Menstrual Blood as a Weapon of Resistance

Abstract

This paper examines how women in the North of Ireland used menstrual blood as a
\nmeans of resisting the state. It explores the central role that menstrual blood and menstruation
\nhave played throughout the conflict – both as an instrument of war and as a
\nweapon of resistance for female political prisoners. Various arms of the state used menstruation
\nas a means of control over republican women. But women also used menstrual
\nblood to challenge and to resist such attempts by the state. This article suggests that the
\nuse of menstrual blood in resisting the state is an act so subversive that it effectively
\ndisrupted staunchly entrenched gender norms in Northern Irish society prior to the
\nheight of the conflict. This in turn provoked the rise of a distinct form of feminism
\nrooted within the republican movement.