Written by I’ve just finished a discourse analysis of UK national news stories over the past two years and I gave a talk on this at Welfare Imaginaries in September 2018. I found lots of interesting things through doing this analysis. One thing that struck me was the way that the discussions about the poverty angle of ‘period poverty’, and how this relates to the current context of political and economic turmoil, was evident, but began to wane over time. I am aware that what we see in the news is not always the full story though and may actually work to stigmatise (a topic that was brilliantly discussed by Rachel Broady at Welfare Imaginaries in relation to the reporting of poverty – see her video here and below).
I’m currently analysing other forms of media representations, from social media to television to film, to see what narratives are being told about menstruation, poverty, gender, austerity etc. in media. I’ve been noting these representations down for the last year or so. I’ve seen ‘period poverty’ shown through soaps like Eastenders, adverts like Always, films like I, Daniel Blake, and other types of depictions.
I’m hoping to analyse as many depictions as possible so if you see any media representations of ‘period poverty’ do tweet me or get in contact.