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Flow: The Cultural Story Of Menstruation (2009)

by Elissa Stein(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

031237996X (ISBN13: 9780312379964)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

review 1: This was an interesting, if super-feministy, take on menstruation.It is filled with facts about the history of menstruation in America, specifically in the 20th and 21st centuries, and is chock-full of quotes and large copies of contemporary ads. It is also beautifully designed and definitely coffee-table worthy for its clean, modern aesthetic and as a conversation starter.I wish the authors had marketed it more as a book about advertisement and menstruation, as that was what they chose to focus on, and what I felt they had the best information for. Also sort of a neutral is the fact that in the course of discussing menstruation the others seem to veer off into the history of feminism and women in America--a related topic, yes, and some readers will find it interesting, bu... moret I felt it took up too much space relative to on-topic material.A negative was the semi-judgmental tone of the book, as well as the interesting, if irritating, observation that this book seems to have a schizophrenic or bipolar attitude towards its own subject--the same attitude the authors contend society has towards menstruation. The authors unnecessarily assert themselves and their (sometimes...silly, for the sake of not using derogatory words) viewpoints into discussions that should be objective: for example, when the claim that a study showing that about 40% of women have regular periods must be wrong because they don't personally know anyone who has a totally predictable cycle. This is sandwiched between pages and pages of them berating corporations for making women feel as though they are not normal, yet perhaps unwittingly they often sneakily do the same. They also think very little of what they deem "old wives tales" about menstruation, and yet, in the same breath, praise ancient herbal remedies.
review 2: This book had some pretty interesting information in it (I especially found the chapter on hysteria to be fascinating), and the old femcare advertisements from the 1920's on were fun to look at, too. But for the love of God, I hated the way this was written. A lot of the time, there was too much slang or the author would try to dumb down the information or something..? I couldn't even comprehend what was even being said a lot of the time and I just wished the author would flat-out state the information in a clear, concise manner and at an intelligent level. I guess she was simply trying to make this a "fun" read, but it ended up pissing me off half the time -_- And, oh my god. If I had to read "funnily enough" one last time, I would've had to shoot myself. It comes up A LOT and it's such an awkward word all by itself, I don't understand why it needs to be used in every other paragraph! less

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