Menstruation in the Dorms: The Folklore Surrounding Menstruation

When M. Hoff’s niece started her period, the female members of the family all reacted with a collective sympathetic sigh. This instigated a lot of questions, including why periods are viewed in such a negative way. If such a routine, physical cycle in a woman’s life is viewed so horribly, how does that connect to women’s own perception of their bodies? Where are women learning this negativity towards their menstrual cycle? Is it possible that menstruation is still a major taboo in our modern culture? M. Hoff collects college women’s narratives and stories about menstruation. These menstrual stories exemplify how these women must continually balance between the different types of menstrual taboos in our culture and how they must behave in an appropriate matter in order to avoid being stigmatized. M. Hoff argues that by breaking the overarching cultural silence about menstruation, women will finally be able to break menstrual taboos and begin to view menstruation as an important part of their identity.