The photograph at left is the work of artist Ingrid Berthon-Moine. It is part of a series of pictures that show women wearing the blood that was only recently inside their bodies on their lips. If you think this is gross, Germaine Greer has some choice words for you: "if you think you are emancipated, you might consider the idea of tasting your own menstrual blood – if it makes you sick, you've a long way to go, baby," she wrote in 1970. Berthon-Moine doesn't create these images to gross us out, but rather to show "what you usually don't see—tampons, blood, all that."

As the Guardian reports, Berthon-Moine is only one out of many modern period activists. Kira Cochrane also cites Cella Quint, the creator of a zine titled "Adventures in Menstruating," Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, author of My Little Red Book, and former Jezebel editor Moe Tkacik for her disgustingly illuminating narrative about exactly what happens to a tampon stuck inside a body for 10 long days. It seems like periods are suddenly hot shit. Cochrane writes:

It seems that menstrual activism (otherwise known as radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, or menarchy) is having a moment. The term is used to describe a whole range of actions, not all considered political by the person involved: simple efforts to speak openly about periods, radical affronts to negative attitudes and campaigns for more environmentally friendly sanitary products. (It is estimated that a woman will dispose of 11,400 tampons in her lifetime – an ecological disaster.)

Cochrane also humerously mentions the Moon Cup-ers: the extremely vocal group of sanitary-product devotees that have got us reconsidering the cost (both environmental and financial) of tampons.

It's probably no surprise that we think this new found openness is pretty great. Despite the weird name, Menarchists are trying to do for periods what Oprah did for pooping. Periods are sometimes gross, somethings funny, often uncomfortable, but they shouldn't be taboo. I'm not going to trade my lip-gloss in for the au naturel look favored by Berthon-Moine, but the more people talk, write, and think about periods, the better.

It's In The Blood [Guardian]

Related: Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon

According to The New York Times, the people at Tampax don't even care that Williams threatened to shove a tennis ball down a line judge's throat.

"We didn't ever consider dropping Serena," said Courtney Schuster, a Tampax brand manager. "She accepted responsibility and apologized for what happened, and we think that demonstrates the strength of her character."

In the '80s, Olympic gymnasts did ads for Stayfree and Tampax, but, writes, Andrew Adam Newman for the Times, "an athlete of Ms. Williams's currency and renown has never been a spokeswoman." The New York Post called the ad (seen above) "uncomfortably graphic" — maybe because, unlike other ladyproduct spots which refer to a mysterious blue liquid, Mother Nature actually uses the word blood.

But the ad is actually pretty damn funny, and shocker: Ladies bleed. Celebs have replaced models on magazine covers and shill everything from Louis Vuitton to Smart Water to Tide pens and eyelash thickeners. Why not menstruation products?

Over on True/Slant, Caitlin Kelly writes:

I love the funny, frank, playful way this ad addresses what every woman knows can be an uncomfortable or embarrassing annoyance. Not your period, but not being ready for it… Women are cool, tough, powerful. And get their periods.

Exactly! So why stop at Serena Williams? Surely Gwyneth Paltrow uses some kind of pantyliners for her GOOP. The Kardashian family must use a heap of Kotex. Where are my Angelina Jolie-approved tampon travel cases?!?!

Serena Williams's Ad Deals Survive Her Outburst on Court [NY Times]
From Bad Blood To Good $$ [NY Post]
New Tampax Ad With Serena Williams Slams Every Woman's Annoyance [True/Slant]

Most educational films about menstruation were either antiseptic and formal or eye-rollingly cheesy, and definitely have their place in the YouTube canon, but this 1974 filmstrip called Linda's Film About Menstruation manages, in less than twenty entertaining minutes, to cover everything from ancient tribal taboos to the different types of tampons (including a kind I'd never heard of that no longer exists — the "stick tampon") in a way that is way more self-aware than I thought anyone but Woody Allen was in 1974. In chapters with titles like "The Missing Wastebasket" and "Judy's Nightmare," a 15-year-old named Judy educates herself and her (disturbingly older-looking) boyfriend about menstruation. In the clip above, Judy introduces herself and her problem: at fifteen, she hasn't yet gotten her period. The video is confusing at first (she's really introducing herself with her bust/waist/hip measurements?) but by the time Judy yells at Johnny "It means blood is flowing out of my uterus!," we realize the jokes are very much intentional. The only way I can describe this thing is if a 1974 version of Sassy Magazine got Gilda Radner to write a menstruation filmstrip. And then got an adorable comic actress (Mady (Heflin) Kaplan) to star in it.

