Just Don’t Get It On The Sofa

For me, my menstrual cycle is my portal to the blessedness of life… It’s like magic.

Here we go again: 

A woman by the name of Iris Josephina Verstappen decided it was imperative she smear her own menstrual blood under her eyes and on her hands while letting the blood flow freely down her legs for a nude photoshoot to stop so-called “period-shaming.”

There are photos at the link showing Ms Verstappen in full flow, as it were, so readers can determine for themselves just how uplifting and empowering it is to bleed all over yourself, and the floor, while waiting to be applauded. When not bleeding on things in a terribly radical fashion, Ms Verstappen is a “cycle awareness educator, doula, anthropologist” and, in her words, “an endlessly creative soul.” She offers “body friendly options for menstrual management.”

Whether she gets kickbacks from the local dry-cleaner is, as yet, unclear.

Previously, vaginal knitting.

Comments

[Tim Newman]

Ms Verstappen is a “cycle awareness educator...

To be fair they're a right menace, particularly when you encounter one on the pavement.

[David]

For some reason, this came to mind.

[Spiny Norman]

It's got a wonderful defense mechanism.

Yeah, I'd say so. {o.O}

[Joan]

Dear feminists, please stop making women look stupid. Thanks.

[Paul Carlton]

I have reached a point in my life where I do not really care about what other people think about my journey, what I look like, or who I am

It seems strange that she likes the various assorted nutters compliments so much then.

[GC]

“cycle awareness educator”

I think "cyclopath" sounds better.

[David]

Dear feminists, please stop making women look stupid. Thanks.

I hesitate to ask, but do any female readers actually feel “suppressed” and “wronged” by the fact that people generally find bleeding unattractive and for the most part would rather not know, in vivid detail, about the menstrual intimacies of their colleagues, neighbours and fellow commuters?

[Burnsie]

Whoa! For some reason, I just can't bring myself to click that link. That's a first for me here. I usually enjoy the insanity on display. I guess this is finally a bridge too far.

Yet I'm sure my reluctance will only serve to reinforce her belief that she is making real "art," and not just behaving like a seriously unbalanced individual.

[Min]

do any female readers actually feel “suppressed” and “wronged” by the fact that people generally find bleeding unattractive and for the most part would rather not know, in vivid detail, about the menstrual intimacies of their colleagues, neighbours and fellow commuters?

No. :-)

[Jonathan]

Talking of the wonders of blood.

A drag queen from Belfast used last week’s Pride celebrations to shine a spotlight on the stigma still surrounding HIV.
As part of her stunning pride outfit, Electra La Cnt wore a tiara coated with HIV+ blood, in a bid to fight bigotry and encourage conversation around the subject.

However, it seems that the lady herself has a bit of worry about HIV infected blood:

The crown is coated in the blood of a consenting HIV+ donor, taken by a qualified doctor, then applied to the crown to dry, letting the virus die with it, to be sealed with a plastic sealant to protect myself against infection if rain were to liquify the blood again.

So the bloody tiara needs its own little hazmat suit to prevent anyone getting infected, but evidently worrying about HIV infected blood is just prejudice and bigotry?

[R. Sherman]

So, who are these people who engage in "period shaming?" For the life of me, I cannot recall ever being aware of any particular woman's cycle (other than my spouse) in order to engage in "shaming" behavior. In the category of "things I should know," keeping track of those sorts of things with respect to complete strangers ranks somewhere below learning all the provincial capitals of Finland. One wonders whether the "shaming" and "suppression" have to do with people generally not being interested in discussing Ms. Verstappen's intimate bodily functions.

[bilbaoboy]

I expect you all to adore my turds. They are natural and a thing of beauty and they come out of my body. I make each one personally and I expect RESPECT.

People do not want to talk about them. It is a subject which is taboo. Women particularly seem unwilling to shine a spotlight on them and generally try to ignore me when I bring the subject up.

I feel oppressed.

Because, the MATRIARCHY!

[David]

Women particularly seem unwilling to shine a spotlight on them and generally try to ignore me when I bring the subject up.

There’s always the Guardian, where the politics of bowel movements, at least those of little girls, are ruminated thoroughly.

[R. Sherman]

David, for some of these topics, you don't need to post links for verification. We'll take your word for it. [Insert appropriate "smiley" thing.]

[David]

David, for some of these topics, you don’t need to post links for verification. We’ll take your word for it.

No refunds, credit note only.

[R. Sherman]

No refunds, credit note only.

I prefer to think of my comment as the equivalent to ordering a cheese burger, but requesting that you hold the mustard. Or, in this case ketchup if you prefer.

[David]

equivalent to ordering a cheese burger, but requesting that you hold the mustard.

