P088. Prisons, Periods, and Reproductive Body Politics: Exploring the Embodied Lived Experience of Menstruation in Women’s Prisons

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

Trends of mass incarceration have long threatened the reproductive health of women across the globe, due to restrictions on freedom, bodily autonomy, and access to personalised healthcare. Women’s narratives, however, remain relatively hidden in political and academic spheres, and subsequently, little has been done to advocate for change. The aspect of reproductive health that has arguably suffered the most from this neglect is menstruation, due to its hyper-frequency for women in prison, coupled with its broader cultural and socio-political stigma and invisibilisation. To address this dilemma, this research explores the lived experience of menstruation in custody. Geographically, it is located within England and Wales’ carceral system, wherein it is recognised that the knowledge base is distinctly poor, and the policy context is particularly unpromising. Drawing on Foucauldian theory, this project situates the management of menstruation as a form of gendered embodied punishment, distinguishing it as a novel weapon in prison’s arsenal for instigating discipline. As such, it has the overarching aim of exploring the idea that the prison is a site of reproductive injustice. This poster aims to outline the status of the current reproductive health research agenda, and foreground the gaps in our knowledge which have shaped this project. It will also present the main themes identified throughout the current scholarship, and innovatively connect menstrual health in prison to theoretical concepts of embodiment, corporeality, bio-power, medicalisation, surveillance, discipline, and gendered punishment.

Author

• Brogan Pritchard, University of Manchester