Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This presentation weaves spoken poetry and sining to share research on how hygiene infrastructures shape menstrual life in Sweden and Finland. Drawing on interviews and surveys, it centers menstrual substance, everyday washing technologies, and feminist critiques of toilet design.

Paper long abstract

This presentation, weaving spoken poetry and song, showcases research results on how built hygiene environment impacts menstrual life, sharing interview and survey data that showcase the many, differing, ways in which menstruation come into being in differing toilets and bathrooms in Sweden compared to Finland. Persdotter centres the menstrual substance, toilet standards, as well as the many everyday technologies involved in the everyday practicalities of menses. Particularly, she highlights everyday technologies and practices of anogenital washing (bidets, bidet showers, toilets paper, showers, wipes). The presentation rests on sociological and anthropological understandings of dirt as well as key themes from critical menstruation studies. Persdotter particularly draws from sociological work arguing that typical western toilet infrastructures seriously misrecognize the needs of menstruants, as well as from critical architecture scholars that argue typical western toilet design re-produce gendered inequalities in health, well-being, and participation in society, and that they are environmentally resource intensive. The logical question for anyone in feminist STS is off course: How can it be otherwise? Persdotter is the current host of the Society of Menstrual Cycle Research’s biannual menstrual poetry slam, within which the practice of presenting research results through spoken word poetry and signing has been, and continue to be, explored.