The present master's thesis is an attempt at a comprehensive analysis of the social discourse on menstruation in Slovenia between 1848 and 1941. The thesis shows the close connection of perceptions of menstruation with the socio-cultural developments in the chosen place and time, when human perceptions of the moral, healthy and pure are most changed. It highlights the significance of the process of civilisation, the conspiracy of silence and the hygienisation of life, which, alongside medical progress, the institutionalisation of the gynaecological profession and the rise of advertising, lead first to a break with previous speculative interpretations and taboos, and then to the replacement of 'traditional' menstrual practices by new health, hygiene and aesthetic norms, that women must internalise in order to be acceptable in the newly conquered, public world. The thesis analyses the characteristics of medical and advertising discourse and also attempts to show the reception of all the messages and implications among menstruating women themselves, who have largely taken over the ideas conveyed about the inconveniences and dangers of the so-called 'critical days'.
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