Leaks, Lumps, and Lines

Abstract

Women’s bodies have often been positioned in art and popular culture as monstrous or defiled and women’s bodily products (e.g., menstrual fluid, breast milk) as disgusting. This framing has led to the stigmatization of aspects of women’s bodies (e.g., leaking fluids, lumps of fat, and lines in the skin that indicate aging), especially those aspects that are perceived as threats to culture and society. In this article, the author draws on feminist theory, stigma theory, and terror management theory to explain the positioning of menstruating, fat, and old women as threatening and stigmatized. Evidence for the stigma is discussed, as are the effects of stigma on the stigmatized and the stigmatizers. Ways of resisting, reframing, and coping with stigma are suggested.