The menstrual product multiple: A material-semiotic analysis of Belgian public action against menstrual poverty

Abstract

This master thesis addresses the ambivalence surrounding menstrual products and revealed by Critical menstruation studies. Even though the field has welcomed the increasing public attention received by menstruation this last decade, scholars have criticised current menstrual policies against menstrual poverty for their focus on the provision of menstrual products. They argued that menstrual products are negatively affecting menstruating people because they reinforce the menstrual stigma and that menstrual policies use them as mere ‘technological fixes’, neglecting the social dynamics surrounding menstruation. To address this ambivalence, this thesis adopts a novel approach to menstrual policies, by drawing on material-semiotics to examine the way menstrual products are enacted in Belgian public action led against menstrual poverty during the term of office 2019-2024. In addition to the analysis of the framing of menstrual products by Belgian public action, this thesis looks at the sociotechnical assemblages of three initiatives distributing menstrual products. Following material-semiotics, it shows that ‘the menstrual product’ enacted by Belgian public action is multiple. Four ‘versions’ of ‘the menstrual product’ are identified: the dignity object, the health transmitter, the awareness tool and the transitionary tool. Such results partially challenge Critical menstruation studies’ critique of the provision of menstrual products as ‘technological fixes’. On the one hand, the analysis reveals that menstrual products address the social dynamics surrounding menstruation as they produce effects beyond the collection of menstrual blood. On the other hand, the analysis stresses how those effects result from their sociotechnical settings, and not from their material characteristics.