I’m at a point in the year where I need to recharge, which — as you might be able to tell from the rash of book-related posts — means a lot of reading.
As I am never shy to share, I am also menstruating. Given certain facts about my life, when it happens, my menstruation consumes a lot of my brain.
I am also reading some young adult stories whose protagonists perform a lot of extended physical actions — most recently and notably, Requiem and Divergent — with pretty much zero mention of menstruation. For Divergent, it makes a fair amount of sense, as I understand the story to have taken place probably within a single menstrual cycle. But the latter two books of the Delirium series (of which Requiem is the last) definitely take place over the course of several months.
It’s not limited to these two series, either. I do not recall Tally Youngblood or Katniss Everdeen ever needing a Midol or a tampon. In fact, of stories where the presumably-menstruating protagonists are adventure-style active, the only one I know that discusses menstruation is the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet. Even then, it specifically discusses Alanna’s menarche as it presents complications, which is different than portraying recurring periods.
For all these characters, periods do not seem to be anything — not even an inconvenience — worth mentioning. Which leaves me feeling sort of… left out. While I understand that I’m on the far end of the spectrum when it comes to menstrual pain and bleeding — and I might not survive too long in a dystopia where I’m fighting a hostile, authoritarian government for my survival if my period showed up — a lot of folks nestled comfortably in the middle of the bell curve experience a fair amount of physical discomfort. And in books where physical sensations like hunger, thirst, pain (from injuries), cold, and fatigue are mentioned routinely… wouldn’t some mention of menstruation-related sensations be in keeping with that?
There are Reasons for this, I’m pretty sure. Maybe because some still regard talk of menstruation as gross, risque, or taboo. And maybe there’s some pressure, articulated or not, to cater to the perceived interests of male readers — and that even passing mention of menstruation is antithetical to perceived male interests.
And you know?
I, for one, am curious. How does one deal with bad cramps or bloating while stealthily foraging for food, obtaining secret information, and generally outwitting menacing government officials? Or handle tracking kidnappers and traitors across mountains and through swamps during heavy flow days? Does one simply magic it away? If the story is set in the future, has the necessity of responding to periods been rendered moot by science? Even if, in these fictitious worlds, periods are not things that need to be mentioned (because they are unobtrusive or nonexistent), as a reader in this world, it is something I still need explained to me.
Are there young adult fiction books — particularly ones where the protagonist is physically active in a way that might make it relevant to the plot — who explicitly experience and deal with periods? Am I just missing them? If my experience is more or less representative and if menstruation generally isn’t mentioned even when relevant — why not?