Judy's new friend in the park talks about using two tampons at once (not recommended!):



Judy and her boyfriend head to Staten Island, reflecting on all that they've learned:



It was hard to choose clips from this thing because the whole eighteen minutes is really fascinating. Just those exotic and mystical 1970's accents alone!

Linda's Film On Menstruation (1/2) 1970s [YouTube]
Linda's Film On Menstruation (2/2) 1970s [YouTube]

Related: Ten Days In The Life Of A Tampon

Premsyn PMS, from the 1980s: "Now I'm my old, sweet self again!"



Midol, 1997: Another woman on a couch, promising a return to "being yourself."



Pamprin, 1994: "You're not yourself! Get yourself back together again!"



Here, however, a Pamprin IB commercial from the 80's breaks the "go back to being yourself" trend and promises us an escape from cramps...and what looks to be an inevitable transformation into a werewolf as soon as the clock strikes midnight.



Sadly, not much has changed in PMS advertising, and the "bring yourself back" theme has extended to yeast infection treatments as well. Because one can never really be oneself when one is slowly turning into a werewolf, I suppose.

The tampon applicators are reportedly washing up on the shore, much to the chagrin of local residents. "I'm here twice a day with my dogs and you cannot walk two feet on the beach without seeing at least a dozen at your feet. And it's disgusting," says Cindy Schultz, who has set up a Facebook page to ask local women to stop flushing their applicators. Schultz has made it her mission to get tampon makers to create more environmentally friendly products, though she claims that certain companies have been less than receptive: "Tampax came back to me with a statement that was for us to read the instructions. Which I thought was really aggravating and got me even more riled up because to simply say, 'Read a nine-point instruction pamphlet' isn't enough. We're getting rid of plastic bags, why not get rid of the plastic tampon applicators as well?"

Tampon Applicators Flood Canadian Shores [UPI]
Wave Of Tampon Applicators Plagues Halifax Harbor [CBC]

"It is like living an out of body experience," said Seward, 38, "You just cry and cry, and nothing anyone can do will help. You feel ugly and fat and unattractive ... This hormone just takes over your life." Seward says she experienced irrational behavior, irrational thinking, and mood swings, but couldn't remember anything she'd said or done to her husband John, who eventually decided he had to leave. The separation caused Marie to get her PMS symptoms checked and her doctor prescribed anti-depressants. Six months later, the couple is now back together and planning to renew their vows. "I think a lot of professionals remain unaware of the impact that this condition can have on relationships - and I think that is one of the reasons it is not taken as seriously as it might be," said Nick Panay, chairman of the National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome. [BBC]

In his review from New York Magazine, Jerry Saltz calls the Swiss artist's installation “an impregnation and an incantation. It is also an exorcism.” Using breast-shaped projector pods, Rist superimposes videos of animals, nudes and flowers onto the walls of the MoMA. She even makes the museum menstruate: toward the end of her video, a naked woman appears, blood flowing between her legs, and the whole atrium goes red. Even though Rist's hyper-feminine installation is explicitly about the female body, it has still faced some censorship. Rumor has it that MoMA found period blood too icky for their walls, and asked Rist to edit out the menstruation scene.

MoMA's Sex Change [New York Magazine]

Related: Pipilotti Rist [Official Site]
MoMA Exhibitions: Pipilotti Rist [MoMA]

The good news? Seventh Generation chlorine-free "ultra thin" pads come in recyclable packaging and, according to Grist's Sarah van Schagen, have "tremendous" absorption power. But the Seventh Generation maxi pads? "Feel like a pillow in your drawers." The Natracare Curved regular pads don't come individually wrapped, which might be better for the planet, but wouldn't you have to carry the box or some kind of zip-lock bag in your purse? As for the Natracare Ultra Pads, they're "too short." Then there's GladRags organic cotton maxi pad and liner, which — bloody hell — you have to soak and rinse after using. But the funniest review is for the Lunapads organic cotton maxi pad and liner (pictured):

One reviewer dubbed her Lunapad the "Pussy Cushion" and noted that she developed a "camel foot" while wearing leggings and needed to adjust her chair and car mirrors due to the pad's added height.

