Conceptual Framings of Menstruation in 20th-Century British Menstrual Product Advertising: Visible Stigma, Invisible Bleeding

Abstract

This article aims to build on previous scholarship on the analysis of menstrual product advertising through a case study of British print advertisements in magazines from the latter half of the 20th century. Drawing on curatorial techniques and thematic analysis, the discussion situates these advertisements within the context of the study of youth cultures, girlhood studies, and postfeminist media cultures alongside sociological examinations of menstruation. The analysis demonstrates key continuities between discourses of postfeminist media culture and modernity represented in these archival advertisements and contemporary notions of menstrual normativity.