Social Taboos

Despite the UK being a modern society, there is still much embarrassment around menstruation, with many women feeling the need to hide sanitary products.  While blood is often seen as a sign of illness or death, however menstrual blood shows the capability to make life.  Perhaps we have this repulsion as periods are messy, with anything connected to women viewed as weak or negative. 
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Period prejudice goes back a long way.  Ironically the ancient Greeks had a more positive attitude to menstruation, and used it in both medicine and also as a fertiliser as it is rich in nitrogen.  The idea of women becoming unclean during their period began in the Old Testament, which states anyone touching a menstruating woman will be polluted until evening. 

These images consider the physical act of menstruation.  A doll was wrapped in bandages – a pad filled with ink was allowed to leach and spread through the fabric, before being unwrapped and stitched.
​RG