The Body in its Different Environments: Nature, Urban and Industrial Landscapes

 

A menstruator is a term used to define those who have a menstruation cycle since not all people who have it are women and not all women have one. 

 

Menstruator is also the name of the ‘work-in-progress-multidisciplinary-art-piece’ inspired by Surrealism and the empowerment of building a narrative that can make us overcome the worst aspects of reality and avoided topics.

 

I’m a body-positive person but I’ve always felt frustrated about having a menstruation cycle.

 

So given the opportunity of building a narrative around my body and representing it through art, I’ve chosen this topic to help me overcome it and hopefully encourage people to be more caring towards the dialogues with themselves and others.

 

Is my body beautiful? 

 

Does it matter? 

 

Isn’t beauty just individual taste after all?

 

We all face the social judgement that shapes the way we see ourselves: toxic male gaze, toxic female gaze, straight-washed polarized first-world problems… 

 

I agree with what Susan Sontag says in her book Against Interpretation, that “What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine’ and “What is the most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.”

 

Like gender, a menstruator relationship with its menstruation is not defined by birth but it is determined by what one learns from its social and cultural context.

 

Like a work in progress, this relationship transforms during a menstruator’s lifetime, if its environment allows it to do so. 

 

Our clothes are the costumes of our role in society. 

 

What is my role? 

 

What does a menstruator look like? 

 

The Menstruator costume was used to stage the usually invisible menstruation cycle and its lifetime. 

 

I also agree with what John Berger says in his book Ways of Seeing, “To be naked is to be oneself” and personally being naked feels more natural than being dressed.

 

Although, sewing, wearing and displacing this costume allowed me to materialize the invisible transformations that time allows in ourselves, in the relationships with our bodies and in the relationships with our environments.

 

According to Einstein, “If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.” (Calaprice, A. 2010).

 

Like the curious walkers crossing me during the Menstruator performance, I’m left with more questions than answers. 

 

How many menstruators around the globe are dropping school because they are not allowed to continue education after their first cycle? 

 

What opportunities are left for them without education? 

 

How many menstruators don’t have access to basic hygiene goods due to their financial background? 

 

How many tampons end up in the ocean in a menstruator lifetime? 

 

How come the menstrual cycle still dictates the opportunity of striving independency?

 

How invisible are we? 

 

How do public control private?

 

References:

 

Berger, J., (2008) Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Modern Classics

 

Calaprice, A., (2013), The Ultimate Quotable Einstein. Princeton Univerity Press

 

Carroll, H., (2014) Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs. London: Laurence King Publishing

 

Morton, T., (2018) Being Ecological. London: Pelican Books

 

Sontag, S., (1966) Against Interpretation and Other Essays. London: Penguin Modern Classics

 

Sontag, S., (1979) On Photography. London: Penguin Modern Classics

 

Become A Menstruator (2018) 28 Days To Overcome Menstrual Taboo. Available from: https://becomeamenstruator.org/manifesto.html [Acessed: 13th November 2019]

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