Smeared in menstrual blood from top to bottom. Red all over her face, red dripping down her breasts, caked all over like paint. This is accurately what I was greeted to on Instagram. In an attempt to normalize menstruation, this Instagram user thought that the best way to make people aware is by posting a series of pictures and videos of her lathering period blood all over her skin, because obviously there is no better way to educate people. Remember when a bunch of buzzfeed content creators painted with their period blood? In retrospect, that seems completely mundane.
Menstrual taboos go a long way and these deep-seated taboos are found across all cultures. Personally, while growing up talking about my period at home was never an issue, I could be sitting in the lounge with my father and my 10 y/o brother across me and still be allowed to talk freely about periods. But unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere.
In middle school, one of my teachers called upon all the girls to have the classic “period talk”, which in my opinion is very important when delivered correctly, however, in my case it was not. Towards the end of the talk, my teacher emphatically stated that all the girls whenever talking about their period should refer to it with a codeword! And what’s even more absurd is that she went on and actually picked a code word! Actions like this reconsolidate the taboo behind menstruation.
While I’m a feminist and I’m all for educating people about menstruation and making everyone aware about the female body, I completely condemn the usage of graphic pictures and videos such as the ones I stumbled upon on Instagram. You simply cannot expect to educate people by shocking them. To raise awareness for a topic such as menstruation, you need to be more gentle.Scarring people only makes them less likely to learn more about the topic anyway. Posts such as the ones I saw may catch ones attention but only for so long and for all the wrong reasons!
Acts of radical feminism such as this, not only drag attention away from the problem at hand but also take the seriousness away from the feminist movement. By using your menstrual blood as face paint you are not helping the woman in rural India who is oppressed in her own home during her menstrual cycle, you are not helping the woman that has to use the same menstrual item throughout the whole length of her cycle, you are not helping the Nepalese girl being abandoned in a “chaupadi” during her period. Does period blood on your face raise awareness for the issues that I stated? I’d like to think not. Does period blood make your skin glow? According to radical feminists, yes. According to science, no. Take your pick. All in all, absurd efforts of empowerment like this only drag attention away from the issue.
Repeat after me, shocking people is not feminism.