What do the bloody spiritualists say? Exploring menstruation advocacy and feminist frictions in Sweden

• Published in: The European journal of women's studies Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 20 - 35
• Main Author: Berg, Linda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2025; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Activism; Advocacy; Ambivalence; Campaigns; Ethnography; Ethnology; etnologi; Feminism; gender studies; genusvetenskap; Global local relationship; Human body; Menstruation; menstruation advocacy; Narratives; Political campaigns; Poverty; secularity; solidarity; Sweden; Women; Sweden; Sweden; solidarity; Feminism; menstruation advocacy; secularity
• ISSN: 1350-5068; 1461-7420; 1461-7420
• DOI: 10.1177/13505068241312296

While globally menstruators are increasingly receiving support through solidarity campaigns, the menstruating body remains an ambivalent subject in Swedish politics and feminist scholarship. Menstruation activists emphasise that periods are both a local and global political issue, urging menstruators to become more aware of how their bodily cycles impact them. This article aims to explore a selection of narratives on menstruation as a political and spiritual phenomenon and investigate the still residual ambivalence in the relationship between feminism and menstrual advocacy in a Swedish context. The study is empirically anchored in a campaign for menstruation awareness combined with interviews with feminist women about menstruation as an experience and as a cultural phenomenon. The campaign, here called PeriodPride, addressed different topics, such as body literacy and menstrual solidarity. Drawing on an ethnographic study combined with a narrative approach, three narratives have been identified: (1) the menstruating body as a ‘woman’s issue’, (2) menstruators in need, remembering period poverty, and (3) the forceful cycle, reclaim the value of bodies. These narratives elucidate the discursive complexity of menstruation advocacy, underscoring its entanglement with multiple frameworks of meaning and revealing some of the productive tensions inherent within Swedish feminist traditions.