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How women inside women's circles and women outside them experience menstruation
Fousková, Natálie ; Valentová, Hana (advisor) ; Presslerová, Pavla (referee)
The thesis explores women's experiencing of menstruation and it compares the experiencing in two groups, one consisting of women who have attended women's circles, and the other of women who have not. In addition to experiencing menstruation, the thesis explores the women's circles themselves as a new social phenomenon. Data collected through interviews with ten women was analysed using grounded theory methods. Menstruation is examined on the level of personal experiencing as well as on the level of a social norm. These levels are seen to show mutual influence. To some degree, women adopt the social perception of menstruation, yet at the same time, it is their experiences and actions that form it. Therefore, women have the potential to change the social norms regarding menstruation. Women outside women's circles accept the social norm and experience menstruation passively. They consider not feeling well a natural side-effect and do not attempt to change it. Women who have attended women's circles counter the social norm and experience menstruation actively. They work with their experiences, both physical and psychological, while menstruating, and they actively adjust their surrounding conditions in order to feel better. KEYWORDS: menstruation, experience, women's circles, womanhood, taboo, gender
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Menstruation: personal and medially vicarious relation to the body
Kovalčuková, Anastázie ; Soukup, Martin (advisor) ; Půtová, Barbora (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to answer the question to what extent are Czech women influenced by the information presented by media or historical traditions about menstruation. Not only literature and published articles were used as sources for the findings, several personal interviews were also conducted with Czech women, gynaecologists and one company, which distributes hygienic tools for menstruation. The results show that the concept of purity perception, as well as seeing women as weaker gender. There is also an effort to protect children from the topics concerning adult life and also the fact, that menstruation does not present any taboo for women in 21st century. However, these women do not talk about it too often, as they consider it very intimate topic. To some extent, some level of taboo persists in the media.
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Sexually liminal periods in the lives of women in Ancient Egypt
Svobodová, Markéta ; Vymazalová, Hana (advisor) ; Pehal, Martin (referee)
The thesis seeks to explain the sexual passages of women related to fertility, such as menstruation, pregnancy and birth, in the ancient Egyptian world. The passages related to fertility have strong connotations with death in the Egyptian mythological context. The aim of the thesis is to understand this relationship, often metaphorically conveyed in iconography or in the netherworld literature. The thesis collects material from various sources, archeological, textual, iconographical, not only Egyptian, but also Greek and Roman. The methods used vary from cognitive linguistics and semiotic analysis to religious anthropology. Menstruation, pregnancy and birth in ancient Egypt are explained not only on the level of the understanding of the body of the Egyptians, but also in terms of what role they play in iconography and mythology. Furthermore, the relationship between birth and death is made with regards to fertility. The basic findings of this thesis consist of illustrating a dichotomy between the feminine nurturing principle of and masculine creative principle which appear in different contexts related to birth and death: in iconography, on the level of bodily fluids, or in mythological creation.
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