Menstruation: Social Inequality and Biopolitics in Socialist Romania - Anca Niță

Why is menstruation considered to be something shameful? As a cis-woman I have experienced and seen how menstruation is depicted around me, either in whispered voices and jokes or perfectly concealed in the commercials. This question was the starting point of my research, only to find out that menstruation is a lens that reveals a range of social inequalities experienced by women. In my qualitative research, I have talked with ten women (ages 50 to 81) regarding their experiences of menstruations during the communist period in Romania in order to better understand the historical context of menstruation in Romania. In the biographical narratives they shared with me, menstruation is described as a private, natural process, an individual experience, which is to stay within the limits of their private lives, rarely shared with closest female friends or in romantic relationships. The political and economic context from 1966 to 1989 had an impact on their perception of their bodies, reproduction, and sexuality because of the ban on abortions instituted by Decree 770. The female bodies became an economic and biological tool that the Communist Party used to secure economic growth and sustain industrial development. Women’s narratives about menstruation introduced me to the privacy of their lives, which allowed me to see the negative effects of pronatalist policies, gender inequality present both within and outside the family, and the false class equality that led to the emergence of interconnected social networks of informal economic practices.Article by Anca Niță, illustrated by Roma Gavrilă, read by Nicoleta Finariu Andreihttps://theanthro.art/menstruation-social-inequality-and-biopolitics-in-socialist-romania-anca-nita/