Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation

Front Cover
St. Martin's Publishing Group, Nov 10, 2009 - Health & Fitness - 288 pages

In this hip, hilarious and truly eye-opening cultural history, menstruation is talked about as never before. Flow spans its fascinating, occasionally wacky and sometimes downright scary story: from mikvahs (ritual cleansing baths) to menopause, hysteria to hysterectomies—not to mention the Pill, cramps, the history of underwear, and the movie about puberty they showed you in 5th grade.

Flow answers such questions as: What's the point of getting a period? What did women do before pads and tampons? What about new drugs that promise to end periods—a hot idea or not? Sex during your period: gross or a turn-on? And what's normal, anyway? With color reproductions of (campy) historical ads and early (excruciating) femcare devices, it also provides a fascinating (and mind-boggling) gallery of this complex, personal and uniquely female process.

As irreverent as it is informative, Flow gives an everyday occurrence its true props – and eradicates the stigma placed on it for centuries.

 

Selected pages

Contents

2
33
5
77
Menstrual Time Line
102
Bibliography
254
Acknowledgments
271
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation
Elissa Stein,Susan Kim
No preview available - 2009

Common terms and phrases

actually advertising amenorrhea American ancient anxiety anyway birth control bleeding bloating body breasts cancer cause century clinical considered cramps depression disease doctor douche drug early effective endometrial endometriosis estrogen fact feel female feminine hygiene fibroids Funnily Gamble Company girl’s girls hormones hot flashes hysterectomy hysteria incredibly Kimberly-Clark kind Kotex lives Lysol male manufacturers menarche menopause menstrual blood menstrual cup menstrual cycle menstrual flow menstrual products menstrual suppression menstruating woman menstruation Modess month monthly mood swings mother normal odor one’s one’s period orgasm ourselves ovaries ovulation pads pain patent percent perimenopausal pharmaceutical physical Pill PMDD pregnant premenstrual pretty problems Procter & Gamble puberty reproductive result rituals routinely sanitary sexual smell Stayfree suffer symptoms taboo talk Tampax tampons therapy there’s thing tion tissue underwear uterine uterus vagina weird What’s women Women’s Health

About the author (2009)

Elissa Stein's most current publishing projects include NYC adventures with kids, interactive thank you notes, and visual histories of iconic pop culture—two of which were featured in Entertainment Weekly's Must Have list. In addition to writing, she runs her own graphic design business. She lives in the West Village with her husband Jon and their children, Izzy and Jack.
Susan Kim wrote the stage adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and numerous one-act plays, which have been produced widely. She is an Writers Guild award-winning TV writer in documentary and children's programming, and has been nonimated five times for the Emmy. She teaches dramatic writing in the MFA program of Goddard College and lives in New York City with playwright Laurence Klavan.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Flow
TitleFlow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation
AuthorsElissa Stein, Susan Kim
PublisherSt. Martin's Publishing Group, 2009
ISBN1429983396, 9781429983396
Length288 pages
Subjects › 

Health & Fitness / Women's Health
History / Social History
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan