Rawat Meghana, Shields Ashleigh N, Venetis Maria K, Seth Jyoti
Department of Communication, Utah Valley University.
College of Art, Media, and Design, Northeastern University.
Health Commun. 2023 Apr;38(4):695-704. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1970296. Epub 2021 Aug 29.
Communication about menstrual health continues to be influenced by institutional and social practices which deem it to be unclean and impure. In a country such as India, several customs and traditions reinforce secrecy and shame about menstruation. As such, scholars advocate the need to generate knowledge that can open opportunities to converse on the topic of menstruation and understand issues related to bodily changes. Using a culture-centered approach, this study examined how college-going adult women from two cities in Northern India made sense of menstrual health. Data collection included 20 focus groups with 180 college-going women and interviews with 16 female family members. Participants discussed communication patterns surrounding menstrual health and how they uphold, challenge, and change social practices. Specifically, participants reflected on how they were communicated to about their menstrual health with underpinnings of secrecy and shame and how the influence of current opportunities for openness encourage them to anticipate positive change. Theoretical and practical implications for studying communication around menstruation in diverse cultural contexts are discussed.
关于月经健康的交流仍然受到一些制度和社会习俗的影响，这些习俗认为月经是不洁净和不纯洁的。在印度这样的国家，多种习俗和传统强化了对月经的保密和羞耻观念。因此，学者们主张有必要创造知识，为围绕月经话题展开对话以及理解与身体变化相关的问题提供机会。本研究采用以文化为中心的方法，考察了印度北部两个城市的成年女大学生如何理解月经健康。数据收集包括与180名女大学生进行的20次焦点小组讨论以及对16名女性家庭成员的访谈。参与者讨论了围绕月经健康的交流模式，以及她们如何维护、挑战和改变社会习俗。具体而言，参与者反思了她们在保密和羞耻的背景下是如何被告知月经健康相关信息的，以及当前开放机会的影响如何促使她们期待积极的改变。文中还讨论了在不同文化背景下研究月经相关交流的理论和实践意义。
