Assessing the reception and potential of menstrual cycle awareness in the creative process of menstruating people within the cultural and creative sectors

The preliminary research project will aim to explore and describe perceptions of menstrual cycle. The researcher will make a preliminary assessment of the menstrual cycle’s potential in the context of the creative process, the work of female artists and creatives, menstruating people, in the cultural and creative sectors (CCS). The researcher will aim to answer two questions:

1. How is the menstrual cycle and its potential perceived, including menstruation (bleeding period) in selected CCS professions?
2. What are the problems and needs related to the cycle and menstruation in different artistic professions?

The menstrual cycle, as an unescapable part of the lives of almost two billion people on Earth (WHO estimation 2021), remains a taboo subject, regardless of latitude, time or social stratification. In the medical field, it is an extremely well-described phenomenon, however, culturally, socially and economically it remains almost unexplored. The first phase of the cycle, the most abject one, i.e. bleeding, which is often equated to the entire menstrual process, is an area of some interest in these sciences. They usually, focus on menstrual poverty or education but the cyclical character of periods, and the other three phases of menstruation, remain outside of the realm of humanistic research.

Therefore, this project will focus on the recurrence of the menstrual cycle, the awareness of the cycle and the potential it brings, in the context of culture and the cultural industries labor market. The researcher will explore this theme in a specific occupational group of female artists and creatives, menstruating individuals who are part of a group of ‘professionals’, according to Higg’s and Cunningham’s concept of the ‘creative trident’. The focus on this group stems from the assumption that individuals from this professional group have an above-average awareness of their own bodies and sensitivity to their own creative resources, which allow them to create and execute projects requiring imaginative thinking as well as the ephemeral category — talent — understood as a factor in artistic production.

The project implies interdisciplinary research, employing components specific to cultural studies and social sciences, including labor and cultural economics. This research approach was positively validated during my doctoral research, which resulted in a publication “Homo Saltatrix: The labor market situation of women artists and ballet artists” (Cholewicka 2023). The approach in this project is shaped largely by the methodology of feminist research concerning the body (e.g. Bobel, et al., 2020, The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies).

The preliminary study will be conducted using qualitative methods. The research plans to carry out the following activities: Conduct 20 in-depth interviews (IDI) with menstruating artists and creatives who represent four areas of CCS defined by D.Throsbye's (2008) systematics: “The concentric model of cultural industries circles” and “Praca i wynagrodzenia w gospodarce kreatywnej. Uwarunkowania, specyfika, ewolucja (Zawadzki 2016). Occupations will be selected using a random selection method. Each of the four circles will be represented by five women. Additionally, in each 5-person group, two randomly selected people, will keep diaries to evaluate daily their experiences and feelings concerning the cycle phase and the creative process over a period of one month. For example, whether they felt a need for self-expression on a given day or experienced difficulties with concentration, etc.

The participants will also be interviewed by experts, such as a gynecologist, who will describe in detail the impact of hormones in the different phases of the cycle, a sexologist, and a psychologist, who deal with sexuality.

Finally, the researcher will aim to deconstruct taboos related to some behaviors, for example, to sexual intercourse during menstruation, as an exemplification of negative attitudes towards menstrual blood.

The project will initiate a full, interdisciplinary study of the relationship between menstrual cycle and artistic endeavor, in particular the impact of menstrual cycle on efficiency in the creative process. The researcher will also test the usability of the tools and the measurability of the designed indicators for assessing the level of creativity in relation to the phases of the cycle. The preliminary study will also provide a matrix of problems and needs of menstruating artists. This matrix will be developed based on the collected data, and will serve as a foundation for quantitative research.

The results of the preliminary study will provide a foundation for further research involving other cultural and creative sectors, where the catalogue of professions will be aligned with the method used in the CICERONE project. It will also allow the researcher to analyze the institutional support framework and conduct more detailed qualitative research, using diaries and large-scale quantitative research.

A better understanding of the impact the menstrual cycle has on the creative process can bring tangible benefits to both individuals and the arts sector as a whole. The researcher hypothesizes that consciously managing one's potential, in accordance with the phases of the monthly cycle, is conducive to the improvement in wellbeing and productivity of the creatives, who work in an industry known for the widespread professional burnout.

Currently, men constitute the majority of the workforce that reaches the maximum level of productivity. Without a significant increase in their productivity, it is hard to expect an increase in economic development. Women, as an underutilized resource, represent an opportunity for economic growth and prosperity. Being aware and working in harmony with biological aspects of one’s body, can bring tangible benefits to all parties.