In this week’s episode, Amanda and Veronica are joined by Dr. Maria Tomlinson from the University of Sheffield in the UK. The pair ask Maria about her research on the impact of the media on menstrual activism, and she takes them on a history lesson of how patriarchy has impacted menstruation over the years, including how we think about its links to hygiene, and how social media and the 4th wave feminism has started to disrupt the patriarchal view of menstruation, including how youth in today’s days are working to have menstruation talked about in class. The three talk about how this shift has increased the research being done around Europe on women’s health and endometriosis, the new study on period product absorbency being the *checks notes* very first one to ever use actual blood, and how her own personal research has led her to work with the UK Government to change public infrastructure to work for women and those who menstruate, go through menopause, and have a bio-female hormone cycle, and how being inclusive in this work is so important. Maria talks about her advice to youth about periods and her two books, one of which is going to be published soon as open access to everyone in the world, and how her Social Media Guidance co-produced with Acushla Young is available today for free download on her website. The three play a game: Menopause True or Nah?
Dr. Maria Tomlinson is a lecturer in Public Communication and Gender at the University of Sheffield. Her current research examines the impact of the media and menstrual activism on young people's attitudes towards the health and social issues around menstruation. She is using her findings to advise organisations on how they can use social media to communicate effectively with young people about menstruation. Her findings have also informed her work with the British Standards Institute, England's Department for Education, and Sheffield City Council. She is the author of From Menstruation to the Menopause: The Female Fertility Cycle in Contemporary Women's Writing in French (2021, Liverpool University Press) and is working on her forthcoming book The Menstrual Movement in the Media: Reducing Stigma and Tackling Social Inequalities (2024, Palgrave Macmillan, Open Access).
You can follow Dr. Maria Tomlison on social media: X @MariaKTomlinson and Instagram @dr.m.k.tomlinson
To learn more about her work, and access her free Guidance, you can access her website here, which is where her new book will also be available for free download in 2024: https://www.mariatomlinson.co.uk/
For her latest publication, “Periods Don’t Stop for Pandemics”: The Implications of COVID-19 for Online and Offline Menstrual Activism in Great Britain, you can access it here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8BGNMDDFWUMNGDBDAGPW/full?target=10.1080/07491409.2023.2222365
