Women Bleed Blood, Not Blue-Ink, And This New Ad Dares To Show Just That!
By Shambhavi Saxena:
Women don’t do a lot of things, apparently, including sweating, passing gas, or qualifying for the sciences. Now, if you’ve lived much of your life under the gendered confines of femininity, you probably already know that all of this is hokum. In fact, in a two minute spot, UK-based company Bodyform, says as much. Of course, what Bodyform is really getting at is the ways in which menstrual hygiene products have been traditionally marketed and advertised — and how even when talking about bleeding women, we can’t talk about women bleeding. But another way is possible:
The ad puts a great twist to the ‘women being physically active’ theme we expect from most menstrual hygiene products. For one thing, there is a heck of a lot of blood, and none of that blue dishwash nonsense. For another, The actors are not running through meadows of animated birds, or waking up in temperature controlled bedrooms with perfect hair make-up. The runner, the boxer, the various other sports-women — all of them are immersed in their stark, and physically demanding environments. Possibly the most powerful image is when the ballet dancer — a traditional symbol of femininity? — peels her shoes off her bloodied feet, and all of it just comes together. Women bleed doing a lot of things. And there are those who bleed every twenty-eight days. And all of it is metal af.
As the ad moves towards its main message — “no blood should hold us back,” meaning your activities shouldn’t come to a standstill just because it’s that time of the month — it’s almost easy to forget that these women are shown doing things that are too often written exclusively for men — the bleeding bits included. But it’s important that it was written and filmed that way, that it presented women outside of stereotypes, all the while saying “there will be blood.”
It’s refreshing to see this ad, when we’ve been experiencing a sort of censorship on women’s blood. From jokes ridiculing feminists for talking about their periods, to the black plastic bags the chemist wraps your pads in. And of course, the blue liquid in all our sanitary napkin ads. I don’t think any of us who are menstruating now had very much to go on until our mums or counsellers sat us down for brief, discreet explanations about how the plumbing works, often making use of many a euphemism — yes, just like “plumbing”. And while we like to think it’s a clever use of language, it’s actually just inventing a separate code to bypass the awkwardness and discomfort of discussing a process that’s as natural as breathing to half of all mammals on the planet.
It may seem silly to politicize blue fluid, but it seems sillier when we, as a culture, are so desensitized to gore and violent bloodshed in so much of our media, we become squeamish at the very mention of period blood. But it isn’t squeamishness, not really. Sure, the blue liquid isn’t oppression incarnate, but the lack of image means a lack of conversation, which means a lack of understanding, and it’s no wonder menstrual health is barely taken seriously. Just another thing for women to cover up. Can nothing change the way we think and talk about periods? Bodyform’s bold new ad seems like a pretty rad contender, and it’s awesome to see them cut the bullshit, and do it so creatively too.
Having your period is no walk in the park, despite the abundance of garden imagery that feminine hygiene ads like so much. We’re talking about one of your organs is literally shedding its lining. Any Quentin Tarantino movie is probably more representative than some CGI sanitary napkins arranged like flower petals. Because of all the blood.
We may still have to endure some more blue fluid for a while, but it looks like we’re slowly getting to a place where we want to be, when it comes to women’s bodies and what they do.
