---

Period drama! Pop culture makes menstruation 'overly traumatic'.

July 12, 2012

A study by the University of Melbourne has raised concerns about Hollywood's treatment of menstruation, and whether it's frightening girls into believing it is worse than the reality.

Researcher Dr Lauren Rosewarne, from the University's School of Social and Political Sciences, has analyzed hundreds of representations of menstruation in film and television.

"The presentation of menstruation on screen is an overwhelmingly negative one," she said.

The analysis included jokes, plotlines and references from popular TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Friends and Grey's Anatomy, and blockbuster films like Annie Hall, Anchorman and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

"The regularity, normalcy and uneventfulness of real life menstruation is rarely portrayed on screen. Instead, it's treated as traumatic, embarrassing, distressing, offensive, comedic or thoroughly catastrophic," she said.

"There are numerous portrayals where menstruation is considered as evil, disgusting and as the root of all female evil."

Dr Rosewarne said these negative representations affected how women approached their own experiences.

"Girls in real life are viewing menstruation as a hassle, women are happily filling prescriptions to make it go away, men are mocking it, loathing it and rarely understanding it," she said.

"On screen presentations likely have some complicity."'

The research identified the representation of menstruation in Carrie (1976) as perhaps the most traumatizing.

"The fusion of a naked girl, shower stream, screaming and blood harked back to cinema's most famous shower horror scene from Psycho. Even though the audience presumably recognized Carrie was only menstruating, the character's terror was contagious."

Dr Rosearne's full analysis will appear in her upcoming book, Periods in Pop Culture, to be published by Lexington Books.

The University of Melbourne

Related Menstruation Current Events and Menstruation News Articles

Women's reproductive ability may be related to immune system status
New research indicates that women's reproductive function may be tied to their immune status. Previous studies have found this association in human males, but not females.

Women altering menstruation cycles in large numbers, UO study shows
A surprisingly large number of women 18 or older choose to delay or skip monthly menstruation by deviating from the instructions of birth-control pills and other hormonal contraceptives, a team of University of Oregon researchers and others found in a study of female students at the university.

Period pain not made worse by copper IUD
Previous scientific studies have suggested that women who use a copper IUD for contraception suffer from worse period pain, but a study at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, that followed 2,100 women over a 30-year period shows that this is not the case.

Link between obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome may be exaggerated
The relationship between obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome may be exaggerated, likely because the women who actively seek care for the condition tend to be heavier than those identified through screening of the general population, researchers report.

Tiny RNA molecule may have role in polycystic ovary syndrome, insulin resistance
A group of tiny RNA molecules with a big role in regulating gene expression also appear to have a role in causing insulin resistance in woman with polycystic ovary syndrome and, perhaps, in all women, researchers report.

Researchers study a rare disease making people look like a woman but having male genitals under study
University of Granada researchers have designed a guideline for physicians and patients on the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), a rare disease that makes the subject develop reverse sex, which occurs when a subject looks like a woman but has male genes.

Test to detect pre-menstrual syndrome
Even though there are many women who do not notice any special symptoms, there are some whose pre-menstrual disorders hamper their everyday lives: depressive mood, anxiety, excessive emotional sensitivity, fatigue, lack of concentration, headache, etc.

Infertility: How can the ovulation function be restored?
One of the most frequent is the existence of tumours that induce an over-secretion of this hormone. These women present with chronic infertility due to anovulation.

Early menopause associated with increased risk of heart disease, stroke
Women who go into early menopause are twice as likely to suffer from coronary heart disease and stroke, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.

Continuous oral contraceptive pills offer women earlier pain relief
Taking oral contraceptives continuously, rather than as traditionally prescribed for each cycle, provides earlier relief for moderate to severe menstrual cramps -- dysmenorrhea -- according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

---

More Menstruation Current Events and Menstruation News Articles

---