The Managed Body

The Managed Body productively complicates 'menstrual hygiene management' (MHM)a growing social movement to support menstruating girls in the Global South. Bobel offers an invested critique of the complicated discourses of MHM including its conceptual and practical links with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development sector, human rights and 'the girling of development.' Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews, participant observations and the digital materials of NGOs and social businesses, Bobel shows how MHM frames problems and solutions to capture attention and direct resources to this highly-tabooed topic. She asserts that MHM organizations often inadvertently rely upon weak evidence and spectacularized representations to make the claim of a 'hygienic crisis' that authorizes rescue. And, she argues, the largely product-based solutions that follow fail to challenge the social construction of the menstrual body as dirty and in need of concealment. While cast as fundamental to preserving girls' dignity, MHM prioritizes 'technological fixes' that teach girls to discipline their developing bodies vis a vis consumer culture, a move that actually accommodates more than it resists the core problem of menstrual stigma.

Offers an innovative addition to the field of Critical Menstrual Studies, a rapidly growing new field of study across an array of disciplines Draws on deep qualitative and analytic wells in order to shed critical light on contemporary broad, global, girl-centered MHM interventions Draws on a uniquely rich, mixed-methods research design on three continents Grapples with key issues in MHM in a theoretically sophisticated, multidisciplinary manner

Autorentext

Chris Bobel is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and past president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. She is the author of The Paradox of Natural Mothering, New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation and co-editor of Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules and Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, Transformations.

Klappentext

The Managed Body productively complicates menstrual hygiene management (MHM) a growing social movement to support menstruating girls in the Global South. Bobel offers an invested critique of the complicated discourses of MHM including its conceptual and practical links with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development sector, human rights and the girling of development. Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews, participant observations and the digital materials of NGOs and social businesses, Bobel shows how MHM frames problems and solutions to capture attention and direct resources to this highly-tabooed topic. She asserts that MHM organizations often inadvertently rely upon weak evidence and spectacularized representations to make the claim of a hygienic crisis that authorizes rescue. And, she argues, the largely product-based solutions that follow fail to challenge the social construction of the menstrual body as dirty and in need of concealment. While cast as fundamental to preserving girls dignity, MHM prioritizes technological fixes that teach girls to discipline their developing bodies vis a vis consumer culture, a move that actually accommodates more than it resists the core problem of menstrual stigma.

Zusammenfassung
"The author effortlessly links postcolonial feminist thinking to MHM, which is commendable for a book that hails from the global north." (Aysha Farhana Chakkampully, Gender and Research, Vol. 22 (2), 2021)

"The Managed Body would be a valuable addition to courses on gender and health, embodiment, critical development studies, medical anthropology, and reproductive health and rights. This book's accessible style also makes it appropriate for a much wider audience, and The Managed Body belongs on the reading lists of development professionals, feminist activists and anyone else interested in gender, health, and development." (Leigh Senderowicz, Gender & Society, Vol. 20 (10), 2020)
"This book will not only appeal to those interested in the topic but also to those who research race, globalization, transnationalism, rhetoric, feminism, public health, gender, activism, or economics." (Berkley Conner, Affilia, December 6, 2019)
"The book is a timely, important and provides a fascinating read about contemporary feminism, activism and capitalism." (Camilla Mørk Røstvik, Social History of Medicine, Vol. 32 (4), November, 2019)

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction: What a Girl Needs.- Part I: Context.- Chapter 2: The Girling of Development.- Chapter 3: Making Menstruation Matter in the Global South: Mapping a Critical History of the Menstrual Hygiene Management Movement.- Part II: Framing the Problem: Stories of Risk, Risk of Stories.- Chapter 4: Can You Imagine? Making the Case for a Bloody Crisis.- Chapter 5: The Spectacle of the 'Third World Girl' and the Politics of Rescue.- Part III.Framing the Solution: Developing the 'Good Body'.- Chapter 6: Dignity Can't Wait: Building a Bridge to Human Rights.- Chapter 7: Disciplining Girls through the Technological Fix: Modernity, Markets, Materials.- Chapter 8: Beyond the Managed Body: Putting Menstrual Literacy at the Center.- Appendix A: Methods.- Appendix B: Notes on Language.