The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation

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University of Illinois Press, 1988 - Health & Fitness - 334 pages

"In its hard headed, richly documented concreteness, it is worth a thousand polemics."
-- New York Times, from a review of the first edition
"The Curse deserves a place in every women's studies library collection."
-- Sharon Golub, editor of Lifting the curse of Menstruation
"A stimulating and useful book, both for the scholarly and the general reader."
-- Paula A. Treichler, co-author of A Feminist Dictionary
 

Contents

Women in the Closet Taboos of Exclusion
7
Not Tonight Dear Taboos of Sex
18
Putting Her in Her Place Rites of the Menarche
28
Woman Unclean Menstrual Taboos in Judaism and Christianity
37
Menstruation and Medical Myth
45
Modern Menstrual Politics
54
The Menstrual Process
69
The First Pollution Psychoanalysis and the Menarche
73
Absent Literature The Menarche
171
The Miracle of Blood Menstrual Imagery in Myth and Poetry
186
Menstrual Madness in Drama and fiction
200
From Leeches to Estrogen The Menopause and Medical Options
213
Psychology and the Menopausal Menace
220
November of the Body The Menopause and Literature
225
The Menstrual Hall of Fame
243
Moving the Menses or Vicarious Menstruation
249

The Storm Before the Calm The Premenstrual Syndrome
83
What Every Girl Should Know
107
The Monthly Euphemism
115
Red Humor The Menstrual Joke
119
Periodic Parade Menstruation in Advertising
129
Rags to Riches The Menstrual Products Industry
138
Menstruation Goes Public
151
The Bleeding Tower Menstrual Themes in Fairy Tales
161
Escaping the Monthlies
252
Saignade Simulated Menstruation in the Male
261
Cycles and Rhythm in Men
267
Lifting the Curse
274
Notes
283
Index
317
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