Dissecting The Western Woman Artist; An Artist’s Dialogue
by Amy E. Fraser
Chapter 10 Menstrual Blood
A Woman’s Ancient Magic
The inspection of the uterus determined that the subject was in stage four of her menstrual cycle. The presence of menstrual blood is significant to the cause of Amy E. Fraser’s art.
Menstrual blood is a source of empowerment and inspiration. It is the metaphorical substance by which women can come to terms with their cognitive and creative processes. The menstrual cycle is how women discover one of the main corporeal grounds of their feminine wisdom. The facts of this autopsy confront modern messages regarding and embedded into the menstrual cycle, and revitalize and rediscover the true meaning, history and positive creative aspects of the menarche. Menstrual blood invokes man’s fear, woman’s creative potential and pain, cultural taboos, the forbidden, the darkside, magic, mystery, evil, power, the primitive and the visceral. This investigation discusses negative cultural terms and points to the inadequacy of traditional (misogynistic) conceptions surrounding woman’s menstrual cycle.
Physiological and Psychological Aspects
The menstrual cycle is not an actual body organ but it is a significant biological process of the female body. It has a powerful physiological, psychological, spiritual, metaphorical and cultural relationship to Western woman. The menstrual cycle is divided into four phases. They are, as follows, the pre-ovulatory phase where the ovarian follicles ripen and mature, the ovulatory phase where the ripe egg is expelled from the ovary and the ‘corpus luteum’ ripens, the premenstrual phase where the oestrogen and progesterone hormone levels drop, and, finally, the menstrual phase when the womb lining sheds [Shuttle, P.28].
The four phases of the menstrual cycle may be the most significant factor behind the number four’s importance to humanity. According to Marie-Louise Von Franz, “In all models of the universe and concepts of the divine … a fourfold structure dominates … Fourfold images are said to imply wholeness: the four seasons, the four arms of the cross, Jung’s four faculties (thought, feeling, sensation, intuition), the four points of the compass, the four elements, the four humors, the four alchemical steps, the four natural forces, Einstein’s four-dimensional model of the universe, and the four phases of the moon-cycle (waxing, full, waning and dark or “new”)” [Shuttle, P.28]. The numerical aspect to the menstrual cycle is only one way in which it could be viewed as significant to all of humanity. Our perceptions of the menstrual cycle have affected everything from the development of myth and culture to our current notion of time.
The Significance Of The Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle is an important individual experience as well as something every woman has in common with one another. It is a bodily occurrence that is uniquely female. The menstrual cycle returns woman to her primordial being, reminding her she is part of nature and has the ability to connect with all women across the centuries. Natural periods are primal and base, raw, wild and instinctual. They are a bloody and eternal aspect of being female; no amount of civilization will change this. A woman’s period is a monthly occurrence in her life that she has in common with all women who have ever lived. Women living in caves twenty thousand years ago, the first female pharaoh Hatchepsut, living in ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, all shared the intimate, yet united, experience of the menstrual cycle.
The menstrual cycle marks our initiation into female embodiment. It is a woman’s special blood, signifying the most basic female difference. It is the fluid matter at the center of femininity. It is the one really tangible female difference on which to base a separate feminist mindset. We are welcomed into the sisterhood of women through the sacredness and ancient history of this blood. Our bodies become in touch with the mysteries which valorize female blood as synonymous with power over life and death. It is bleeding that does not issue from a wound, signifying woman’s creative capacity, not injury.
Anthropological Aspects of Menstrual Blood
Nineteenth century cultural historians Frederich Engels, J. J. Bachofen, Sir E. B. Taylor and Lewis Henry Morgan theorized that matriarchies were the world’s first political systems [Diop, P.5 and Eller, P.151]. “Male social power is a recent innovation in the history of human civilization” [Eller, P.151]. Although many traditional anthropologists agree that matriarchies existed, they imply that civilization did not truly begin until patriarchal rule. Feminist Anthropologists strongly disagree and have attempted to eliminate the structure of male bias that has formed the West’s current notions of history. Unfortunately, they are finding the method of simply including the female perspective into the accounts of traditional anthropology will not cure the ingrained patriarchal sexism and the belief that women are “essentially uninteresting and irrelevant” [Moore, P.3].
The menstruating matriarchal body gave birth to humanitys’ notion of time. Menstrual and lunar cycles are the basis of most early calendars. Every woman’s year of experience is divided into 13 periods. Between one-seventh and one-fifth of a woman’s adult life could be spent menstruating. The ‘average’ Western woman who has regular periods between the ages of 13 and 50, interrupted by two pregnancies, will menstruate more than 400 times. This is an extremely large part of woman’s inner bodily experience that has (in ‘civilized’ culture) been ridiculed, hidden and ignored.
