Photo cred - Rupi Kaur A Toronto photographer posted a photo of a woman menstruating and everyone lost their s****. So apparently the photo of a woman menstruating didn't follow Instagram's "Community Guidelines." Instagram is a place for self-worship, self-promotion and food. We have been conditioned to see periods as disgusting for a long time and when 'blood' is mentioned people tend to cringe and avoid the subject completely. But, is it time to get over this? So Miley Cyrus can post sexual photos all over Instagram but a Toronto artist and photographer can't capture a moment in time that every woman can relate to? It is after all her photo and her choice to post it. Rupi Kaur has sparked controversy whether she wanted to or not and her work titled: "period." is opening up discussion online. Here is her letter to Instagram: thank you @instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. you deleted a photo of a woman who is fully covered and menstruating stating that it goes against community guidelines when your guidelines outline that it is nothing but acceptable. the girl is fully clothed. the photo is mine. it is not attacking a certain group. nor is it spam. and because it does not break those guidelines i will repost it again. i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak. when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified. pornified. and treated less than human. thank you. this image was a part of my photoseries project for my visual rhetoric course. you can view the full series at rupikaur.com ⠀Website Instagram gave Rupi Kaur fuel to feed the fire that was already burning inside of her. The photo series was shot by sisters Rupi and Prabh Kaur and the art direction was also done by Rupi Kaur. While half-naked girls and highly sexualized photos give Instagram the followers and fans it feeds off of -- a girl on her period is banned from the site. Menstruation is a part of what a women goes through every month in order to create more people! Why are we shaming this? Although, it may be shocking to look at -- we are so desensitized to what is not natural -- fake boobs, butt implants, etc. So this is okay -- but a woman's period remains 'gross.' If you believe in the message Rupi Kaur stands for and want to help her re-post her photo she says: I am going to share the photo again once I figure out how to go about it. I would appreciate if you could “at” instagram and express your thoughts. Or even share the photo on whatever social media platform. So if you too believe that it was wrong for Instagram to ban the photo -- then share it on your own social media channel or connect with Rupi Kaur yourself on her site. Social movements and social change is only possible when more than one party is involved. Website
