The Power, Privilege and Product of Representing the Others: A postcolonial rhetorical critique of Western representations of Global South menstruators

Abstract

An essential strategy for development organisations to get attention and funding is to present specific narratives and portrayals of their targets of interventions. In this thesis I investigate a fairly new branch of the development industry, called Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), which is largely a Western focus on menstrual related issued in low- and middle-income countries in the Global South. These MHM organisations are worth scrutinising because they have only existed since the early 2000s, which mean they have had the chance to avoid the stereotypical and degrading representations that the older development industry has been criticised for. In addition, MHM organisations focus on a target group that historically has been the degraded and inferior part in all the constructed categories of race, class, gender and sexuality, which should require an extra high responsibility to avoid the reproduction of harmful representations. Through an in-depth, postcolonial rhetorical critique of Western MHM actors’ representations of Global South menstruators, I examine and discuss the roles and representations of the Western Self and the Global South Others and how messages contribute to or challenge oppression and unequal power relations. With the use of rhetorical tools for persuasion, and by composing purposeful narratives of Global South menstruators, MHM organisations rationalise interventions and justify their approach and solutions. Framing is power, and it is the ones doing the framing, in this case Western actors, who has the power. To frame menstruation as a crisis, and products as the main solution, affect the focus area of interventions and create expectations of menstrual management, or etiquette, which potentially feeds to menstrual stigma. Similarly, the act of representing is power. To represent Global South menstruators as confined and weak, while bursting with economic potential, facilitates for the “white saviour” to rescue the victimised menstruator and unleash her potential. Through a deep dig into rhetorical artefacts of representative MHM organisations, and a wide search in the surrounding landscape, I disclose and reflect upon representations, narratives and portrayals that justify and rationalise Western interventions in the Global South.