Menstruation and menstrual products are commonly thought to be solely the concerns of women, yet the values that shape attitudes and representations of the period are strongly influenced by men. Magazine advertising for menstrual products reveals both subtle and overt examples of male presence in the formation of perspectives on the period. This article examines a variety of menstrual product ads from two decades in order to assess how the presence of men shapes these perspectives.
In 1993 a magazine published the transcript of a telephone conversation between Prince Charles, heir to the British crown, and his lover in which the couple made joking references to tampons in an erotic context. The story quickly spread around the world and became a source of embarrassment for Charles and the Royal family. This article reviews the media coverage of the story and discusses what it suggests about attitudes toward menstruation and men's references to it.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.