Re-defining Menstruation
VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF FEMINISM
Speculative & Service Design for Health Care Systems and Equity
2017, NY
Honored Core77 Design Awards 2018, Strategy & Research award
Finalist Fast Company 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards
Presented at Primer Conference 2018, Emerging Designer Exhibition
What if we could reposition the cultural values that come out of the menstruation stigmas, to help women experience it as an empowering element of their identity?
'Re-defining Menstruation' is a series of audio narrative media that investigate the potentiality of understanding female menstruation as an expression of empowerment. The alternative futures of the system surrounding menstruation stigma portrayed in the podcast format are thought-provoking and encourage self-reflection. They make menstruation taboo and its complexities tangible. Through these enacted scenarios, I offer an opportunity to reflect on the need for a changing attitude about the 'cycle of shame,' to ultimately impact on multiple scales. The many stigmas around menstruation weigh heavy on female identity and are one of the core issues to discuss in regards to perpetual gender inequality. My thesis used a provocative design approach to a possible future in which menstruation is perceived as female privilege, a source of pride and positivity.
Challenge & Design Opportunity
“If the shoe was on the other foot, men would deem the experience worthy of pride. ‘Menstruation is a biological process, but its meaning is gendered. And because it’s largely a woman’s experience, it’s devalued.’ ”
How might we design an experience that reengineers the menstruation experience and shows how it could be different?
While searching for the meaning of the word taboo, I learned that the name comes from the Polynesian word 'tapua,' meaning both 'sacred' and 'menstruation.'
Which pinpoints the deeply rooted link between the female body and the negative stigma menstruation has in society.
Early in my research phase, I understood the menstruation taboo as a 'cycle of shame.' A wicked problem - that has existed for far too long for both girls and boys.
I discovered that this taboo has multiple factors together; they create and maintain a whole shame system.
When menses are seen as a disease to be 'solved,' 'cleaned up' and 'abnormal' when in reality, it's a monthly cycle for women's bodies and a natural process.
With the uprising of the menstrual movements, there is an opportunity to evolve the conversation around menstruation.
To use design to create a new discussion, establish new mindsets and perceptions around women's bodies, give form to the period stigma, stereotypes, and women's rights.
Design can empower women by providing an alternative experience in which menstruation is not considered shameful.
Through the fictional audio artifact, the listener can imagine themselves in that environment and think of their version of that alternative.
It helps free them from the shame and brings women one step closer to eliminating the stigmas they may have about women and provide a collective experience that can build new positive future.
Outcomes & Benifits
This project dissected the many layers of stigma around menstruation through insightful frameworks and integrated another core tenant of design: empathy.
Using audio narratives podcasts, this project moves from revealing the sort of menstruation layers to building an understanding that guides strategic direction.
Through the enacted scenarios, I offer people an opportunity to reflect or evolve their attitude to the menstruation 'cycle of shame,' which eventually might affect the system at multiple scales. Using audio as a medium allows me to strip away the context's baggage and let the audience focus on listening to stories rather than being bogged down by visual detail. The enacted audio narratives are positioning the listeners in a new alternative, in a concrete situation, place, and time.
By applying speculative design strategies through the fictional scenarios, I can raise questions that break stigmatized and delicate areas without giving any particular answers.
Methods & Strategy
Secondary research & literature review
Extreme experts interviews
Context diagrams
Mapping out the ecosystem
Data & Insights syntesis
Precedents analysis
Scoping the interventions space
Backcasting & design workshops: development and facilitations
Scenario planing
Multimedia storytelling
Prototyping
Users testing
PART 1. SUPPORTING RESEARCH
ZOOMING OUT: WHEEL OF REASONING
The wheel of reasoning is a research tool. Its goal is to offer users an opportunity to systematically analyze their research space experience through eight categories and provide a visual representation 'of the full cycle.' "From the cause of the primary problem to the resulting change from the solution." In each step, I leaned on insights from the many conversations I had with experts around this topic, secondary research in the literature, or personal experience.
ZOOMING IN: MAPPING OUT THE ECOSYSTEM
In this part of my research, I mapped out a higher level of this 'cycle of shame.' I wanted to understand better the moments of the stigma in our society in everyday life. What are those stigmas? The different notions and dialects of the stigmatizing relationships from a different perspective? And to understand society's norms, from creative ideation sessions through mapping exercises.
KEY INSIGHTS:
* The stigmas around menstruation are seen as broader female identity stereotypes in society and the workplace. Thus, women are considered inferior to men, which ties into a more extensive systemic perception of women. Because of this deeply rooted stigma, menses is seen as a disease and not a natural process.
* Women are embarrassed by and feel shame about menstruation.
* Women are re-embracing/ not challenging male assumptions around menstruation.Starting this investigation into menstruation stigma, I wanted to understand and define these deep negative notions and assumptions society holds about periods.
Through my creative research phase, I began to understand the menstruation ‘cycle of shame’ as a wicked problem - a problem that has existed for far too long for all genders. I discovered that this taboo has multiple factors, and together, they create and maintain a whole system of shame.
PART 2. VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF MENSTRUATION FRAMEWORK
Backcasting: I was inspired by the backcasting design strategy tool, which I used in a series of facilitated workshops. Backcasting is usually used in sustainable design. Its purpose is to imagine the necessary steps to reach a preferable future and connect the future into the present. I utilized storytelling to tell a narrative of the desired change and generate the personal audience background, experience, and cultural values in creating future scenarios. Through the script (inspired by the 'image' of the change I created in my wheel of reasoning research), I positioned them in a moment when menstruation is no longer a matter of shame. It is a subject people feel very comfortable talking about when calendars are in sync with the women phase of the menstruation cycle, considering their mental and physical stages and conditions. In that vision, there has been a shift in the power dynamics between the genders, and menstruation became a public part of our everyday lives. Men and females are appreciating women for having their menstruation to the point that getting your period for the first time is a celebration itself. By writing their continuation to these speculative scenarios, together, we imagined the implications of my preferable future, considering what could be the harmful elements of this reality along with the positive things this change might bring. And talked about what are the necessary steps to reach that future and connect it to the present.
Fictional Scenarios: My final step in this part of the project was to transform all the participants' stories into scenarios to enact them into my audio narrative media. To create the situations, I pulled out elements from the script and the workshop participant's stories. From those elements, I then created a series of audio narrative media in a fictional podcast named The Flow. Regardless of the narrative, the podcasts' overall tone positions menstruation as a public and open matter in the American culture. I found an opportunity to open up the dialogue for alternative futures in which menstruation is not considered shameful. Within these scenarios, the users can then imagine themselves in that environment between the imaginative to the fictional. They can think of their version of that alternative, which breaks the ice for delicate conversations and presents an alternative perspective for alternative futures.