Hey, if I have to parse the Guardian, thereby searing its contents into my memory, I don’t see why you heathens should get off lightly.

Besides, there may be a quiz later.

[David in Michigan]

ARE YOU READY TO:

take back your LIFE?
discover your GIFTS as a menstruator?

It turns out that she has a website.... where she carefully explains in a video that your monetary contribution toward the 20,000 Euros she needs to write a book of womenly advice will advance the cause of women everywhere.

As stated above, "no refunds..."

In the meantime, I think I'll go lie down. I feel an attack of cynicism coming on.

[Lab Rat]

I hesitate to ask, but do any female readers actually feel “suppressed” and “wronged” by the fact that people generally find bleeding unattractive and for the most part would rather not know, in vivid detail, about the menstrual intimacies of their colleagues, neighbours and fellow commuters?

Yankee female reader here, and no. It happens, it's a part of life and biology - female biology to be sure, but that doesn't make it mystical. To me it's no different than the excretion of bodily wastes, and as such, no one needs to know the gory details. Nor do I care to know the details of others people's.

[Lab Rat]

First post and I bork it completely up. I should have stayed lurking in the corner.

Apologies, David.

[David]

[ Fixes avalanche of italics. Glares sternly over spectacles. ]

[Lisboeta]

I must applaud your fortitude, David, in seeking out these self-publicising feminazi lunatics for our derision/titillation. However, I'd hate the world to think that aforesaid lunatics are actually representative of my sex. (Or do I mean gender? I get so confused about 21st century nomenclature.)

[Geezer]

David, for some of these topics, you don’t need to post links for verification. We’ll take your word for it.

Speak for yourself. Don't say We when you should say I. I, for one, like hypertext footnotes. I can choose whether to click on them.

[Joe]

Her inferred statement being that women have periods? She discovered this just now?

What is this ridiculous obsession "socially aware arteests" have with period blood?

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

For me, my menstrual cycle is my portal to the blessedness of life...

I've not heard of that brand, but I had a Triumph Bonneville that did much the same thing.

[NielsR]

Besides, there may be a quiz later

Questions to which the answer is 'no'?

[NielsR]

Oops, failed already.

[David]

[ Fixes italics, again. Raises eyebrow in menacing fashion. ]

[Watcher in the dark]

The problem I have with pushing back the boundaries of art in which people are self-absorbed in piss, shit, vomit and menstruation (and anything which my sheltered upbringing has kept hidden from me) is that eventually the shock factor sort of runs out.

Then what will the edgy, radical artistes do to shock us all? Do something stunningly sensible and actually artistic, or go all the way to the end and commit hari-kari?

[Hedgehog]

I've not heard of that brand, but I had a Triumph Bonneville that did much the same thing.

Same here. Ducati in my case. Ah, the sound of the desmodromic-valve 90-degree V-twin!

What is this ridiculous obsession "socially aware arteests" have with period blood?

I think there is a period in childhood... I mean, a time in childhood when children get fascinated by their own excrement. They normally get over it. I assume that feminists would claim that the reason they stop being interested is because they are told that they shouldn't be, which is obviously due to patriarchal hegemony. I suppose "socially aware arteests" are reclaiming their own childhood and affirming their womanhood and revolting against patriarchy by being fascinated with their menstrual blood.

There may be a doctoral thesis in there. Or maybe it's just revolting.

[Jay]

"She offers “body friendly options for menstrual management.”"

Like tampons - No?

I am grateful, however, that she's introduced me to my New Word of The Day, "doula", which I'd forgotten is a pretentious word for midwife.

[David]

Like tampons - No?

Ah, but according to one professor of gender studies, the humble tampon is “an artefact of [male] control.”

[Fruitbat44]

I think she looks positively Amazonian.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but even as the lady in question is being so transgressive, she is compling with Facebook standards of nudity i.e. no nipples or pubes on display.

[orthodoc]

"Then what will the edgy, radical artistes do to shock us all? Do something stunningly sensible and actually artistic, or go all the way to the end and commit hari-kari?"

Paint a portrait or vignette, or sculpt something that actually required skill, and looks like what it's supposed to? Hold down a productive job while doing the above?

Hey, I kid.

[Chester Draws]

Then what will the edgy, radical artistes do to shock us all? Do something stunningly sensible and actually artistic, or go all the way to the end and commit hari-kari?

Been done -- Yukio Mishima being the most famous.

However that probably doesn't count, because he was quite a good writer (and really, really not a Leftie).

[Jonathan]

Been done -- Yukio Mishima being the most famous.

However that probably doesn't count, because he was quite a good writer (and really, really not a Leftie).

