Guess what time of the month it is?!

Last month, artist Rupi Kaur posted a photo on Instagram that was removed not once but twice for violating community guidelines. The photo depicts a fully clothed woman who has bled through her clothes while on her period. The photo was allowed to remain on Instagram after the artist took to Tumblr to express her destain for Instagram’s misguided and misogynistic censorship and the story gained the attention of international news outlets. Warning: below is a picture of a woman is who bleeding from her vagina and has accidentally bleed through her clothes and on to her bed.

The fact that Instagram found this image too “graphic” to be shared on a social media platform speaks volumes on society’s attitude towards menstruation. Although nearly half of the world’s population have experienced or will experience periods, women have to act like it is a big secret or something that they should be ashamed of and hide. The thing that I found most disturbing is when this story was posted to reddit numerous users thought this was photo was of a woman who soiled herself in her sleep. User InternetStranger1985 commented; “I was going to come here to say that I felt embarrassed that, as a female, I thought that was poo; like someone shit themselves in their sleep… But then I realized I identified it as such BECAUSE of media censorship and the fact I am more likely to see (party) pics of people soiling themselves vs. menstruation”. If I had seen this photo out of context I probably would have thought the same thing because period blood is not something that is ever shown, even in commercials for feminine hygiene products. My fourth grade sex education class that was suppose to teach us all about coming of age and menstruation also failed to mention or illustrate that a period is composed of blood. In fact, it is easier to find nudes and dick pics on Instagram, which are actually against community guidelines, than it is to find similar pictures to this one. (I do not recommend searching for any of this things on Instagram, results may vary or be extremely disturbing).

The major problem with deeming period blood as mature content is that girls as young as 5 can start menstruating and by labeling what their body is going through mature, it indirectly labels them as mature beings. It reinforces the idea that when a girl starts menstruating she is now sexually available because she is ready to reproduce, which is the equivalent to saying a boy is sexually ready when he gets his first wet dream. This is a very disturbing thought process because although a child may be maturing, they are in no way mentally or physically ready to be considered in a sexual manner. The censorship also promotes the taboo that periods are a disgusting problem that only women have and should be kept private from everyone, especially men; even though there are whole Instagram accounts dedicated to people’s daily poop and you can see any number of graphic bloody images in the news. It seems that whenever it comes to women, there is a need to censor them when they fall outside of the catagory of sexy, like when a woman is using her breast to provide nutrients for her child instead of posing in a bikini. It tells women to be ashamed of their bodies when they cannot be viewed as sexual objects and makes periods disgusting because they rob women of their sexual availability to men.

Furthermore, this taboo that we have around periods creates so many issues for women, especially young women experiencing their periods for the first time. Personally, by the time I had my first period I had all the knowledge I needed to handle it on my own. I was the last in my friend group to get my period and between my very outspoken friends and fourth grade sex education, I took care of my first period all by myself. The only person I told was my father because he was a medical professional and I knew he would be able to handle it without a fuss, plus I needed him to take me to the store to buy feminine products. With me being his youngest daughter, the process was extremely cut and dry. This apparently was a huge mistake because my mother is extremely old- I mean old fashioned and she was appalled when she finally found out three months later that I had started menstruating by going through my trash one day. Unlike my sister who went straight to our mother when she got her first period, I had more education and did not need my mother’s help. I guess she felt betrayed that I neglected to tell her because “that is what women are suppose to do” and that I robbed her of her chance to fulfill her motherly duties to walk me through my first period (or embarrass me thoroughly). This also meant that my mother felt the need to make me sit on towels whenever she knew I was on my period so I would not get blood on the furniture and turn up her nose in disgust every time I mentioned tampons.

Although I thought my experience with my old fashioned mother was bad, many girls have it worse because of their family traditions towards periods. Sometimes when a girl gets her period for the first time she is totally on her own because she does not have the access to the appropriate information and her family offers her no help. In many cases the male figure in the family either wants nothing to do with the period because it is a girl problem and a woman should take care of it, or they are completely clueless on how to help. Usually it is the woman figure in the girl’s life to help her out but that does not mean they will be informative and supportive. This method was more effective when majority of women were stay at home wives and there was strong close knit community of women, however, now there are less chances of a girl having more than one woman figure in her life that she could turn to, limiting her options on receiving help. Many companies have formed in order to combat the first period cluelessness and awkwardness, like HelloFlo, by giving girls a period starter kit. This gives a girl everything she needs to get through her first period without teaching her to be ashamed of her body because it is a natural body function. It also allows for the menstrual conversation to be easily started between the girl and her parents.

Instagram’s response to Kaur’s photo is exactly the response she wanted to evoke. By posting a controversial photo, she wanted to generate conversation about society’s attitude towards periods and she has. She made us question why we view periods so negatively when nearly half have the population experience them.