad for you and bad for the environment Disposable and extremely wasteful bulky, scratchy and uncomfortable Most are made by companies that are just evil (e.g., Proctor & Gamble (sic)) Since you have to keep buying them, the cost adds up

Not-So-Good Aspects There is a slight chance of TSS It can be messy to change it, especially in a public bathroom The suction effect is initially disconcerting Only comes in 2 sizes, so it might not t you perfectly Takes a few tries to learn how to insert it properly If you have a full bladder, it can knock it out of place and make it leak Sea Sponges Random Girl says: I have never used them personally, so I cant speak with authority here!! Good aspects Reusable, hence better for the environment Havent been linked to TSS No chlorine bleaching Affordable You cant really feel them when youre wearing them, much like a tampon You cut them to the size that is right for you Not-so-good aspects It can be messy to change it, especially in a public bathroom You have to be sure to clean them really well

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Mainstream Tampons Random Girl says: Never, never, never, EVER use any of these things.. Tampax, o.b. and all of the rest are just awful! Good aspects Convenient Not-so-good aspects Use chlorine bleaching. bad for you and bad for the environment STRONG link between them and TSS Disposable and extremely wasteful, especially the ones with plastic applicators Most are made by companies that are just evil (e.g Proctor & Gamble) Absorb vaginal lubricants that shouldnt be absorbed; alter the environment of the vagina Clog up septic systems You have to keep buying them, so they are expensive They are NOT sterile! In fact, they are lthy Many add deodorants that should NEVER be in a product that will be inside of your body Contains articial ingredients, such as rayon, and many other things.. companies are NOT required to label all of the ingredients in tampons

E-zines/Websites Menarchy. http://www.us.geocities.com/menarchy/ RandomGirl rambles about the Keeper www.RandomGirl.com/oldkeeper.html www.RandomGirl.com/keeper.html www.RandomGirl.com/products.html the S.P.O.T.: The tampon health website. www.spotsite. org Whirling Cervix ezine http://www.digressonline.com/lgbtplus/ whirling%20cervix.html Student Environmental Action Coaltion Tampaction Campaign www.seac.org/tampons Bloodsisters. www.bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters References
Anderberg, K. (2005, August 30). Personal communication. Anderberg, K. (1998). Mama Sutras menstrual moon magick. Ezine. Retrieved 30 June, 2003 from http://www.angelre.com/or2/ adoreyourself/pagemenstrualmagic.html (now defunct). Armstrong, L. (2003, November 5). Personal communication. Armstrong, L., & Scott, A. (1992). Whitewash: Exposing the health and environmental dangers of womens sanitary products and disposable diaperswhat you can do about it! New York: Harper Perennial. Bail, K. (Ed.). (1996). DIY feminism. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Baumgardner, J., & Richards, A. (2000). Manifesta: Young women, feminism, and the future. New York: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux. Bloodsisters. (1999). Red Alert #2; Self-published zine. Bloodsisters. (n.d.). Red Alert #3; Self-published zine. Bloodsisters. (n.d.). We are feminist terrorists. In Chantal & Brackin (Eds.) (n.d). Femmenstruation rites rag (p. 38). Self-published zine. Boston Womens Health Book Collective. (1970). Women & their bodies. Boston: New England Free Press. Chantal & Brackin (Eds). (n.d.). Femmenstruation rites rag: Stories of wimmins blood & rites of passage. Self-published zine. Chrisler, J. C., & Kaufman, S. (1988, April). Health autonomy: An exploration of health attitudes and behaviors in college students. Poster presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Buffalo, NY. Christ, C. (1997). Rebirth of the goddess: Finding meaning in feminist spirituality. New York: Routledge. Christ, C., & Plaskow, J. (Eds). (1979). Womanspirit rising: A feminist reader in religion. San Fransisco: Harper & Row. Chu, J. (1997). Navigating the media environment: How youth claim a place through zines. Social Justice, 24(3): 7185. Copelton, D. (2004). Menstrual extraction, abortion, and the political context of feminist self help. In V. Demos & M. Texler Segal (Eds.), Advances in gender research (pp. 129144). London: JAI Press, Ltd. Costello, A., Vallely, B., & Young, B. (1989). The sanitary protection scandal. London: Womens Environmental Network. Delaney, J., Lupton, M. J., & Toth, E. (1977). The curse: A cultural history of menstruation. New York: Mentor. Dinnerstein, D. (1976). The mermaid and the minotaur. New York: Harper & Row. Duncombe, S. (1997). Notes from the underground: Zines and the politics of alternative culture. London: Verso. Fawn, P. (2001). Red Scare #3. Self-published zine.

