What is more terrifying than a woman fully clothed, laying on her bed with a little stain of blood on her pyjamas? The removal of Rupi Kaur’s photo from Instagram proves how uncomfortable society is with women’s menstruation.
“I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of a misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak.”
Rupi Kaur is a Sikh poet and photographer based in Toronto. She and her sister Prabh Kaur revealed a photography series called ‘Period’. Her collection depicts various stages of the women’s menstrual cycle – including leaking, cramps and the changing of sanitary napkins. In many, if not all cultures and societies, menstruation is considered shameful, but her beautiful work’s description sums up the real embarrassment:
“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 it is 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 of women, the sexualisation of women, the violence and degradation of women than this. They cannot be bothered 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.”
The artist’s point was to show that society is somehow shocked at this natural process. And Instagram proved her right: by trying to censor her work not just once, but twice.
“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 again.”
The censorship of this photo unleashed a revolution on social media and Instagram restored Rupi’s work and apologised to her. However, Rupi couldn’t be more thankful because it seems that society gave her the sad response she was expecting.
Check out Rupi’s website to read and see more of her work.