See? Saving the planet can make you feel taller!

The Red Vadge Of Courage [Grist]

The YDN also asked a bunch of doctors whether Aliza's little stunt was medically possible. Dr. Edward Funai, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and chief of obstetrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital totally pwns Shvarts. "The most likely scenario," he told the YDN, "is that all Shvarts was seeing every month was her own menstrual blood. Half of the Yale community sees art of similar quality when taking care of their monthly hygiene." (Oh, snap!)

Yale brass are standing firm on their decision to keep Shvarts's work out of the exhibition. They told her last week that in order to have her work show, she would have to confirm that "her project was 'a work of fiction,' [admitted] that she did not inseminate herself or induce miscarriages and promis[ed] that no human blood will appear in the project." Shvarts would agree to none of those conditions, and so her work was not shown.

Since there was little to no hubbub at the exhibition, I'm hoping that this will soon disappear into the internet ether and I won't have to see those scuffed, fringed cowboy boots ever, ever again. Unless, on graduation day, she decides to smear her cap and gown with menstrual blood to protest Yale's suppression of her ideas — then I just really hope someone tapes that and sends it to us, with or without the cowboy boots.

After Buildup, A Quiet Opening [Yale Daily News]
Experts Shed Doubt On Shvarts' Claim [Yale Daily News]

Earlier:
Avant Garde Assholes
One Thing Is Certain: Right Now, Yale University & Aliza Shvarts '08 Are 100% Annoying
Aliza Shvarts: The Halloween How-To For Harvard Students
Yale: Abortion Art Piece Was "Creative Fiction"
Just How Do You Give Yourself An Herbal Abortion?
Yale Senior Undergoes Multiple Self-Induced Miscarriages In The Name Of Art

Shvarts stood by her project, calling the University's statement "ultimately inaccurate."...But Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly used a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant. "No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen," Shvarts said, "because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties."

University Calls Art Project A Fiction; Shvarts '08 Disputes Yale's Claim [Yale Daily News]

Writes LeBlanc:

Fourteen years after I started bleeding every month, I feel like I've mostly gotten the hang of it. But the other day, I realized the extent to which having 'gotten the hang of it' is only true within the limited context of our culture of concealment. Getting the hang of it means learning how to conceal it as best as possible, so no one ever knows you've got it. Where menstruating is embarrassing, and though almost every woman of child-bearing age menstruates, you still don't want any man not your intimate to know that you are actually bleeding right now.

Coming Out of the Menstruation Closet [Bitch Ph. D.]

First up is a TV spot from the '80s for Always Plus Thin, that has one woman orgasmically exclaiming, "I love thin!"

This '80s Always commercial is advertising the latest innovation in menstruation: Wings.

This is actually a modern tampon ad that's probably one of the best things ever, if only because of the split the cheerleader does, with a full-on crotch shot right in front of the camera. It's for Playtex Sport. (BTW, what the fuck is a "sport" tampon?)

Here's some of that blue liquid for you, circa 1997.

Also from 1997, a Midol ad, in which we learn that "some men think strong opinions are a symptom of PMS."

About 11 years earlier, Midol's advertising was much more science-y.

Another one from the '80s, Premsyn PMS, "for the period before your period before your period."

Here's Courtney Cox in a Tampax in 1985.

From 1981, here's Tampax Plus, with "decorative packaging!"

From 1979, Playtex with deodorant.

This one might be the best of the oldies, since it features the triumvirate of feminine protection ads: Mother, Daughter, and Best Friend.

In this 1981 ad, Brenda Vaccaro managed to land herself a spokesperson deal.

And for shits and giggles, here's the SNL spoof on "Kotex Classic."

Check out this vintage Midol print ad:

From 1974, the copy reads, "Be the you he likes. Good to be around, any day of the month."

And lastly, wouldn't you kill for that futuristic Kotex outfit/box!?

Midol: So Your Boyfriend Won't Dump You [Feministing]
Kotex Gives You Wings [Vintage Ads]