I was nonplussed to discover that female artists creating artwork with their menstrual blood was a thing, a buzzfeed video brought it to my attention. A rationale being is that it is intended to break-down taboos regarding female menstruation/periods, a female, feminist artist said she conceived the idea after Trump made derogatory comments about women "you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever".
With this in mind do you think this is a legitimate art form breaking down taboos and further solidifying gender equality with artistic merit for good measure or is it feminist, liberal nonsense?
detailed and thoughtful responses are appreciated
Painting with female menstrual blood: Feminist empowerment or nonsense?
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Anonymous
(45 Plus)
+1 y
As an artist, and a person who has a strong regard for the sacred feminine, I see and understand the raw need to use the very essence of ourselves to express what is in us - our thoughts, feelings, and they can vary from artist to artist.
Sometimes the art is not FOR you. This art is not for the male gaze particularly - or rather - it is intended to offend you a great deal if you're the kind of person who let's this kind of thing bother you. But mostly it's meant as a raw expression from one women to other women and girls, and it communicates in a language you will never understand. That's that.
Let it bug you or let it not bug you, your choice entirely.
It empowers those whom it empowers. You're not one of them. You weren't ever going to be one of them. It may actually disempower the people who hate it because it distracts you from your stated course long enough to get you to form a question on GAG about it - or the many other ways people let it trip them up.
"Breaking down taboos"... no, lol. This is how you solidify those taboos.
I didn't realize menstruation was much of a taboo topic in the first place, but if anything, this is adding a weirdness factor to it. If I, as a girl, find this weird and off-putting, I can only imagine what men must think of it.
We think the same thing as you. But personally, while it is disgusting, I also think the reactions are funny and that's what they were going for. They're trolling in a way.
It's disgusting. No wonder a lot of people hate feminists. Their behaviour is often psychotic. And their views are bizarre. Which doesn't promote their cause in good way. Like your post clearly demonstrates. I have a very low opinion of feminists.
The problem lies in making art all about "communication" rather than about communication AND technique/education, or vice versa. Avant-garde art without any sort of skill does not make the art exceptional even though it is treated as such, and neither does highly technical art with no originality.
Buzzfeed... I remember reading some crazy things on websites like that. Either way, I can’t tell you how grossed out I am by this. It’s fucking blood... and they’re using it as paint? Must smell nice in these art rooms... might attract a vampire or two
should I post a video about semen? Hey I made art with my semen. I would feel so empowered bringing attention to people that men produce this thing called semen, that nobody else knows about, but me.
Truth is: if they feel unempowered because they have periods, it is because of them. ok, I understand that you get mood swings, maybe that's the point where you think "fuck it, all these people looking at me, they know I'm on my period, so I'm going to make a scene and tell them to get off my back because I'm on my period". Which in fact would have the reverse effect of bringing unwanted attention to your period.
I honestly don't know of a dude that mocked girls because of their period blood. By the contrary some dudes have a fetish with fucking the girl when she's on her period. (don't look at me, I heard it being said... multiple times).
Plus let's not forget the boyfriends that feel the need to get all protective and cuddly and shit when their girl goes through the cramps. Bringing the hot bottle of water, the fluffy blanket, bringing them ice-cream.
so to me all this is simply noise and attention craving. Plus it was a video posted on youtube and we know how youtube works (views = money). what's "hip" these days and society supports unconditionally because otherwise you are misogynistic, sexist, animal? feminism. Ok, these girls got it and made a video about a subject that would trigger feminists to watch it and subsequently made money.
If they actually do believe they were empowered by painting with their blood, they should get checked.
