Sofia Perez

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if there is a river
more beautiful than this
bright as the blood
red edge of the moon if
there is a river more faithful than this
returning each month
to the same delta if there
is a river
braver than this
coming and coming in a surge
of passion, of pain if there is
a river
more ancient than this
daughter of eve
mother of cain and of abel if there is in
the universe such a river if
there is some where water
more powerful than this wild
water
pray that it flows also
through animals
beautiful and faithful and ancient
and female and brave

-Lucille Clifton, poem in praise of menstruation

Throughout the world, almost 500 million people are affected by period poverty, which is the term used to describe a lack of access to menstrual products, education, hygiene facilities, waste management, or a combination of these. Anyone who’s ever been in the situation where their period begins without the adequate supplies knows that this is an issue stretching way beyond what they teach you in high school biology. It is also a matter of politics, culture, history, psychology, and social attitudes. I’m talking about the shameful stigma surrounding menstrual health. 

This is what I want to hone in on: the shame. Make no mistake, of course the economics, medical research, and biology lessons all have a vital place. However, there is something else underneath all the well-intentioned interventions to this problem. There lies a very sinister habit of staying rather hushed, as though the topic of how a female body functions is fundamentally unclean and impure. 

In fact, this attitude has been perpetuated all throughout history. According to Painting Blood: Visualizing Menstrual Blood in Art, many societies throughout time- and even in the modern day- have imposed a “strict set of rules about the visualization of menstrual blood in art and visual culture”. Ruth Green-Cole, the author of this work, then goes on to state that the “hegemonic and patriarchal codes controlling discussion, commemoration, or visualization of menstruation” have led countless women now and in the past to view their own bodies as negative and shameful. 

…the “hegemonic and patriarchal codes controlling discussion, commemoration, or visualization of menstruation” have led countless women now and in the past to view their own bodies as negative and shameful. 

For a minute let’s set aside the rigidity of big scholarly words and academic writing. What Green-Cole describes is deeply personal. After all, there is unfathomable power in how we think, talk, represent, and commemorate the female body. This stretches beyond mere physiology. To attack the value and purity of the womb, the blood, a person’s sex itself is to attack the person whose soul is held within that body. This is no small matter. 

To attack the value and purity of the womb, the blood, a person’s sex itself is to attack the person whose soul is held within that body. This is no small matter. 

Lewis, Jen. “Is the Grass Always Greener?,” Beauty in Blood, www.beautyinblood.com/gallery.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

On the other hand though, there is always another side to power. Through channeling this power into the right places, it is possible to flip the script from one of shame to one of empowerment. Now the big question is How?

As always, there are multifarious approaches to tackling stigma, but for now I’d like to discuss one which I find particularly fascinating: visual art. In Aisle article, Menstruation in Art, Ariane Bell Vila states, “Making art about menstruation is one of the ways in which we can normalize it. It allows people to see a reflection of themselves through someone else’s eyes and feel less shame. It also (ideally) allows folks who don’t menstruate to maybe understand it and sympathize a little bit more. Art can help us unpack loaded or taboo subjects; periods are ready for the palette.”

Making art about menstruation is one of the ways in which we can normalize it. It allows people to see a reflection of themselves through someone else’s eyes and feel less shame. It also (ideally) allows folks who don’t menstruate to maybe understand it and sympathize a little bit more. Art can help us unpack loaded or taboo subjects; periods are ready for the palette.

Ariane Bell Vila

Make no mistake though- art has a complicated history of representing menstruation and menopause. Returning to Green-Cole’s Painting Blood,  the concept of ‘gendered blood’ is heavily embedded in patriarchal traditions. These cultures “suppress images of menstruation” while European and American art “valorize women’s bodies as vehicles for male scopic desire”.This highlights a paradoxical interplay between embracing the female body as a sexual object while thoroughly denying its natural healthy processes. The association in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions between menstrual blood and immorality only furthers this. While Christ’s blood is elevated in the Eucharist as “the blood of heroes lost on the battlefield”, female blood is seen as a punishment for Eve’s temptation of Adam. This arbitrary divide between female and male blood in artwork was a common theme for centuries. 

That is, until the 70s. At this time, feminist art emerged, producing works which were both radically honest and startling. Green-Cole describes them as not “easy to look at or decent and palatable”, as they bluntly contravene the “requirement” that female bodies in art must be timid and chaste. In doing so, they revalue “gendered blood”, transforming it gradually into a positive, defiant, or ambiguous symbol. 

