Bejt pánem svýho těla (První menstruace v kontextu dospívání).

• Main Author: Černá, Kateřina
• Other Authors: Chlup, Radek
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Czech
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-287561

The subject of my qualitative research was menarche. The thesis presents the results of ten episodic interviews with women in early adulthood (25-30 years old). My main focus was on the way women remember and give meaning to the actual event. I also paid att ention to the process of menstrual socialization, that is to say coming to terms with menstruation during puberty and adolescence. Finally some women gave an impressive evaluation of the role of menstruation in their whole life. Talking about menarche thus became an occasion for re-defining women's identities. One of the by-products of the research was the discovery that the change of Czech political system in 1989 affected national body politics as well. Women who were coming of age after the Velvet Revolution in the early nineties reported not only better informational and material supply but the pressure of the new beauty cult as well.