Anything is art really. And to each his, or in this case her, own. I personally find it it nonsense. There is nothing feminist about it. Feminism is about equality, painting with menstrual blood is not gonna achieve that. All it achieves is that it encourages the feminazis who for some reason think they are better than men. A menstrual cycle is natural, and it should not mean women are lesser than men. But its still blood. I dont want your menstrual blood in my house. Just as i dont want some guy to bleed on a piece of paper, call that meninist art and ask me to hang it on my wall. I am a feminist myself. I find it ridiculous that men and women dont have equal rights already in the current western civilazation, there are no grounds whatsoever for it except a sexist history. I just dont see what she hopes to achieve. The audience she claims it to be meant for (trump and his sexist supporters) aren't going to change anything except maybe scream louder how women bleed out of their vagina. People who strive for true equality are just gonna think it is weird and/or disgusting. And people who are going to think this is a good thing are most likely pro women empowerment, who are the ones who should not be encouraged. Because as i said. Feminism is about equality, not women empowerment. Women do not need to be brought higher in society, men need to realize they are already at the same level.
I think it's stupid, and I'm a feminist and an artist. I'm all for weird art, but this DOES NOTHING for feminism. I agree that periods do need to be more normalized, because I shouldn't feel like I'm gross for having something completely natural. Especially when all women experience it. I think if it was just regular blood I wouldn't even care, it's that they're trying to pass it off as feminist shit, like please, this is the shit that makes the movement look so stupid. I understand why they were going for but period blood is still WASTE. It's like urine and feces, DONT PLAY WITH IT.
Seriously fucker, you're so pissy for no reason. I don't know you, you call me a tranny now I'm an idiot and I NEVER HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO YOU. You aren't a woman, how would you know anything about periods? Why are you so fucking pissed at me? Like you're on your second day, I wanna know, for real, square up and DM me or stfu
But I don't think anything is wrong with normalizing it, not glamorizing, but normalizing. It isn't a secret women have periods, everybody poops, everyone know that. We can accept that women have periods without gagging about it.
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I don't think it's feminist empowerment. I don't think it's disgusting either, I'm pretty neutral to it. Painting with blood empowers no one. If you want to paint with your blood as a different medium for your own artistic expression, cool, do it, it's interesting. Calling it empowerment seems kinda silly to me since it doesn't really do anything to help anyone (unless you're selling these and raising funds for things like women forced into sex work or women forced to be mutilated or anything like that, then I guess I understand it), and 99% of people are just gonna think it's weird.
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No. Fuck no. Why do we need to do this? Seriously, we get it. Women have periods, men don’t and it’s a big hassle blah blah blah just get on with it!! No one needs to see that. Just like no one needed to see knitting from a vagina while she was on her period, and sleeping with no sanitary product.
Pooping is natural too, that doesn’t mean people want to see a smeared canvas just like no one wants to see this
People would lose their shit if men tried to paint with sperm. It's not empowering, it's mental. You can't just force someone to be okay with something by shoving in their face!
Besides, it's not like men have it any easier. Awkward hard on in public, waking up thinking they've pissed the bed; everyone has an award puberty, everyone has awkward issues with their sex organs. We get menopause, they get impotency.
OK, I thought my Internet was quite normal today, I was proved wrong. Now, this is why we get all the hate and why I had to stop identifying as feminist. I get it, they are "trying to make people think" but really? Making a "statement" by "shocking" the public is plain stupid, and makes all the conversations more difficult. I do believe that there must be a better way to instill awareness in the general public.
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No, that's moronically stupid and horrible from a health perspective. First and foremost I don't know exactly what trumps comment was but I can guarantee you that it wasn't derogatory or based upon a taboo about menstration because quite frankly if he couldn't handle that he wouldn't have been married as many times as he was. Secondly, their is no taboo about it at all, in any way shape or form so its not even doing what it claims to be doing. Three, its unhygienic and increases the risk of exposure to disease. It would be equivalent of me smearing feces on a canvas to end the taboo around defectating, its a moronic premise and horribly unhealthy.
I wouldn't necessarily call it empowerment (for me personally at least) but neither would I call it nonsense. It's silly but at the end of the day I just don't care. It's obvious that this kind of thing is going to spark a reaction, which art is all about. But if the point of it is to somehow normalize periods and period blood, I think it's kinda the wrong way to go about it, since obviously it's going to make people too uncomfortable, to the point where they're just going to try to discredit any and all feminist messages just because of this one tiny thing. Discomfort is also a thing art often wants to spark. Like a cognitive dissonance. To challenge people's views and norms. Buuuut seeing as how these period paintings are sparking the wrong kind of attention and reaction, I'd say that it's not doing feminism any good.
