Scan barcode
A review by lenin_lover_69
Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working for You by Maisie Hill
informative
medium-paced
2.0
The first half or so of this book felt genuinely life changing, and it felt crazy to be learning about all those basic facts about menstrual cycles as someone who menstruates who is now in their mid 30s! I also appreciated all Maisie's efforts to use inclusive language and using input from trans people about what the experiencing of a menstrual cycle can be like for them which obviously does not get nearly as much airtime as it should.
The back end of the book really pissed me off though and made me question whether it was suitable to give to say, a teenager. It felt much more like it was drawn from Maisie's personal views and preferences based on her background and career - there was a tonne of really harmful wellness pseudo science especially around food that does not belong in a book like this. The nutritionist Laura Thomas does so much amazing work to challenge narratives around wellness and clean eating that nearly always come back to issues of class. Food as medicine narratives fills the huge gaps in research into reproductive health and this book perpetuates loads of fucked ideas about 'good' and 'bad' foods, not to mention individualist ideas about who gets to live a 'pure' lifestyle free from toxins, inflammatory foods (such as bread and milk lol), hormonal contraception and such. It was quite triggering at points to someone who flirted with orthorexia so I could not in good conscience recommend this book to anyone with a history of disordered eating or even who was sceptical about vaccines, for example. I wished so much it engaged more with political issues around these topics beyond the usual rich white lady lamenting of how hard it is for people to have a period if you live in a scary, 'othered' developing country.
The back end of the book really pissed me off though and made me question whether it was suitable to give to say, a teenager. It felt much more like it was drawn from Maisie's personal views and preferences based on her background and career - there was a tonne of really harmful wellness pseudo science especially around food that does not belong in a book like this. The nutritionist Laura Thomas does so much amazing work to challenge narratives around wellness and clean eating that nearly always come back to issues of class. Food as medicine narratives fills the huge gaps in research into reproductive health and this book perpetuates loads of fucked ideas about 'good' and 'bad' foods, not to mention individualist ideas about who gets to live a 'pure' lifestyle free from toxins, inflammatory foods (such as bread and milk lol), hormonal contraception and such. It was quite triggering at points to someone who flirted with orthorexia so I could not in good conscience recommend this book to anyone with a history of disordered eating or even who was sceptical about vaccines, for example. I wished so much it engaged more with political issues around these topics beyond the usual rich white lady lamenting of how hard it is for people to have a period if you live in a scary, 'othered' developing country.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder