Period Stain and Social Evaluation. The Performance of Shame
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/13758Keywords:
Body, Emotions, Shame, Menstruation, GenderAbstract
The "period stain" could be considered as a symbolic and material object with strong moral overtones. In this article, I propose to analyze it from the research program of gossip and reputation (Giardini & Wittek, 2019a) in dialogue with the intersection between Simmel’s and Goffman’s relational sociology on one side, and feminists’ theories from the other. I will give an account of the meanings attributed to body information, such as the staining of clothes with menstrual blood and the impact on the social evaluation of bodies from a woman's point of view. To achieve this, I analyze the results of an instrument applied in March 2021 entitled Virtual survey on the experience of menstruation in the context of the pandemic caused by Covid-19. Although women do not share the gender stereotypes associated with menstruation, they reveal the negative impact these stereotypes had on the social evaluation of this bodily experience. Women are concerned about the negative evaluation that others have of the experience of the period stain. I will show how the performance of shame associated with period stain is narrated; and, how mockery is an affective device of reputation. However, there are also ways to re-signify the experience based on solidarity among friends.
References
Ahmed, S. (2014). The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Álvarez, N., & Loeza, N. (2021). La vida en rojo. Diagnóstico sobre gestión menstrual en las mujeres y personas que integran las poblaciones callejeras. Ciudad de México: COPRED.
Artavia, F. (2020). Humiliation. Social Anatomy of a Dark Emotion. Simmel Studies, 24(2), 89–117. https://doi.org/10.7202/1075568ar
Barbalet, J. (2004). Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure. A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Beauvoir, S. (2010). The Second Sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1949)
Besnier, N (2019). Gossip in Etnographic Perspective. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation (pp. 100– 116). New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Bobel, C. (2020). Introduction: Menstruation as Lens-Menstruations as Opportunity. In C. Bobel, I.T. Winkler, B. Fahs, K.A. Hasson, E.A. Kissling, & T.-A. Roberts (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, (pp. 1–5). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bobel, C., Winkler, I., Fahs, B., Hasson, K.A., Kissling, E.A., Roberts, T. (Eds.). (2020). The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Davis, A., Vaillancourt, T., Arnocky, S. & Doyel, R. (2019). Women’s Gossip as an Intrasexual Competition Strategy. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation, (pp. 303–321). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Fingerson, L. (2006). Girls in Power. Gender, Body and Mestruation in Adolescence. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
Frippiat, D. & Marquis, N. (2010). Web Surveys in the Social Sciences: An Overview. Population, 65, 285–311. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.1002.0309
Gaulejac, V. (2008). Las fuentes de la vergüenza. Buenos Aires: Mármol Izquierdo.
Giardini, F. & Wittek, R. (2019a). Introduction. Gossip and Reputation. A Multisciplinary Research Program. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation (pp. 1–20). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Giardini, F. & Wittek, R. (2019b). Gossip, Reputation and Sustainable Cooperation. Sociological Foundations. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation (pp. 23–45). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Goffman, E. (1956a). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Manhattan, NY: Random House.
Goffman, E. (1956b). Embarrassment and Social Organization. American Journal of Sociology, 62, 264–271.
Goffman, E. (1987). Gender Advertisements. New York, NY: First Harper Torchbooks.
Jaworski, G. (2020). Goffman, Schutz and the ‘Secret of the Other’: On the American Sociological Reception of Simmel’s ‘Das Geheimnis des Anderen’. In G. Fitzi (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Simmel Studies (pp. 372–382). New York, NY: Routledge.
