Addressing menstrual stigma through sex education in England- taking a sociomaterial turn

Abstract

Menstruation and menstrual stigma have recently attracted the attention of education policymakers in England. In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) published new guidance on delivering relationships, sex and health education that included teaching about menstrual wellbeing and in 2020 made menstrual products freely available in all state-funded primary and secondary schools in England. The DfE argue that these dual interventions are important for tackling menstrual stigma by normalising menstruation in school. However, these interventions emphasise the management of menstruation in terms of physical health while this article argues that foregrounding how menstruation features in young people’s everyday experiences and routines could also be important for addressing stigma. This theory-focussed paper invites a turn away from a humanist positioning on menstruation and menstrual stigma. It discusses existing human-centred research on menstruation and draws on ideas from relational sociomaterial theory to highlight how researching the role of material things in young people’s engagements with menstruation can influence understandings about menstrual stigma and young people.