That's an understatement - he was a shitlord before the term was even a twinkle in the internet's eye.

[John D]

Who the hell calls themselves "an endlessly creative soul"?

[Jonathan]

Who the hell calls themselves "an endlessly creative soul"?

A talentless dilettante?

[Dom]

Let's talk about women on their periods.

https://youtu.be/p8u6fa-L710

[David]

Let’s talk about women on their periods.

Looks like someone took Feminist Boilerplate 101. Mercifully, I can’t address the chap’s claim that menstruation is a romantic or sexual bonding exercise, but something else occurs to me.

It’s strange how readily these people regurgitate the conceit that we must all be reminded that menstruation is “natural,” as if we don’t already know this, and the conceit that a thing being “natural” is somehow antithetical to it also being something best kept to oneself, barring an emergency or catastrophic fashion gaffe. And the conceit that women in the developed world, all of them, are somehow being burdened and oppressed by the expectation that wherever possible one shouldn’t bleed all over the place or alert random passers-by to your use of a tampon. Or the soiling of your underwear.

[MC]

Having looked at this ridiculous woman's website, what annoys me about all this is that it's not a comically deranged deranged bit of femi-lunacy, but a deeply cynical and egotistical attempt by one woman to shame others into giving her money.

Our pretty doe-eyed menstrualist poses fetchingly (well apart from the blood...) not to empower other women, but to make them feel bad about their bodies and also feel bad about feeling bad about their bodies. In order that they sign up for her pointless services.

There is a very strong argument for saying menstruation is a beautiful thing, but it's not a pretty thing, it is visceral and powerful and intimately connected with the cycle of life. This is just some simpering blonde showing her bum to the camera.

[pst314]

"Who the hell calls themselves "an endlessly creative soul"?"
The first rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is that she doesn't know she's in Dunning-Kruger Club.

[Jamie]

I've never in my life been made to feel ashamed of my periods by a man. But I'm constantly being made to feel ashamed to be a woman by hysterical feminists.

[TimT]

Let's talk about women on their periods.

Thanks Dom. Think the video needs more whale song and harp music though.

[TimT]

It's the SJW superpower at work!

SJW: "X is nothing to be ashamed of! Here's a naked selfie of me doing X! I am strong! I am powerful!"
Others: *Talk amongst themselves about how silly SJW is.*
SJW: "See? See? It just proves how they're still trying to shame me for X, which is completely natural and nothing at all wrong with it!" *Blurts out another million naked selfies to the world* *Repeat the whole cycle, ad infinitum*

[Hedgehog]

That's an understatement - he was a shitlord before the term was even a twinkle in the internet's eye.

I'll say. Yukio Mishima was that and then some. And there's no way any of these poseur artistes would ever follow in his footsteps. And anyway it wouldn't make any sense. With Mishima it was a natural progression. His seppuku was the apotheosis of a life spent trying to turn back the clock. Ritual suicide is a very conservative thing to do, a traditionalist's answer to modernity.

A small night storm blows
Saying ‘falling is the essence of a flower’
Preceding those who hesitate

[Stitch Jones]

SJW: "X is nothing to be ashamed of! Here's a naked selfie of me doing X! I am strong! I am powerful!"
Others: *Talk amongst themselves about how silly SJW is.*
SJW: "See? See? It just proves how they're still trying to shame me for X, which is completely natural and nothing at all wrong with it!" *Blurts out another million naked selfies to the world*

There's a whole South Park episode on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Space_(South_Park)

[Theophrastus]

She's a classic liberationist, believing that freedom lies outside all institutions and conventions. So she assumes all taboos are merely social conventions that have no basis in biology are designed (somehow) to oppress. Ergo, these taboos must be transgressed by radical pioneers like her, and she can show you how - for a fee. The notion that civilised social behaviour often requires taboos completely passes her by.

[JL]

No mention as yet about the opinions on menstruation among some adherents of the "Religion of Peace", who require menstruating females to be seperated from the rest of the congregation.

I suppose, self-segregated, such women could consider themselves to be "shamed".

Additionally, I understand that Rastafarians are not so keen on menstruating females.

[Trevor]

Anyone remember this coy maiden from last year?

[Trevor]

Sorry, folks. Not sure what went wrong there. This is what I was trying to link to: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/heres-why-i-ran-the-london-marathon-on-the-first-day-of-my-period-and-chose-not-to-wear-a-tampon-10455176.html

[AC1]

>Then what will the edgy, radical artistes do to shock us all?

Something competent, insightful and interesting to look at, without being preachy would probably be the biggest shock, and also most help to the artists bank balance.

[AC1]

"The first rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is that she doesn't know she's in Dunning-Kruger Club."

Brilliantly put!