Abstract
This reflection seeks to untangle the stigmatic ways we culturally frame menstruation. It explores the reasons why the FemCare industry and our contemporary culture position menstruation as abject and as embarrassment. It also offers contemporary strategies that can serve as activist modes of reframing the act and connotations associated with menstruation.
DOI
10.5642/steam.20160202.17
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Kafai, Shayda
(2016)
"Re-Coding Blood: Menstruation as Activism,"
The STEAM Journal:
Vol. 2:
Iss.
2, Article 17.
DOI: 10.5642/steam.20160202.17
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol2/iss2/17
Author/Artist Bio
Dr. Shayda Kafai is a lecturer at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona’s Ethnic and Women Studies Department. She earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Claremont Graduate University. Her dissertation titled, "Re-inscribing Disability: The Performance Activism of Sins Invalid" explores the performance art and disability justice work of Sins Invalid, a San Francisco Bay Area based performance project. As a queer, disabled woman of color, she is committed to exploring the numerous ways we can reclaim our bodies from intersecting systems of oppression. Shayda lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Amy.