Introduction: Menstruation as Narrative

Abstract

Personal stories, urban legends, literature, media representations, and other kinds of narratives provide means of sharing information about menstruation, including what women and other menstruators should and should not do during their periods. For instance, no book has had more impact upon pubescent North American girls than Judy Blume’s 1970 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Girls growing up in the 1970s and onward, in a cultural milieu where they were encouraged to silence their questions and hush their bodies, had a protagonist with whom to identify and empathize.