New Article: Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice

Margaret E. Johnson, Asking the Menstruation Questions to Achieve Menstrual Justice, Colum. J. of Gender and L. (forthcoming 2021). Abstract Below:

Menstruation is a situs of discrimination, oppression, harassment and microaggression. Employers fire workers for bleeding and experiencing period pain. Schools control menstruating students’ access to bathrooms, products, and menstrual education. Prisons control their residents’ free access to menstrual products. There are both “obvious and nonobvious relationships of domination” between menstrual discrimination and discrimination on the basis of race, class, gender identity, and disability. I suggest we ask the “menstruation question” as part of our examination of all forms of intersectional oppressions and to achieve menstrual justice. To do so, for example, if we see something racist, we should ask “where is the menstrual oppression in this?” So too, if we see menstrual oppression, we should ask, “where is the racism in this?” Therefore, asking the menstruation question is critical to achieve menstrual justice.