Humans Bleed.

[naamah_darling]

I saw a link today to this website, where artist Vanessa Tiegs has made these incredible paintings with her blood - yes, menstrual blood - and was amazed by just how beautiful they are. I think the idea of painting with blood of any kind is fascinating, but most paintings of this type don't interest me, largely because they play into the problems

Comments

[libgirl]

This hit me on several levels. I'm from a faith that views this cycle as very powerful and affirming and does attribute a lot of cultural and personal significance to it. For me that has made the question of my painful, erratic and not celebratory menses even more problematic. :)

Also, thanks for the blood stain tip, *that* is something that, at the very least, they should teach as part of the sex ed./body ed. in schools. It's *useful,* unlike--boys have sex with girls and girls have sex with boys and no one does anything unless they're married first. :/

[mgs_naughtycat]

I totally agree, most of the time it just gets in the way and serves to annoy me. Waste of my time and energy it is...

[liminalia]

Your feministe link isn't there, hon.

[naamah_darling]

Thank you! Fixed it.

[copperwise]

I tend to horrify my friends who otherify menstruation as sacred and women as holy because of it, because I view my menstrual periods as a bodily function. I eat, I breathe, I urinate, I defecate, I menstruate. Our bodies, male and female, are pretty amazing and do pretty intensely amazing things on every level. My girlfriend is going into medical school and has already been trained as a nurse and we discuss the marvels of the human body on a regular basis. The human body is both pretty mundane and pretty holy on every level, IMO. I've never separated female functions out as particularly special. I don't have any men in my life who treat the female functions as icky or scary, so I forget that there are those who have to be educated, but I don't think the education necessarily needs to involve elevating the female functions into a special category of otherness, either.

Sigh.

[cutelildrow]

Yes this. It's no different to me than eating, breathing, or my need for sleep. It happens, part and parcel of being a female human.

And like the occasional body function, it can get annoying. (e.g: augh why do I have to get hungry NOW I'm busy / AIIIIIEEEE I CAN'T HOLD IT IN I NEED TO PEE *RUN RUNRUN* / aw crap, I just started and I'm wearing light colored pants / damnit I just leaked all over my chair >.<### )

Well, the only thing I appreciate about my period is "Not pregnant this month. Woohoo / try again next time!" (depending on whether or not I actively want to get pregnant...)

Doesn't mean I won't be relieved when the whole painful, cramping, messy time is over.

[siliconshaman]

*sigh*

I hear you..and it's oen of the things about Wymyns Wiccaaaa that got really up my nose. OTOH, I also got it from the other side of the gender divide...seriously, the whole Horned God, sweat lodge stinking, seman worshipping [yes, really!] screw everything that moves, UberMale Bs.. that can go too.

It's biology people..might as well worship taking a dump if you want meaningful spiritual movements!

[eldriwolf]

---Oh well, as to that,
Taking a good dump is much underestimated, it can, indeed, be a very " spiritual movement".
part of life, no less holy than eating---as dying is just as sacred as being born....