'The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo, Menstruation'

by Karen Houppert (304 pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $24)

Newsweek.com book review, July 27, 1999

Call it "the curse," "that time of the month," "my red-headed friend," or just say, "on the rag," and everyone knows what you mean. But who actually says the word — let alone writes a whole book on it? Village Voice reporter Karen Houppert, in "The Curse," brings up provocative questions about tampons, how girls deal with their first periods, PMS, and other menstrual topics, to produce what amounts to a collection of essays of varying quality. The chapter on dioxin in tampons is riveting (and alarming), but the following chapter, on society's confusing messages about female sexuality, confuses rather than intrigues. Houppert's attempt to connect the portrayal of sex in teen magazines as "naughty" to the general hush about menstruation is ultimately unsuccessful, and never delves into why society sends such inconsistent messages. Still, "The Curse" is engaging reading, perhaps because menstruation is so taboo, and well-researched information on it is so scarce. After all, the last reliable information women read about menstruation was probably in "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."

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