Firstly, do girls actually bleed so much that they can make those big paintings? damn.
And secondly, I kinda dont know much about why people hate feminists, but I guess this belongs on the list of reasons. Too gross. This kind of stuff is almost dark web material.
Like somebody called a woman weak and garbage, she is triggered and to empower herself she takes to this "art" apparently.
Its like calling Yoda old and limp dick, so he takes to fapping to express his virility. Bullshit this is.
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Just ewww... Painting with blood in general is wrong, never mind THAT sort of blood. @Quintessence said it best when she said: "... if anything, this is adding a weirdness factor to it. If I, as a girl, find this weird and off-putting, I can only imagine what men must think of it."
And as a man, I can fully say that this is just plain wrong, not to mention weird and creepy. The fact that there's no real male equivalent makes it worse. I've heard of 'putting a bit of yourself' into your work, but this really does take the biscuit...
Buzzfeed made a video on it. Buzzfeed. Take that was you will...
Painting with your blood does not empower you. It's just painting with blood. If a guy cuts his dick and paints with the blood from that, does that empower men? Does that breakdown taboos surrounding penises? No, it's just something weird that some guy is doing for whatever reason. Maybe to get attention, who knows.
I don't see how painting with waste material from your body is empowering in any way. And personally, if someone is painting with blood, I would be very worried for both their safety, and the people around them. Mostly the people around them. The best thing to do is send them to a psychiatric hospital to get checked up. They may have some mental illness, or may be mentally disturbed.
I think the trump one was more a protest than anything else. Generally I think it's kinda gross. Menstrual blood is natural and a part of life, but I still don't wanna see it smeared on things. Also applies to vomit, poo, urine and all other body fluids.
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I'll put it this way - most modern art where they have just a few brush strokes of colour on the paper is not art. This, however disgusting it may be, technically is art. Though not art that I can enjoy.
For me, art is something that involves effort and time that has to be more than just a few minutes.
I mean I don't really care, it's kind of boring and overdone if you ask me. Artists using their bodily fluids are nothing new, Piero Manzoni shitted into a tin and called it art, during his life Kurt Cobain was doing really similar stuff, he was pissing and shitting on canvases. It's all about an extension of the artist's vision. I actually think it's actually more interesting since blood has such a vibrant colour.
That's disgusting. I honestly don't care what point the artist was trying to make. All I can think of is someone on their period wiping themselves and then smearing it on to a canvas. That's nasty. Would you do that with shit? Ya know what, don't answer that lmao. It's gross and something that I would expect a young child to do when they have a shitty diaper. Not grown ass women having their menstrual.
I get that this ‘artwork’ aims to celebrate how natural & normal periods are. But human shit is also a natural and normal bodily fluid and we don’t see buzzfeed employees drawing pictures with that do we? I don’t think periods are something that need to be cherished and celebrated. Why can’t these women just stick a tampon up there and get on with life?
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To me, this just nonsense. I don't think period is a taboo, because everyone talks about it, even men. They're just doing something that doesn't need to be done. And I doubt that that's really their menstrual blood. Not to mention that it's disgusting.
Uhmmm... I won't say it's "nonsense" because art is always controversial but it's definitely weird. I mean, it's not something I'd go and see at a museum. It's a little too "out there" for my taste. That said, I have to admit their painting skills are actually not too bad and the girl on the left is a cutie (which, I know, is completely out of context).
i'm not sure about empowerment, but i'm not sold on its merits as an art medium.
it's no more creative than using blood, urine, shit, vomit, cum, spit, sweat to paint with.
i think the idea rather than the act is "empowering". painting with menstral blood "spits in the face of the society that shames women for this natural process".
don't care. a girls period is as natural as my bowel actions. i see no reason to smear it on canvas to show you aren't ashamed of it.
It's just gross and stupid, they definitely wouldn't be able to handle going into room with a black light on that shows men used their jizz as art paintings everywhere. Or their crap for that matter...
And nobody says periods are bad, having a menstrual cycle is not a bad thing. However most people want to stay away from blood cause blood is the easiest way to contract unknown pathogens that could make us sick or worse, kill us.
