HAHA, Bird talking to Bee: “We do WHAT?”
Birds & The Bees by Tom Lindsay is one of today’s reprinted tees.
Source: Threadless
With all this ‘white feminist playing and making art with their period blood’ on my dashboard, I did some research and came across this South African artist who uses hers own menstrual blood to address the queerphobia and violence she has experienced with being a South African lesbian, Zanele Muholi.
Through her use of menstrual blood in her show Isilumo siyaluma (Period Pains, 2006-2011) in Cape Town, Muholi sought to tell the story of black lesbians in South Africa and represent “curative rape.” She wrote of the project in a press release for the exhibit:
Isilumo siyaluma is a Zulu expression that can be loosely translated as “period pains/ periods pain”. Additionally, there is an added meaning in the translation that there is something secretive in and about this blood/“period in time.”
At one level, my project deals with my own menstrual blood, with that secretive, feminine time of the month that has been reduced within Western patriarchal culture as dirty.
On a deeper level then, my menstrual blood is used as a vehicle and medium to begin to express and bridge the pain and loss I feel as I hear and become witness to the pain of ‘curative rapes’ that many of the girls and women in my black lesbian community bleed from their vaginas and their minds.
Between March – May 2011, three (3) young black lesbians under the age of 25 were brutally murdered in various townships [….] As we continue to live and survive in troubled times as black lesbians in South Africa and within the continent, where rampant hate crimes and brutal killings of same gender loving women is rife, this ongoing project is an activist/artist’s radical response to that violence.
yet another reason to love her.
Trigger Warning: blood, menstrual fluid
Source: autostraddle.com
These are a few of my favorites so far. Feel free to comment :) ?
(via menstruationcycle)
Source: feminisminapapercup
…did anyone else think of Donna Haraway (cyborgs!) while watching this?
If Men Could Menstruate | Gloria Steinem
(TW: photo at end of post contains animated blood and needles, video in one of the links contains simulated blood)
One of our followers sent this in a bit of fan mail. Thanks so much for the submission!
I’ll admit that I’m not too thrilled about Steinem’s dated, problematic language (she doesn’t make an effort to separate the experiences of trans*men from cis-men. Gender scholars, help me out here: isn’t this typical of most second-wave feminist readings predating Judith Butler?), but I can’t help but love hypothetical scenarios that try to turn the tables on the patriarchy.
After reading this article, I wanted to repost this awesome story in Salon about artist Hiromi Ozaki/Sputniko! who made a menstruation machine that actually simulates menstrual cycles for non-menstruating peeps.
Did any of you see her work at MoMa last year?
Source: likeafieldmouse
“Not Yours” by Heather Freeman
A woman’s body belongs to herself and herself alone. This pro-choice, pro-woman art piece strives to drive this point home as firmly and diversely as possible. 50% of the proceeds will go to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Available as greeting cards, postcards, prints, and posters.
“Your discomfort is not worth my life.” FTW
(via fuckyeahsexeducation)
Source: prolongedeyecontact
Here’s a new article about an up-and-coming feminist photographer, Ingrid Berthon-Moine, who’s been making waves in the art world with her photos of women wearing menstrual blood as lipstick.
An excerpt from a recent article in Bitch Magazine:
Germaine Greer once advised us all to taste our own menstrual blood. I assumed she was making a point more than genuinely advocating taking that brave step (a bit like when it turned out that adventurer Bear Grylls actually stayed in hotels whilst filming documentaries on how to survive in the wild—sensible boy, I thought), but it seems that some people are more than willing to take her word to heart and go whole hog.
Ingrid Berthon-Moine photographed twelve women wearing their periods as lipstick, cleverly labeling each shot with a stereotypical cosmetics industry name, from Rouge Interdit to Action Red. This conjures up so many different associations: war paint, a trick played on sleazy men who get too close, generations of women having to hide their biological functions monthly and being scared of tell-tale red stains whilst simultaneously painting on crimson lips that meant something else entirely, that you’re feeling confident and flirty, that you want to look good.
Here’s the (NSFW) link to Ingrid Berthon-Moine’s website: www.ingridberthonmoine.com
…and links to articles in Jezebel and the Guardian about “menarchy” (menstrual anarchy) and menstrual activism.
Whee!
Source: bitchmagazine.org
Ballerinas Dance with Machine Guns: MOONROOT: AN EXPLORATION OF ASIAN WOMYN'S BODIES (ZINE)
MOONROOT: An Exploration of Asian Womyn’s Bodies
OH MY GOSH! It’s finally here! MOONROOT is an ongoing collective project about race, gender, and bodies created by Sine Hwang Jensen, Amy Dewan, Sun Hashmi, Marilla Li, monna wong, Jess Kealiihoalani Toshea…
