Practice Menstruation
Performance of 'menstruation' as a mode of cultivating agency in advance (or absence) of its embodiment
Practice menstruation: is this something you did, as someone who anticipated menarche (first menstruation) at some point in early life? Or, is it something you have performed as a person desiring to menstruate (but not actually menstruating)—including women who don’t menstruate for a variety of reasons, or nonbinary individuals, transitioning, or transgender women? Is it possible to perform the act of menstruation without actually menstruating? This inquiry follows on my last post about ‘menstruation’ in men. Here I want to investigate other forms of ‘menstruation’ that do not depend on the physiological act but rather, represent performative biopolitics for the purposes of cultivating agency.
I haven’t yet heard about practice for menarche or practice menstruation within the Western cultural context that I am part of, nor have I yet come across it in any intersectional feminist scholarly writing on menstruation (such as in the field of Critical Menstruation Studies),1 so perhaps I might be able to contribute my own experiences here in order to instigate some dialogue about this. Practice menstruation, as an intentional enactment of something not embodied, might not yet be widely recognized as a cultural practice, whether a cisgender or trans practice, but I’m intrigued because it’s something that I did practice in the lead up to my own menarche. I’m certain I can’t be the only one.
I include a link later in the text, to a very simple and brief survey for paid subscribers to contribute their own experiences (if any) of practice menstruation, open to any person regardless of sex or gender.
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