Menstruation in Art and Visual Culture

Abstract

Menstruation has a rich and growing body of academic literature, including on the use of language, the history of medicine, and cultural understandings. Since the 1970s, scholars have analyzed the visual impact of the marketing and branding of menstrual products, and its effects on menstrual shame. Artists have offered a different visual perspective, often utilizing menstrual blood directly. Recent scholarship about menstrual art has added to our understanding of shame about menstruation. In this entry we present and examine the key studies about menstruation in advertising, art, and other visual media, and situate this in a cultural, historical, and art historical context.

‘You don’t like this blood? Well, too bad!’ Alternative cultures of menstruation and the performativity of disgust

“…While some works focused on sexual differences, others denaturalised gender or dealt with identity politics. Menstrual blood has also been used in later artistic expression and feminist actions, and this trend has gathered momentum, particularly over the last decade in different geographical contexts (see, for example, Barkardottir, 2016; Green-Cole, 2020; Guilló Arakistain, 2023a; Hughes and Røstvik, 2020; Lewis, 2020).…”