Sabaritha, Shruthi use menstrual blood as art to challenge taboos and promote gender awareness

To emphasise on shameless stain concept, an art installation featuring a chair that has an acrylic layer of stain on the seat. A camera is kept below the seat and people can click a picture with the mark.CHENNAI: A young, rebellious mind, who has the fire to sensitise the society and bring awareness on various social issues, Sabaritha took a unique weapon. A social worker by both profession and passion, she was greatly inspired by independent filmmaker and poet Leena Manimekalai’s words.

“Through her writings, Leena has expressed her journey of menstruation. I realised that there is a lot to talk about menses. I decided to do my part using art as a tool,” starts Sabaritha. She joined hands with her close friend, Shruthi, to start the Menses With Men campaign.

“I wanted to use the menstrual blood, which is used to isolate women as a weapon to rebel against. Why is blood considered a sin even in this era?” she questions. In 2020, Sabaritha decided to use her menstrual blood to draw artworks. “We aim to build conversations among men on what women undergo, both mentally and physically, during their periods. We are still in a space where a woman is judged and ill-treated if she transparently talks about such things,” she says.

Sabaritha’s dedication towards her mission delved deep after an incident last year. “When rains were lashing out in Chennai, I saw my neighbour akka sleeping outside her home in a corner on a sack. She was half-drenched. When asked what happened, she revealed that her son is fasting for a god and she is having her monthly cycle. To not face her son, she completes all her routine work before her son wakes up. This has ultimately led to her sleeping only for three hours a day during her menstruation. She refused to sleep at my home as well. It was quite heart-wrenching to see how she treated herself. People consider it as a culture, which is not right. We do not want people to see the period from a scientific point of view. Basic humanity is what it is needed and treatment of women like sin is agonising,” adds the 28-year-old.

Shruthi joins the conversation to share her experience. “When I initially heard this idea, I was clueless on how the blood can be used as a painting material. But the output was beautiful. Only during the process, I realised that there is no need to feel uncomfortable to touch our own menses blood,” she shares.

Explaining the process, Sabaritha tells DT Next, “We take the blood from our menstrual cups and create an art using brush and buds. We take a picture and convert it to digital format. Then we print the material.” Shruthi jumps in to clarify, “The last step is to ensure hygiene and safety as there are chances of germs to spread from the blood.”

Topics surrounding periods are vast. As days passed, Sabaritha and Shruthi found themselves amidst various essential and ignored concepts. “If we get a stain, the immediate reaction is fear and shame. We wanted to normalise it. With the help of Britto, one of our friends, we made an art installation at the Alt+Art Festival. We kept a chair that had an acrylic layer of stain on the seat. We kept a camera below the seat and people can click a picture with the stain,” Sabaritha shares.

There is a hidden power in people’s stories and experiences. These artists decided to use that to expand their scope. “We created a podcast where people have shared about their menstruation journey. This will help people to realise how to treat women and mend their actions,” the social worker states.

Sabaritha and Shruthi have carefully avoided the usage of puberty and menstruation is meant only for women. “Puberty is something not to be celebrated as it curbs girls’ accessibility to education even now. All the oppression surrounding women starts with periods,” she believes.

Apart from being a taboo, menses have a lot of connection with socio-economic and caste dynamics. “Instead of glorifying it, elders can educate the child about her physical and hormonal changes, and sanitation methods and give her the confidence to not isolate herself during her monthly cycle. But we are failing as a society in this aspect,” Sabaritha suggests. Recently in Erode, they have kept an installation on how caste influences menstruation rituals.

Adding more to this, Shruthi explains, “Periods is not restricted only to women. Even trans men get it. We want to emphasise that not everyone who gets periods are a woman and not everyone who does not get periods are man.”

All these initiatives are not as easy as it sounds. The duo has faced a lot of mocking and bullying for their work. “If 10 people know about our work, at least eight of them will have a negative opinion about this. But we are happy with the two people who look at it positively,” Shruthi adds.

“Acceptance is highly dependant upon the mindset of the people and does not have anything to do with gender and age. Even women are against our initiatives and we have seen men encouraging us,” they conclude.