“Muito mais que sangue”, um tabu: considerações sobre ciclo menstrual e a relação entre frequência e participação nas aulas de educação física escolar

Abstract

The study aims to analyze whether the dialogues established with high school adolescents about menstrual cycle, puberty and Physical Education practices have impacted their experiences and/or reinforce taboos in relation to the body. In this way, the work seeks to discuss the taboo that involves menstruation, especially in Physical Education classes, to present the debates undertaken by feminist movements in opposition and/or favoring medical discourses, the paradigms posed by religions and issues related to care and hygiene. “feminine” at the present time. We will also seek to assess how knowledge on this subject has been transmitted and/or if it happens to be re-signified especially during pedagogical interventions in School Physical Education. For this purpose, we used non-experimental and exploratory research, following a qualitative approach and supported by feminist studies, we chose to apply a questionnaire that allowed us to make the following considerations: menstruation is still a taboo that is fixed in society whose prejudices that structure it come from the misinformation that is successively passed on and reinforced in the family context, in addition, the participation of medical institutions, schools and women's social movements in the dissemination of knowledge about menstruation does not seem to reach most people who menstruate, especially cis women. The taboos about menstruation seem to continue shaping women's thinking and behavior and, consequently, causing them to withdraw from School Physical Education classes and other spaces of socialization. Keywords: Menstruation. Taboo. School Physical Education.