For all that we know that menstruation is just a perfectly natural, albeit sometimes inconvenient part many of our lives, there has always been a really weird narrative around women’s periods. The weirdest being the use of a strange blue liquid to represent period blood in television advertising.
Period adverts normally involve beautiful women playing tennis, swimming or wearing an enthusiastic grin while sweatlessly dancing in a ubiquitous strobey nightclub. Because women can do anything on their periods. Wahoo. But beyond the cringe-inducing depiction of young females overexerting themselves to prove just how secure they feel in their winged sanitary towels, the reality of having a period is publically invisible. Instagram’s removal of Rupi Kaur’s portrait of a woman in bed with a visible patch of blood on her crotch and the sheets was evidence enough of how uncomfortable society has been with IRL period blood. And things haven't moved that far forward since then.
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I sincerely hope that young women (and men) haven’t glanced downstairs only to irrupt in panicked dismay at the sight of blood rather than glossy royal blue stuff, but the reality is that many women are still uncomfortable talking about their periods in real terms, and that really needs to change. According to a survey by Bodyform, one in five women’s confidence was damaged because periods were never discussed with them openly.
The importance of open conversations around periods is just as significant as the accuracy required in the campaigns that do discuss them. And while Bodyform's new campaign is an important and overdue shift in the storyline, we need more brands to take heed and continue to drive the assurance that yes, periods are normal, forward too.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.