Ever had a period? Ever known someone with a period? They’re normal things, right? OK, well, Instagram, the photo-sharing platform which really wants to connect our lives to one another, seems to want us to know that they’re not.
That’s definitely the signal they gave off when they removed Rupi Kaur’s portrait of a woman, lying in bed, with the crotch of her pyjamas covered in blood, along with a patch on her bedsheets.
The Canadian spoken word-based poet had taken the sort of arty-intimate shot you see all over Instagram, but this added touch is kind of great, because it that makes you realise – oh yeah, women’s bodies are there for more than sex! But Instagram didn’t like it and removed the picture. Twice.
So Rupi
, which is technically Instagram’s older sister site, along with the caption: ‘thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. you deleted my photo twice stating that it goes against community guidelines.’
‘i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in underwear but not be okay with a small leak.’
The original photo had been to ‘make you as uncomfortable as you should feel when you watch others get abused and objectified.’
‘some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. the sexualization of women. the violence and degradation of women than this.’
She says that the period should be embraced and celebrated even though ‘it’s given me so much pain in the past few years,’ and that Instagram’s refusal to put it up shows ‘who is sitting behind the desk. And whose controlling the show. Whose controlling the media and who is censoring us. [sic]’
And we’re really inclined to agree. Despite being something that’s happened to thousands of us, sometimes every month (and we’re just talking about the getting-a-period-on-a-pyjama-bottom-thing, not even the actual period that so many of us inevitably face), it’s so rarely depicted outside of our own private spheres because people are weirdly scared of them.
It’s times like these that we like to imagine what would happen if men had periods. There would be tampons available on street-side vending machines, and eople would have Always branded tote bags!
On the plus side, Rupi’s post has been kept up on Facebook, and has almost 12,000 shares and 53,000 likes!
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Bark, Rags And Newspapers; This Is What Periods Look Like Around The World
We Spoke To The Teenage Girls Behind Tampon Run, Our New Favourite Period App
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.