How Menstrual Education Can Shape Body and Sex Positivity

This essay explains why menstrual education can impact how girls feel about their genitals, genital areas, and sexuality overall. Menstrual cycle experts Drs. Peggy Stubbs and Evelina Sterling offer that menstrual education is a valuable opportunity to provide girls with a more accurate, positive, and embodied view of their genitals as they develop a sexual sense of themselves.

As menstrual education presents mostly negative expectations for girls, the authors argue that it is a key contributor to girls’ negative attitudes about ‘down there.’ Instead, Stubbs and Sterling offer that menstrual education is a valuable opportunity to provide girls with a more accurate, positive, and embodied view of their genitals to access as they develop a sexual sense of themselves.

SOURCE: The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies • AUTHOR: Margaret L. Stubbs and Evelina W. Sterling • LAST UPDATED: July 25, 2020