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What's with the men in menstruation? This is the question Men in Menstruation: A Social Transaction sets out to answer. From earliest times men have been puzzled and perplexed by the menstrual cycle and have constructed elaborate taboos, superstitions, and practices attempting to explain why women have a periodical emission of a fluid that resembles blood but is not the result of an injury or affliction. In other words, men want to know why it is possible to bleed and not die. In order to understand what goes on between men and women in the presence of menstruation, this book examines a variety of encounters, referred to as "menstrual transactions." From the three women in the Bible who are identified as menstruating to contemporary films, advertising, TV programs and literature, the book explores a wide range of transactions, even including Prince Charles's close encounter of a menstrual kind. The book will appeal to anyone interested in gaining insights into the mystery of menstruation as well as students of gender and women's studies or media theory and history.
List of contents
Acknowledgments - Introduction: Menses and Me - The Menstrual Transaction - Blood in the Bible, Torah, and Quran and How Jesus Became a Menstrual Hero - A Royal Menstrual Pain: Prince Charles and the Tampon Scandal - The Literary Period: Sightings, Sex, and Dystopian Visions - Seeing Red on TV: Archie Bunker's Dilemma - Blood on the Screen: Menstrual Features - Selling the Product: Men in Menstrual Marketing - Making Menstrual Music: Singing the Menstrual Blues - Menstrual Mischief and Transgressions - Random Menstrual Moments - Conclusion: Men in the Emerging Menstrual Ecology - Index.
About the author
David Linton (Ph.D., New York University) is Professor Emeritus at Marymount Manhattan College. He has published research on topics as diverse as the Luddite movement, the reading behavior of the Virgin Mary, Shakespeare as a media theorist, and media education. He serves on the Board of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research as well as having formerly been president of the New York State Conference of the American Association of University Professors. In addition, he is a cast member and the resident poet of the podcast Fireside Mystery Theatre.
Summary
Though a biological characteristic, menstruation is also a complex social construction, one that men play an active role in creating via a process of "menstrual transactions." This book explores the means by which menstruation is given meaning through an examination of a wide variety of such transactions.
Report
"A book on menstruation by a man? The clear answer, in this case, is YES. Readers, men and women alike, who can bypass doubts and the impulse to joke will find a treasure of information and wisdom in this fascinating, beautifully written account of how both sexes, together, invent the meaning of menstruation and their responses to it. The witty introduction ('Menses and Me') is worth the price of the book alone, but David Linton goes on to show how menstruation is dealt with in film, TV, ads, books, songs, and humor. 'Guys are really clueless!' one student told him. This book will clue them in. Women, too." -Carol Tavris, Author of The Mismeasure of Woman and Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion; Co-author of Estrogen Matters and Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)
