Designations in Dispute: On the Relations among Linguistic-Discursive (De)Coloniality, Menstrual Dignity, and Discursive Practices of Resistance and Reexistence

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between linguistic-discursive (de)coloniality, intersecting identities, and discursive practices of resistance and reexistence, employing a critical intersectional discourse perspective to analyze two texts that challenge the epistemic-ontological implications of the term ‘pessoas que menstruam’ [people who menstruate]. To this end, we examined two media-connected texts: “Nós, mulheres, não somos apenas pessoas que menstruam” [We, women, are not just people who menstruate] and “Por que estamos usando o termo ‘pessoas que menstruam’?” [Why are we using the term ‘people who menstruate’?] It feels strange to be accused of biologizing ways of being a woman when, in fact, we are moving in the opposite direction.” These texts position the designation pessoas que menstruam [people who menstruate] in opposition, reflecting the positionalities of the authors’ intersecting identities, and aim to generate alternative knowledge and power structures, particularly through linguistic-discursive activism as a means of reexisting, resisting, and confronting coloniality.