This text focuses on menarche, the first menstrual period, as a central aspect of body politics in US society. Using narratives of 104 diverse women, the authors address the central question of how menarche as a bodily event takes on a cultural significance in a society that devalues women and explores how women have both provided support for and resisted gendered social relations of power through their negotiation of this crucial life transition. Examining issues of contamination and concealment, and the sexualization that occurs at menarche, the authors emphasize how the politics of gender are negotiated on and through women's bodies.

This text focuses on menarche, the first menstrual period, as a central aspect of body politics in US society. Using narratives of 104 diverse women, the authors address the central question of how menarche as a bodily event takes on a cultural significance in a society that devalues women and explores how women have both provided support for and resisted gendered social relations of power through their negotiation of this crucial life transition. Examining issues of contamination and concealment, and the sexualization that occurs at menarche, the authors emphasize how the politics of gender are negotiated on and through women's bodies.