Blood on the Page

In “Blood on the Page: Male Authors on Menstrual Sex” David Linton points out that while menstruation is a normal “fact” of human biology, indeed, an essential part of the process leading to birth and hence the preservation of our species, it is almost never recognized as such, especially in literature. When it is not ignored, then out of fear, shame, and gender or ethnic bias, this natural act is converted into “a variety of perspectives ranging from nearly fetishistic eroticization to distaste and everlasting consequences” in the taboo about having sex during menstruation. Linton examines the novels of Philip Roth, Scott Spencer, and Bernard Malamud as they consider “the reality of the deeply ingrained values surrounding this natural biological phenomenon.”