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Review

Of Mice and (Wo)Men: Tampons, Menstruation, and Testing

Sharra L. Vostral  1
Chris Bobel  1 , Inga T. Winkler  2 , Breanne Fahs  3 , Katie Ann Hasson  4 , Elizabeth Arveda Kissling  5 , Tomi-Ann Roberts  6
, editors.
In: The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies [Internet]. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan; 2020. Chapter 50.
.
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Review

Of Mice and (Wo)Men: Tampons, Menstruation, and Testing

Sharra L. Vostral.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

Vostral provides much-needed insight into the link between women’s bodily experiences with tampons and twentieth-century developments in material science, corporate research, and gynecological observations about menstrual cycles. She examines how design modifications to tampons, changes in material composition, and the cultivation of women test subjects exposed scientific assumptions, ideas about safety, and attitudes concerning gendered and menstruating bodies. Focusing on the practical work of tampon testing, Vostral examines the impact of broad cultural conditions: prevailing ideas about women’s bodies, gender differences, and the role of science and medicine in optimizing well-being. Finally, she shows how patterns of social power and privilege configured this research, with evidence taking different forms over time.

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References

    1. Bailey, Richard. 1987. “Small Wonder: How Tambrands Began, Prospered and Grew.” Tambrands Inc.
    1. Bobel, Chris. 2010. New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
    1. Braun, Lundy. 2005. “Spirometry, Measurement, and Race in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of the History of Medicine Allied Science 60 (2): 135–69. - PubMed
    1. Clarke, Adele, and Joan Fujimura, eds. 1992. The Right Tools for the Job: At Work in Twentieth-Century Life Sciences. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    1. Eglash, Ron, Jennifer Croissant, Giovann Di Chiro, and Rayvon Fouché. 2004. Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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