In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Chris Bobel, one of the most influential (scholarly) voices in menstrual activism and critical menstruation studies. For more than twenty years, Chris has been pushing the boundaries of how we understand menstruation - not just as a biological event, but as a powerful lens into culture, politics, and social justice. Our conversation explores how menstrual health sits at the intersection of human rights, feminist activism, and collective liberation, and why examining the systems and stories that surround our bodies matters more than ever.
Chris Bobel is a Professor of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Since 2003, Chris has been a pathbreaking scholar of menstrual activism, exploring how menstrual health is a matter of both human rights and reproductive justice. As past president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research and frequent media consultant on menstrual activism, Chris unites feminist thinking with feminist doing. Her major publications in this area include New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation and The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South. Her co-edited open-access Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies has been downloaded over 3 million times worldwide.
In this conversation we talked about:
💫 Chris’s personal journey into menstrual activism and how her early research, including New Blood, led her to map the menstrual movement and identify its core activist groups.
💫 What surprised her during that research—especially the points of resistance she encountered—and why critically examining the movements we love is essential.
💫 The concept of cultural inscription and what it reveals about how society shapes our understanding of bodies, menstruation, and belonging.
💫 How privilege shows up within menstrual activism and why awareness is necessary to create more inclusive, justice-centered work.
💫 Why menstrual advocacy must extend beyond individual self-improvement into collective action and broader social change - and how menstrual literacy becomes a tool of resistance.
💫 How menstrual stigma sits at the root of so many challenges in this field and why naming it openly is key to transforming the narrative.
Enjoy!
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💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com.
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Links:
Flurina Dominique Thali & The Soft Rebellion: @flurina.thali / www.flurinathali.com
My guest, Dr Chris Bobel: Dr Chris Bobel is working at the University of Massachusetts Boston, you can find her contacts here, you can find direct free access to the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies here, you can find her book New Blood here.
Credits:
Intro/outro music – ‘Hymn for Jim’ by Aspyrian: Robin Porter – saxophone, Jack Gillen – guitar, Matt Parkinson – drums, composed by Robin Porter, listen to the full track here.
Graphic: Annina Thali, for more information click here