Appendix B: Paper and E-zines/Websites Paper Zines (Note: Specic paper zines can be difcult to acquire. Runs are typically small and when a zine runs out, there are simply no more available. Web sites were active at the time of my analysis. The contact addresses and some websites may be out dated by the time of publication. Dates of publication are given when known). Femmenstruation rite rag: Stories of wimmins blood and rites of passage. Created by Chantal & Brackin., July 2001. Contact: shantrel@hotmail.com Its your fucking body. Created by Marie A., n.d.. Contact: craftyas@craftyass.com Its your fucking body #2: Reclaim Your Cunt. Created by Marie A. n.d.. Contact:craftyas@craftyass.com Pull the plug on the feminine hygiene industry. Created by erin w. July 2000. Contact: dialed into you@yahoo.com Red alert #2. Created by The Bloodsisters Project. Contact: www.bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters Red alert #3. Created by The Bloodsisters Project, n.d. Contact: www.bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters Red scare #3. Created by Fawn P. Summer/Fall 2001, Contact: redscare@eudoramail.com
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Sex Roles (2006) 54:331345 Friedman, N. (1981). Everything you must know about tampons. New York: Berkley Books. Federation of Feminist Womens Health Centers. (1991, 1995). A new view of a womans body. Los Angeles: Feminist Health Press. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. (1999, July 23). Tampons and asbestos, dioxin, and toxic shock syndrome. www.fda.gov/ cdrr/consumer/tamponsabs. Retrieved June 18, 2003. Garrison, E. K. (2000). U.S. feminism-grrrl style! Youth (sub)cultures and the technologics of the Third Wave. Feminist Studies, 26(1), 141170. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and womens development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gimbutas, M. (1989). The language of the goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Grant, J. (1993). Fundamental feminism: Contesting the core concepts of feminist theory. New York: Routledge. Henry, A. (2004). Not my mothers sister: Generational conict and third wave feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Heywood, L., & Drake, J. (Eds). (1997). Third Wave Agenda: Being feminist, doing feminism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Houppert, K. (1995). Pulling the plug on the sanitary protection industry. VillageVoice. Retrieved June 24, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.spotsite.org.village.html. Houppert, K. (1999). The cursemenstruation: Confronting the last unmentionable taboo. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Klein, N. (1999). No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies. New York: Picador. Leblanc, L. (2001). Pretty in Punk: Girls gender resistance in a boys subculture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Loand, J., & Loand, L. (1995). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis (3rd Ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Marie, A. (n.d.). Its your fucking body. Self-published zine. Marie, A. (n.d.). Its your fucking body #2: Reclaim your cunt. Selfpublished zine. Mogge, D. (1998, February). ARL directory tracks growth in epublishing. Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Newsletter. Retrieved June 3, 2003, from http://www.arl.org/newsltr/196/ dej.html. Morgen, S. (2000). Into our own hands: The womens health movement in the United States, 19691990. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers. Musico, I. (1998). Cunt: A declaration of independence. Seattle, WA: Seal Press. Orr, C. (1997). Charting the currents of the Third Wave. Hypatia, 12, 2940. Parvati, J. (1979). Hygieia: A womans herbal. Monroe, UT: Freestone Publishing Collective. Redstockings. (1969). Redstocking Manifesto. In W. Kolmar & F. Bartkowski (Eds.), Feminist theory: A reader (pp. 174176). London: Routledge.

345 RandomGirl.com. Retrieved January 24, 2003 from http://www. randomgirl.com/products.html & randomgirl.com/oldkeepr.html. Reame, N. (2004, June 9). Personal communication. Rich, A. (1977). Of woman born: Motherhood as experience and institution. New York: Bantam. Rome, E., & Culpepper, E. (1977, 1981). Menstruation. [Brochure]. Boston: Boston Womens Health Book Collective. Rome, E., & Wolhandler, J. (1992). Can tampon safety be regulated? In A. Dan & L. Lewis (Eds.), Menstrual health in womens lives. (pp. 161273). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Ruddick, S. (1983). Maternal thinking. In J. Treblicot (Ed.), Mothering: Essays in feminist theory (pp. 213230). Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld. Ruzek, S. (1979). The womens health movement: Feminist alternatives to medical control. New York: Praeger. Starhawk. (1982). Dreaming the dark: Magic, sex, and politics. Boston: Beacon Press. Starr, C. (1999). Because: Riot Grrrl, social movements, art worlds, and style. Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Irvine. S.P.O.T.: The tampon health website. Retrieved June 24, 2003 from http://www.spotsite.org. Stone, M. (1976). When God was a woman. New York: Dial Press. Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC). (2004). Tampaction. Retreived October 31, 2004 from http://www.seac.org/tampons/. Tierno, P. (2001). The secret life of germs: What they are, why we need them and how we can protect ourselves against them. New York: Atria Books. Tierno, P., & Hanna, B. (1989). Ecology of toxic shock syndrome: Amplication of toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 by materials of medical interest. Review of Infectious Diseases, 11(Suppl 1), S1826S186-7. Vale, V. (Ed.) (1996). Zines!(Vol. I). San Francisco: V Search. Walker, R. (1995). Being real: An introduction. In R. Walker (Ed.), To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism (pp. xxviiiixl). New York: Anchor Books. Weisman, C. (1998). Womens health care: Activist traditions and instutitional change. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Wheelwright, P. (Writer/Producer) & MacInnes, T. (Producer). (1997). Menstruation: Breaking the silence. [Motion picture]. (Available from Films for the Humanities, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053). Whirling Cervix. Retrieved January 24, 2003 from http://nofuncharlie. com/whirlingcervix. Wilkins, E. (2000). Pull the plug on the feminine hygiene industry. Self-published zine. Zimmerman, M. (1987). The womens health movement: A critique of the medical enterprise and the position of women. In B. Hess & Ferree, M. M. (Eds.), Analyzing gender: A handbook of social science research (pp. 442472). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

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