This heavily contrasts with works like Marc Chagall’s 1910 oil on canvas Birth or Paul Gauguin’s 1892 painting Parau na te Varua ino (Words of the Devil), which depicts a young Tahitian woman standing naked amidst lush green foliage, a masked she-devil lingering in the background. The she-devil watches as the embarrassed woman covers her genitals with a white cloth, symbolizing purity. Her posture is “that of a woman fallen from grace” and all around her feet are pink flowers, evoking associations with blood, impurity, and the “passage that has just occurred from virginity into the status of a ‘fallen’ Eve”. 

This patriarchal image of women as the defective, leaky “other” is nonetheless challenged by artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker and Frida Kahlo, who were contemporaries of Gaugin and Chagall. Green-Cole remarks that in actual fact, Kahlo never explicitly worked with menstruation as a theme. Nevertheless, the image of blood is common throughout her work, such as in Henry Ford Hospital and Mi Nacimiento(My Birth), both painted in 1932. Modersohn-Becker contributed similarly through works like Selbstbildnis am 6. Hochzeitstag (Self-Portrait on the Sixth Wedding Day) in 1906 and Mutter mit Kind auf dem Arm, Halbakt II (Mother with Child in Her Arms, Half-Length Nude II) in 1907. 

So even at the dawn of the 20th century there were hints that a shift in perspective was coming. In the 70s this really took off. Now there is a whole wave of feminist art celebrating menstruation. Among these artists are Ellie Kammer, who creates breath-taking paintings depicting the experience of endometriosis; Natalie Byrne, who wrote and illustrated the book Period. on “everything you need to know about periods”; Sarah Naqvi, whose embroidery work depicts menstrual blood in a celebratory way; Vanessa Tiegs, the creator of “menstralas”; and too many others to list. 

Lewis, Jen. “The Crimson Wave,” Beauty in Blood, www.beautyinblood.com/gallery.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

I particularly enjoyed the Beauty in Blood project, in which photographs of menstrual blood in water are photographed to depict a plethora of mesmerizing shapes and shades of color. It seemed to provide a stark contrast to the attitudes of disgust and vulgarity that have been held toward female blood traditionally. Instead, each image is delicate and detailed. It even takes a moment to remember that it’s a photograph of blood…in a toilet! Each image must go through a four-step process of media collection, pouring/designing the layout, photographic capture, and photograph selection. By using photography to capture this taboo subject matter from an elegant angle, the artist, Jen Lewis, challenges the many taboos surrounding menstruation that paint it as something vulgar and repulsive. 

It seemed to provide a stark contrast to the attitudes of disgust and vulgarity that have been held toward female blood traditionally. Instead, each image is delicate and detailed. It even takes a moment to remember that it’s a photograph of blood…in a toilet!

Another project I found particularly thought-provoking was Vanessa Tiegs’ Menstralas, which consists of 88 paintings, or “menstralas”,  to highlight the importance of menstrual cycles. In this project, Tiegs uses her own blood as a medium, which has evoked mixed reactions among the public. However, other projects, like Sarah Naqvi’s feminist embroidery to depict menstrual blood, are also both aesthetically appealing and provocative. “Most of my art uses the medium to start a dialogue,” she says in an interview with Feminism in India. “As long as it starts a conversation, it has made an impact.”

As long as it starts a conversation, it has made an impact.

Sarah Naqvi, during interview with Feminism in india

Tiegs, Vanessa. “Ruby Red,” Menstrala Galaxy Crossing, www.vanessatiegs.com/menstrala/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023. “Finding one’s voice is a critical step in healing this challenging aspect of womanhood that is too easy to joke about merely because it stays hidden and ignored. When I published “Ruby Red,” girls with endometriosis thanked me for helping them break their conditioned silence. ” -Vanessa Tiegs.

Perhaps this is overall what must guide artists in the realm of menstrual health advocacy: starting a conversation. As I mentioned before, this open discussion is yet another way of crushing the dangerous stigma surrounding menstruation. 

“Art is not what you see,” Georgia O’Keeffe once said. “It’s what you make others see.” It is through this subtle but powerful ability of artwork that social stigmas surrounding menstrual health can be crushed. When stigmas are crushed, normalization occurs. When normalization occurs, menstruators are empowered to take control over their health by asking questions and starting conversations. Still the work so many artists are doing today is only the start. As Belle Vila declares, “Periods are ready for the palette.”

