Period Product Discourse as Intersectional Activism
Creators: name: Reichelt, Susan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: sociolinguistics
positioning
feminist discourse studies

description: This study investigates linguistic and other semiotic cues used in period product discourse in order to tease apart relevant intersecting stances as they relate to the addressed target consumer. As a product group that is embedded in ideological frames (cf., Wood, 2020; Malefyt &amp; McCabe, 2016), the language surrounding the promotion of period products is of interest to the topic of social justice in applied linguistics. I argue that period product packaging and related texts (e.g., information and instruction supplements) offer spaces of social positioning (Bucholtz &amp; Hall, 2005:586) in which consumers can construct their identities as agents at different intersections of social activism. The multimodal study is based on a specialised corpus of 20 menstruation products (German and English), including outer packaging and instruction sheets. Linguistic patterns, such as address form, formality, and indexical fields are mapped onto ideological positionings to investigate the different realisations of period product discourse. The results show that some rely on well-established cis-gendered discourse patterns (periods as 1, an inconvenience that needs hiding, and 2, a marker for womanhood and female empowerment, see also Del Saz-Rubio &amp; Pennock-Speck (2009: 2535)) which must be critically evaluated for its perpetuation of gendered stereotypes. Other patterns suggest period discourse to be increasingly relevant as a catalyst of various forms of social activism and community building, as seen in examples (1)-(3). Political: Nazis raus, Tampons rein. (engl. Nazis out, Tampons in) Sustainable community: Welcome to #team cup, fairstainable Inclusive feminism: [...] eine Freundin/ ein Freund [...]. (engl. one of your menstruating friends). In sum, this study provides an overview of the potential of period product discourse to respond to calls for social action. It centres different ideologies that are embedded in the promotional text and foregrounds the need to account for these readings when analysing period awareness and education. <strong>References</strong><br> Bucholtz, M., &amp; Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407 Del Saz-Rubio, M. M., &amp; Pennock-Speck, B. (2009). Constructing female identities through feminine hygiene TV commercials. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(12), 2535-2556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.04.005 Malefyt, T. d. W., &amp; McCabe, M. (2016). Women's bodies, menstruation and marketing “protection:” interpreting a paradox of gendered discourses in consumer practices and advertising campaigns. Consumption Markets &amp; Culture, 19(6), 555-575. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2015.1095741 Wood, J. M. (2020). (In)Visible Bleeding: The Menstrual Concealment Imperative. In C. Bobel, I. T. Winkler, B. Fahs, K. A. Hasson, E. A. Kissling, &amp; T. A. Roberts (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (pp. 319-336). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0614-7_25