The average woman will spend 1800 days of her life on her period. This fact underwrites humanity's survival as a species, yet menstruation is commonly regarded as unclean, and information about it unfit for polite company. Across cultures, stigma keeps menstruating girls isolated from their families, friends and communities; they are told not to talk about it; scared to attend school; forbidden to eat or prepare certain food; and barred from touching water, moving freely, or sleeping in their own beds.
How do misconceptions on the female body shape the cultural position of women? "Menstruation Myths" explores this question as part of artist Laia Abril's "Hysteria" chapter in her ongoing work, A History of Misogyny; a longterm project of visual research, undertaken through historical and contemporary comparisons.
