Disposable Menstrual Products as Law's Objects

Goldblatt, B; Steele, L

Disposable Menstrual Products as Law's Objects

Goldblatt, B

Steele, L

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Publisher:: Columbia University Libraries
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 2021, 41, (1), pp. 114-122
Issue Date:: 2021-11-08

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Goldblatt, B https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4687-3176
dc.contributor.author	Steele, L
dc.date.accessioned	2022-01-11T00:52:42Z
dc.date.available	2022-01-11T00:52:42Z
dc.date.issued	2021-11-08
dc.identifier.citation	Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 2021, 41, (1), pp. 114-122
dc.identifier.issn	1062-6220
dc.identifier.issn	2333-4339
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/152893
dc.description.abstract	<jats:p> During the past few years, scholars and activists have increasingly engaged with law as a means to challenge stigma, silence, and disadvantages associated with menstruation. Menstrual items (predominantly in the form of disposable menstrual products) are becoming increasingly prominent in this “legal turn.” There have been legislative reforms to provide access to free menstrual items, litigation and legislative reforms to remove taxes on menstrual products, legislative reforms on product safety and environmental sustainability of menstrual items, and water and sanitation hygiene (‘WASH’) policies and guidelines in the context of international development interventions that focus on access to menstrual items. As regulation of disposable menstrual products assumes greater prominence in legal doctrine, feminist legal scholars are increasingly evaluating the impacts of such laws on menstruators, including in the context of diverse experiences of menstruation and menstrual injustice. But what can disposable menstrual products themselves tell us of law? In this Essay we take an object-informed approach to law in the specific context of disposable menstrual products. What insights about law might these objects provide, and how do these insights deepen our understanding of law’s relationship to menstruation, menstruators, and the worlds in which menstruators are situated? What can we appreciate about law’s role in defining, as well as recognizing and responding to, the diversity of experiences related to menstruation? How do menstrual items nuance our understanding of agency in relation to menstrual injustice? And what do these objects tell us about the limits and challenges of using law to achieve justice in relation to the embodied experiences of people who menstruate? Part II introduces some key contributions to feminist legal thinking on materiality and objects, which informs our analysis of disposable menstrual products as law’s objects. Part III introduces some of the critical threads in scholarship on disposable menstrual products, including how they relate to diversity and materiality of experiences of menstruation. Then, we turn in Part IV to explore what disposable menstrual products tell us about law’s role in menstruation, using the recent laws introduced in Scotland as a case study. </jats:p>
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Columbia University Libraries
dc.relation.ispartof	Columbia Journal of Gender and Law
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.52214/cjgl.v41i1.8825
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law
dc.title	Disposable Menstrual Products as Law's Objects
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	41
utslib.for	1801 Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-01-11T00:52:41Z
pubs.issue	1
pubs.publication-status	Published online
pubs.volume	41
utslib.citation.issue	1

Abstract:

During the past few years, scholars and activists have increasingly engaged with law as a means to challenge stigma, silence, and disadvantages associated with menstruation. Menstrual items (predominantly in the form of disposable menstrual products) are becoming increasingly prominent in this “legal turn.” There have been legislative reforms to provide access to free menstrual items, litigation and legislative reforms to remove taxes on menstrual products, legislative reforms on product safety and environmental sustainability of menstrual items, and water and sanitation hygiene (‘WASH’) policies and guidelines in the context of international development interventions that focus on access to menstrual items. As regulation of disposable menstrual products assumes greater prominence in legal doctrine, feminist legal scholars are increasingly evaluating the impacts of such laws on menstruators, including in the context of diverse experiences of menstruation and menstrual injustice. But what can disposable menstrual products themselves tell us of law? In this Essay we take an object-informed approach to law in the specific context of disposable menstrual products. What insights about law might these objects provide, and how do these insights deepen our understanding of law’s relationship to menstruation, menstruators, and the worlds in which menstruators are situated? What can we appreciate about law’s role in defining, as well as recognizing and responding to, the diversity of experiences related to menstruation? How do menstrual items nuance our understanding of agency in relation to menstrual injustice? And what do these objects tell us about the limits and challenges of using law to achieve justice in relation to the embodied experiences of people who menstruate? Part II introduces some key contributions to feminist legal thinking on materiality and objects, which informs our analysis of disposable menstrual products as law’s objects. Part III introduces some of the critical threads in scholarship on disposable menstrual products, including how they relate to diversity and materiality of experiences of menstruation. Then, we turn in Part IV to explore what disposable menstrual products tell us about law’s role in menstruation, using the recent laws introduced in Scotland as a case study.

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