Menstrual Trolls: The Collective Rhetoric of Periods for Pence

Abstract

This chapter explores the protest strategies of Periods for Pence, a collective of Indiana menstruators and allies who organized in response to the passing of extreme antiabortion legislation, House Enrolled Act 1337, by then-Governor Mike Pence in 2016. Through an analysis of the group’s transcribed calls to Pence’s office, as well as various social media posts, Conner illustrates how Periods for Pence engaged in acts of narrative sharing, humor, and symbolic reversal to craft a cohesive account of varied experiences with menstruation. The study also draws on logics of menstruation to rhetorically re-moralize abortion as necessary. Conner concludes by demonstrating how critical study of menstruation-related activism asks scholars to rethink traditional conceptualizations of static “waves” of feminism and feminist rhetorical theorizing.