“A Kotex and a Smile”: Mothers and Daughters at Menarche

Abstract

This article explores the menarche or first-period narratives of 155 young women, focusing on their relationships with their mothers at this time. It finds that maternal scripts are changing as young women of this cohort, most of whom started their periods around the new millennium, recalled supportive mothers who were emotionally engaged with them. Although such support is related to positive experiences of menarche, it is not a guarantee, as substantial numbers of women with warm maternal support recalled negative memories of menarche. Still, this study suggests that emotionally connected mothers are able to mitigate feelings of shame and humiliation associated with the discourses of menstruation in contemporary culture. Finally, although White women and the more affluent are overrepresented among celebratory and emotionally connected mothers, women of color and, to some extent, the less affluent are overrepresented among the helpful, less demonstrative mothers. The latter seem to facilitate the least negative menarcheal responses on the part of daughters.