Art is not what you see. It’s what you make others see.

georgia o’keeffe

Thought to Action

1. Education: Teach yourself what a period is and how it works by watching this phenomenal TED Talk, Why Can’t We Talk About Periods?, by Dr. Jen Gunter, a renowned gynecologist and author of The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto. 
2. Sign the petition: Sign this petition to end period poverty in the U.S.
3. Consumption: If you menstruate, you can opt for products that are kind to the environment and kind to your body.
4. Consumption…For a Cause: Check out Accessory Junkie and Period.’s joint project to sell Peri earrings in order to support menstruators worldwide. Proceeds from the sale of 100 pairs of the Peri earrings supports 1,500 menstrual cycles around the world. There is currently a waitlist, so make sure to sign up for an update on when it becomes available!
5. Language: How we talk about issues like period poverty affects the way we think about them. Update some of basic linguistic habits to remove the stigma around menstruation by checking out this link. 
6. Support: Support the women in your life going through menopause by using some of these tips:
   1. Encourage open discussions about menopause with everyone, even husbands, sons, brothers, fathers, etc. A supportive community is needed to make women feel more comfortable during this transition. 
   2. If you have already experienced menopause, share your experience with others to demystify the process and alleviate the shame surrounding it.
   3. Be mindful of the “little” things women might experience during menopause, like the discomfort of a hot flash in the middle of the night, the need to keep the room a bit cooler, sudden mood swings, and the difficulty of coping with menopause in the workplace.
   4. Read this article to find out more.
7. Read: Check out Emilia Clarke’s three-issue comic mini-series M.O.M.: Mother of Madness about a single mom, Maya, who uses the secret powers rooted in the various points in her menstrual cycle to take on a group of evil human traffickers.
8. Advertising: Inform businesses of how their advertising might promote bodily shame. Watch some of these empowering new ad campaigns that challenge toxic beauty standards.
   1. Dove’s #MyBeautyMySay
   2. Always’s #LikeAGirl

Sources

Hlola ukucabanga kwakho! is Zulu for Check your assumptions!

Bell Vila, Ariane. “Menstruation in Art.” Aisle, 22 May 2020, periodaisle.com/blogs/all/menstruation-in-art. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Bloody Good Period. “MENSTRUAL EQUITY RESEARCH.” Bloody Good Period, www.bloodygoodperiod.com/bloody-data. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Cardoso, Lauren F., et al. “Period Poverty and Mental Health Implications among College-Aged Women in the United States.” BMC Women’s Health, vol. 21, no. 14, 6 Jan. 2021, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7788986/, 10.1186/s12905-020-01149-5.

Geng, Caitlin. “What Is Period Poverty?” Www.medicalnewstoday.com, 16 Sept. 2021, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/period-poverty#how-it-affects-people. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Green-Cole, Ruth. “Painting Blood: Visualizing Menstrual Blood in Art.” The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, 2020, pp. 787–801, 10.1007/978-981-15-0614-7_57.

Gunter, Jen. “Why Can’t We Talk about Periods?” Www.ted.com, 2019, www.ted.com/talks/jen_gunter_why_can_t_we_talk_about_periods. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Marcus, Hannah, and Rose Crabb. Understanding Experiences of Periods. 2022.

Martinčič, Julia. “Let It Bleed – Art’s Revival of Menstrual Blood.” The Guardian, 12 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/12/let-it-bleed-arts-revival-of-menstrual-blood. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

read, Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE15-Jan-22 · 5 mins. “How to Alter Your Language around Menstruation to Be More Inclusive.” Patient.info, 15 Jan. 2022, patient.info/news-and-features/how-to-alter-your-language-around-menstruation-to-be-more-inclusive. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Steinem, Gloria. “If Men Could Menstruate.” Women’s Reproductive Health, vol. 6, no. 3, 3 July 2019, pp. 151–152, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23293691.2019.1619050, 10.1080/23293691.2019.1619050.

Vellore, RutuChakra. “Art Depicting Menstruation: A Perspective.” Medium, 12 Oct. 2021, rutuchakra-vellore.medium.com/art-depicting-menstruation-a-perspective-68099b017736. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Water Aid. “In the Red: WaterAid Finds 1 in 4 UK Women and Girls Struggle to Afford Period Products as Cost-of-Living Crisis Takes Its Toll | WaterAid UK.” Www.wateraid.org, 25 May 2022, www.wateraid.org/uk/media/wateraid-survey-uk-women-and-girls-struggle-to-afford-period-products. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.