ABSTRACT
It seems clear that many girls are coached by their mothers, who may be unaware of the salience and pervasiveness of patriarchal ideology, to see menarche and menstrual change not as celebrations of their maturity and womanhood, but as embarrassing intrusions into their lives, as phenomena best acknowledged and accommodated in private with a minimum of fuss. They are phenomena, moreover, which neither boys nor men can be expected to know about or comprehend; they belong in the female domain. This chapter analyses the extent to which such perceptions survive into marriages of procreation and the impact of both perception and menstrual change and disorder on family relationships, especially between spouses. Special attention is given to the premenstrual syndrome —or premenstrual tension (PMT) as it is more commonly known-and to sexuality and menstruation. A discussion of recent research on attitudes to menstruation in male culture is incorporated.
