It all started on Facebook after seeing the picture in the middle posted on my newsfeed. Here I was, looking at a woman laying on her side with menstrual blood stains.
At first I wasn’t quite sure what the hell I was looking at. To be honest, I was a little taken aback. However there was something about the tone of the picture that peaked my curiosity and the menstrual picture began to morph into a beautiful piece of art. They say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and after I perused through the photo owner’s Instagram account, I discovered that Rupi Kaur (the owner), a spoken word Sikh poet studying rhetoric at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, had a lot more than a thousand words to say.
“Thank you instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. You deleted a photo of a woman who is fully covered and menstruating stating that it goes against community guidelines when your guidelines outline that it is nothing but acceptable. The girl is fully clothed. The photo is mine. It is not attacking a certain group. Nor is it spam. And because it does not break those guidelines I will re-post it. When your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many of whom are underage) are objectified, pornified, and treated less than human. Thank you. This image is part of my photoseries project for my visual rhetoric course. You can view the full series at rupikaur.com. I bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. My womb is home to the divine, a source of life for our species, whether I choose to create or not. But very few times is it seen that way. In older civilizations this blood was considered holy. In some it still is. But a majority of people, societies, and communities shun this natural process. Some are more comfortable with the pornification, the sexualization of women, the violence and degradation of woman than this. They cannot be bother to express their disgust about all that but will be angered and bothered by this. We menstruate and they see it as dirty, attention seeking, sick, a burden. As if this process is less natural than breathing, as if it is not a bridge between this universe and the last. As if this process is not love, labour, life. Selfless and strikingly beautiful.”
And just like that, I was blown the fuck away. Rupi Kaur was schooling life and unknowingly put me in my place. Her eloquent disdain for Instagram’s lack of support left me feeling as if I had just received a history lesson while sitting in the pews at church. It was a well stated position that deserved a round of applause from any human being with a shred of respect for women. Rupi continues her conversation with the world on her website giving us full personal insight as to why she posted this photo. I was impressed reading her story and could literally hear her words passionately supporting a naturally beautiful process that many people see as ugly.
I applaud you Rupi and I’m curious to see how others respond to your photo. If Rupi Kaur inspired a change in the way you reacted to the menstrual process please let her know and thank Rupi for sharing her photo with the world!
Learn more about Rupi Kaur:
Website: www.rupikaur.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rupikaurpoetry
