Where The 'Bloody' Hell Is It? A Study of Menstruation in the New Zealand Relationships and Sexuality Education Guideline

Abstract

This thesis examines the way in which the New Zealand relationship and sexuality education (RSE) guidelines represent menstruation and menstruation education. Menstruation is a topic in RSE guidelines that tends to be given little time in schools. This is an issue because menstruators are not given the information to understand what is happening in their bodies or the guidance on when or how to seek professional help. The scarcity of information presented to students carries on the Western discourse of menstruation as a secret to be kept. This study focused on the official curriculum policy for the teaching of RSE in schools and sought to understand how menstruation is represented. Textual analysis was used to examine the frequency and context of a selected group of key words across all sections of the RSE guidelines. Nvivo 14 was used to generate word clouds for visualisation of this. A poststructural feminist theoretical framework guided this project. Key concepts including discourse, language, power, resistance, and freedom and subjectivity, as well as knowledge and truth underpin the analyses. The analysis of the RSE guidelines revealed that there is no straightforward answer to my research question. Western discourse is still evident in the RSE guidelines through a limited vocabulary relating to menstruation as well as menstruation being confined predominantly to the curriculum. In contrast, the analysis also revealed that the RSE guidelines have moved away from menstruation being a hygiene crisis and towards understanding menstruation through a holistic approach. It was concluded that there have been remarkable efforts in reducing stigma related to menstruation and identify that steps can be made to reduce the stigma further. This research project adds to our understandings about the place of menstruation in official RSE curriculum policy in New Zealand.