A Very Happy Birthday to Frida Kahlo from PERIOD, the Menstrual Movement.
Today marks Frida Kahlo’s birthday. Her spirit lives on in many ways. With her art and her life’s story, she inspired many. We all in our own ways owe a lot to Frida Kahlo and the many artists who dared to live and create art the ways she did. The Menstrual Movement especially owes a great deal to strong and inspiring souls like Kahlo.
Through her art, we can get a sense that self-care and self-confidence were important values to her. Kahlo’s self-portraits showed us that she was unapologetic about revealing her true self. They also show that she was not afraid to see the value in herself either. She carved out a space to create images of herself, a disabled bisexual woman of color, in the world. Even today, this act is a revolutionary display of self-confidence and self-love. We rarely see marginalized people like Frida having control of images of themselves today.
Many of us know that Frida suffered great pain throughout her life both emotionally and physically. Her paintings were a way of expressing both the pains and joys of her life. If we look at this act for what it was we realize something. This was her practice of self-care. If Frida Kahlo has left the world with only one lesson, it would be that art or any craft can be more than a means of creating. It can be an important outlet for self-care.
We can ask ourselves what the world be without her paintings? But we should ask ourselves what would Frida be without her outlet? Would she have been able to persevere without the ability to truly care for herself through her art? I ask this because we often still disregard the importance of marginalized people’s self-care. We no longer have to worry if self-care is selfish. But we must acknowledge sometimes self-care isn’t accessible.
So how does all this impact the menstrual movement? Frida Kahlo’s legacy is survived in many ways including this movement. It seeks to end the stigma and shame people experience for things outside their control, like menstruation. It seeks to be intersectional by being inclusive of the lives of people like Kahlo. Lastly, it seeks to recognize the importance of self-care and self-love. These are two things many people can not benefit from until the menstrual stigma is over and access to menstruation products is universal and affordable. Menstruation may not have been the focus of her paintings. Yet, the values of the movement were clearly important to her and were revealed in her work.
In short, Frida Kahlo taught us that it was possible. It was possible to be from a traditionally marginalized group and be valued. It was possible to express self-love and self-confidence in spite of the obstacles in life. It was possible to excessive self-care at a time where the idea was mostly unheard of. The menstrual movement knows this all to be true because of Frida Kahlo. Knowing the possibilities, this movement has been able to push forward to create access and address stigmas so that all menstruators witness those possibilities becoming a reality in their lives.
