Anna Randal for Art-Sheep
Rupi Kaur is an artist and a poet who took some powerful photos of her sister Prabh during her period. Even though Prabh is the one depicted on these photos, Period is the story of every girl living on this planet. “I bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. My womb is home to the divine. A source of life for our species. Whether i choose to create or not. But very few times it is seen that way. In older civilizations this blood was considered holy. In some it still is”, Kaur writes on her tumblr.
Although Kaur’s project got viral on tumblr and received the admiration and support of thousands of its bloggers, when uploaded on Instagram, an image from the Period series was removed by its staff, as it didn’t “follow the Community Guidelines”. In that image Kaur is shown sleeping, while a bit of blood has visibly leaked through her pants and onto the bed.
After the photo was removed, Kaur took it to social media to express her rage towards Instagram, “Their patriarchy is leaking. Their misogyny is leaking. We will not be censored.”Istagram responded with an apology and reactivated the photo after receiving hundreds of emails and comments by people who supported the artist and her beautiful project.
“But a majority of people. Societies. And communities shun this natural process. Some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. the sexualization of women. The violence and degradation of women than this. they cannot be bothered to express their disgust about all that. But will be angered and bothered by this. We menstruate and they see it as dirty. Attention seeking. Sick. A burden. As if this process is less natural than breathing. As if it is not a bridge between this universe and the last. As if this process is not love. Labour. Life. Selfless and strikingly beautiful”, Kaur writes.
via huffingtonpost
The deleted photo
Instagram’s response
Period