Johnston-Robledo, I., & Chrisler, J.C. (2013). The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma. Sex Roles, 688, 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0052-z
McHugh, M. (2020). Menstrual Shame: Exploring the Role of ‘Menstrual Moaning’. In C. Bobel, I.T. Winkler, B. Fahs, K.A. Hansson, E.A. Kissling, & T.-A. Roberts (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (pp. 409–422). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Martinescu, E., Janssen, O., & Nijstad, B. (2019). Gossip and Emotion. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation (pp. 152–169). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Menstruación Digna México (2020). #MenstruaciónDignaMéxico presenta iniciativa para eliminar el IVA del 16% a productos de gestión menstrual. Fundar. https://fundar.org.mx/menstruaciondignamexico-presenta-iniciativa-para-eliminar-el-iva-del-16-a-productos-de-gestion-menstrual/
Miller, I. (1997). The Anatomy of Disgust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Origgi, G. (2019). Reputation in Moral Philosophy and Epistemology. In F. Giardini & R. Wittek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation (pp. 69–81). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ramírez, R. (2019). Ciberactivismo menstrual: feminismo en las redes sociales. PAAKAT: Revista de tecnología y sociedad, 9(17), 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.32870/Pk.a9n17.438
Sabido Ramos, O. (2019). El análisis sociológico de la vergüenza en Georg Simmel. Una propuesta para pensar el carácter performativo y relacional de las emociones. Digithum, 23, 1–15. http://doi.org/10.7238/d.v0i23.3148
Sabido Ramos, O. & García Andrade, A. (2017). El cuerpo de los amantes. El amor como experiencia sensible en jóvenes universitarios. In A. Domínguez, & A. Zirión (Eds.), La dimensión: sensorial de la cultura. Diez contribuciones al estudio de los sentidos en México (pp. 243–270). Ciudad de México: UAM-Iztapalapa.
Sabido Ramos, O. & García Andrade, A. (2018). In the Name of Love: A Relational Approach to Young People’s Relationships in Urban Mexico. In T. Juvonen, & M. Kolehmainen (Eds.), Affective Inequalities in Intimate Relationships (pp. 141–154). New York, NY: Routledge.
Segato, R. (2013). La escritura en el cuerpo de las mujeres asesinadas en Ciudad Juárez. Territorio, soberanía y crímenes de segundo estado. Ciudad de México: Tinta Limón.
Serendipia (2021). Menstruación digna en México ¿Qué es?. Serendipia. https://serendipia.digital/datos-y-mas/menstruacion-digna-en-mexico/
Scheff, T. (1990). Microsociology: Discourse, Emotion, and Social Structure. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Scheff, T. (2000). Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory. Sociological Theory, 18(1), 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/0735-2751.00089
Shefer, T., & Munt, S. (2019). A Feminist Politics of Shame: Shame and Its Contested Possibilities. Feminisim & Psychology, 29(2), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353519839755
Simmel G. (1905). Philosophie der Mode. In H. Landsberg (Ed.), Moderne Zeitfragen, 11 (pp. 5–41). Berlin: Pan-Verlag o.J.
Simmel, G. (2000). Zur Psychologie der Scham. In G. Simmel, Gesamtausgabe (pp. 431–442). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (Original work published 1901)
Simmel, G. (2009). Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms (A.J. Blasi, A.K. Jacobs, & M. Kanjirathinkal, Trans.). Boston, MA: Leiden. (Original work published 1908)
Simmel, G. (2018). Sobre una psicología de la vergüenza. Digithum, 21, 67–74. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya y Universidad de Antioquia.
Skeggs, B. (2002). Formations of Class and Gender. Becoming Respectable. London: Sage.
Sosa-Sánchez, I.A., Lerner, S., & Erviti, J. (2014). Civilidad menstrual y género en mujeres mexicanas: un estudio de caso en el estado de Morelos. Estudios Sociológicos, 32(95), 355–383. https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2014v32n95.41
Tarzibachi, E. (2017). Cosa de mujeres. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana.
Vannini, P., Waskul, D., & Gottschalk, S. (2012). The Senses in Self, Society and Culture. A Sociology of the Senses. New York, NY: Routledge.
UNICEF. (2020). Higiene Menstrual. UReport Mexico. https://mexico.ureport.in/opinion/4586/
Young, I. (2005). Menstrual meditations. In I. Young, On Female Body Experience: “Throwing like a Girl” and Other Essays (pp. 97–122). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Olga Sabido Ramos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
