The menstrual cycle has long been labelled a cultural taboo. A black carry bag to hide the contents inside, advertisements featuring blue liquid to help understand the absorbent quality of a pad, ‘don’t do this, don’t eat that, don’t go there’ instructions have been the norm for women since ages.
However, menstruation is having its pop-culture moment right now thanks to movies, books and art shows. From Phullu, a film about a sanitary pad-maker to Twinkle Khanna-produced film Padman which is in the works, to the viral song Period Paatu by singer Sofia Ashraf to a travelling art show by Boondh (that works to make the menstrual cup affordable) which is exhibiting several works of art based on the theme of menstruation, the power of art is helping to shift debates around menstruation.
“I feel that art of any kind provocatively challenges viewers to assess their assumptions about anything in this world, including menstrual taboos. Also, art is an important medium to initiate change. Menstruation is a biological process, but its meaning is gendered. But we as women and as artists need to fight the misogynist nature of our culture, which has managed to make a common natural phenomenon (menstruation) a taboo. Reclaiming the importance of periods is necessary because it’s one of the most beautiful things the body goes through. It’s not dirty but it’s a thing that needs to be celebrated. I think we don’t talk enough about this subject. Using menstrual blood to create artwork generally comes under menstrual activism, which strives to resist menstrual shame, and expands knowledge and care options. That’s what we aimed to do with this travelling exhibition,” explains Bharti Kannan, co-founder of Boondh about the travelling exhibition.
The exhibition which was launched in Chennai, travelled to Bengaluru and then Goa. It features captivating pieces including the work of an 18-year-old illustrator and poet from Mumbai, Priyanka Paul, whose focuses on themes of social justice and feminism. Her illustrations highlight ridiculous notions and narratives around menstruation, comment on the tax imposed on menstrual products and how menstruation is considered a taboo.
Besides that, it also features works of aspiring designer and illustrator Jaishree Garg whose three illustrations portray three different sides of menstruation — one that depicts society’s belief that a menstruating woman and her blood is impure, a piece where a young menstruating girl is as fragile as a flower and treated as such, untouched and left alone to wither, and the third, the artist’s own point of view about what menstruation is — a source of human life, the circle of life.
Apart from the exhibition, author Ariana Abadian-Heifetz’s newly published comic book titled Spreading Your Wings addresses puberty and menstrual hygiene. And artist Raj Kamal Aich’s series uses tampons against everyday activities and objects to put across the message that periods are an intrinsic part of a woman’s life. For him, it’s all about embracing the biological situation: “In India, sex and periods are the no-no topics. We men take so many things for granted. We just don’t talk about periods. Also, so many of us have misconceptions about it. The female body is different; it has menstrual fluids; things that are in opposition to the male body, but they are normal and natural. I just wanted to show that. I feel, the more we talk about it, the more normal we will tend to feel about the topic.”