Omg, so nasty. It's not empowering, it is just idiots trying to get attention while also get the point across of "menstrual blood comes from us, and is natural. Therefore it is not disgusting."
Well sorry to break their bubble but feces and urine is also natural, and people who play with it are people you usually, avoid on the bus.
Aw that's fucking gross dude. What's going on with feminist circles while i'm not watching? Its like, I guess the art doesn't Look that bad as an image of something but you could probably elaborately make something white diahrea too & it would be gross as fuck as well. This doesn't make any sense at all.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
Empowering anyone is an odd choice of words but it's definitely art 😂 new, "fresh" and bloody brilliant. Painting with blood isn't new, we've seen that happen. The point is, because it's menstrual blood, it might disgust people. But eh 😂 it's nothing THAT bad. Calm down.
Complete nonsense and what I would call insane behavior. Out of all the ways to get an idea across, is this the only one? Of course not. Feminists picked an absurd, disgusting and ungracious way of stating their opinion about what they believe.
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Nonsense... I mean I'm all for woman empowerment... but please... this has gone a bit too far... I can see it being a part of some artist's point of view or a symbol of struggles of womanhood... but it being a trend is just nonsense...
I can just imagine a scenario at an exhibition: Artist: ... and this piece I painted with menstrual blood... Art lover: Wow, that's a large piece... how did you manage with your menstrual blood? Artist: Oh, it's not my blood. Art lover: Eeeewwwwwww!
I find it really gross. There is nothing wrong with being on your period but you don’t have to show it to the world. Guys don’t go around painting with their shit because “it’s human and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it”. It’s just wrong
Ugh whut? No that’s fucking retarded. It’s a sign of some sort of mental illness. They’d be better off if they just ate a box of borax. That’s the extent of thoughtfulness this deserves.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
That is kind of disgusting and horrifying like something out of a literally horror movie. I can't really fathom what statement that's trying to make even. "I go through pain every month I better make something out of it?" Like... what's the point? To create art in a way that somehow proves you're a woman? I just... why? I don't understand!!!
An attempt to shock us and sell their art. It's all been done before to be honest. It's not new and it's not daring and it kind of looks like something that was done in a nursery. I'm sure artist has painted and sculpted thrir own shit is that art or is a load of crap? Hard to believe these women went to art school, money well spent.
Well, I don't think it's actually got anything to do with a cause, it's just done to get people talking and viewing (which in itself is kinda smart). Controversial reactions are better than no reactions at all.
These aren't mere women's rights advocates. These are disgusting loony toons. If I painted a picture of Obama with pus and drainage from an infected man's underarm, whom does that empower? It instead shows bondage to sickness!
Excuse me for saying this but isn't her period blood , you know HER BLOOD... for goodness sake this is wrong on so many levels. Stop this woman because this is not female empowerment, this is plain idiocy.
That is actually really fucking gross. It has nothing to do with them being females or having periods, it’s just the fact that it’s blood that is gross. Painting with blood is simply repulsive.
I think it's really gross. Not specifically because it's menstrual blood, but because it's a bodily fluid. I'd be disgusted by any painting created using blood, feces, urine etc (and there are actually a lot of them out there, in the edgy world of avant-garde art).
If someone painted with blood they got from a vein in their arm, people would think it's cool and edgy. But it comes out of a vagina which is considered disgusting.
@oOsecret_starlandsOo Also, did you know that the blood in your arm has also been the blood in your butthole? Your heart pumps blood all throughout your body.
It has nothing to do with what someone does with their own fluids, attaching it as a statement of feminism is what makes it gross lol
Actually, the heart either pumps blood to the upper part of the body or lower part. So the blood to your arms does not get pumped in with the blood to your lower body.
Basic heart anatomy.
Also, blood is a carrier substance, so blood from butthole would pick up microscopic pieces of feces.
Blood from vagina picks up her vaginal secretions, dead uterine lining abd unfertilized egg.
From the perspective of an artist its not bad work do i agree with the material used no but art is subjective and there will be a lot of art that you do and dont agree with that's just are
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