Studies of ancient matriarchal cultures suggest that childbearing and menstruation were once a source of envy to men, who, in turn, imposed taboos in an attempt to equalize the sexes. “To reduce the threat of destruction by the unseen forces that directed woman’s bleeding, early man first made the womb a goddess. Worship and appeasement of the Great Mother and her bleeding fertility would ensure his temporary safety” [Delaney, P. 3]. There is a wide variety of archeological evidence supporting ancient goddess worship and women’s social power. It appears early humanity was not aware of the male’s role in the process of conception and procreation. They had no concept of the meaning behind the menstrual cycle. To our ancient ancestors, bleeding was something that occurred only if someone was wounded. These ancient peoples believed woman’s ability to create was supernatural and that individually, each woman possessed the powers of a goddess. It is assumed that this conclusion was made because hers was a year-round fertility, the likes of which she did not share with the rest of the animal kingdom.
The authors of “The Curse” view the menstrual blood taboo as a vestige of the time when ruling females used the taboo to make men respect and fear women. Ancient cultures believed that if a woman could make things grow, “she could also make them wither on the vine. Menstrual blood, the outward sign of her duality, could be her weapon to annihilate the society she was responsible for preserving” [Delaney, P.11].
Primitive man’s respect for menstrual blood far surpassed his fear of death, dishonor, or dismemberment. Measures man has taken (and continues to take) to avoid this mysterious substance have affected mealtimes, bedtimes and his hunting season. Primitive woman (unable to separate herself from her menstrual blood), believed that the safety of the entire society depended upon her tabooed state [Delaney, P.7]. It was believed that the blood of the menstruating woman was somehow a dangerous, magical as well as a fertility-enhancing substance (for both plants and humans). Menstrual blood was seen as the ‘blood of the earth’, supporting and giving life.
Evidence suggests that as the power of the matriarchy gave way to patriarchal rule, menstrual blood taboos “as taboos were probably enforced by men, who connected this mysterious phenomenon with the cycles of the moon, the seasons, the rhythm of the tides, the disappearance of the sun in nightly darkness and who feared such cosmic power in the apparent control of a member of their own species” [Delaney, P. 8].
In the past, all of the myths about menstruation link it in some way with reproduction or fertility. Interpretations of European Paleolithic cave paintings suggest that women were thought to be parthenogenetic, and generally an association was made between menstruation and fertility. According to Helen Diner, many of the world’s great historical figures have valued the primordial belief in parthenogenesis. “Buddha and Quetzacoatl, Huizipochli and Plato, Montezuma and Ghenghis Khan claimed to have been born of virgins. The Ainus of Japan, the tribes of central Asia, Chinese philosophers, Siamese demigods, Indian (American) heroes, and Tibetan prophets – they all want to be considered the products solely of their mothers and disclaim any bodily fathers” [Diner, P.7]. The menstruating woman was once a very powerful and respected figure.
However, as ideas about how human reproduction have evolved, the role of menstruation within them has changed, from the concept of menstruation as ‘seed’ (a vital component of a fetus), to the analogy of menstruation with ‘heat’ or oestrus (a time of fertility), to modern Western Culture’s ideas of menstruation as a disgusting waste product having no active role in the reproductive process.
Many find it impossible to believe that primitive man was unaware of the significance of his sperm. They doubt the theories of ancient matrilineal societies and refuse to believe that there would have been any reason for a magical and religious awe of women and their menstrual cycle. Aristotle had a great effect on this negative modern day perception of menstruation. Through his influence, the substance once seen as a symbol of sacred feminine magic and power soon became a sign of female inferiority, related to the reversed passive role she was believed to have in reproduction. Aristotle’s procreative theory stated that the menses was a substance intended to nourish the fetus and was the only female contribution to reproduction [Delaney, P.46].
From Ancient Ritual to Modern Ridicule
The omnipresence of the element of blood in ancient ritual, as well as the bloody reality of the menstrual cycle, is deeply symbolic of life and death. The menstrual cycle’s very regularity has taught women the power and beneficence of nature and the body. All cultures, primitive and modern, fearfully recognized bleeding as precious fluid leaving the body. As blood leaves an individual’s body, it loses its’ connection to the bleeder and acquires a generic universal status. Blood has always symbolized the essence of life. Blood is considered to be the seat of the soul, the divine fluid, that maintains, nourishes and purifies incarnate life. Instinctively, we fear its’ power and meaning.
Modern Western culture has adopted and transformed many practices previously considered magical, religious, or spiritual into secular activities. The medical explanation of the danger of infection accounts rationally for our caution in handling spit, blood, mucus, menstrual blood and other body fluids, but cannot account for our irrational response to and abhorrence of these substances. Our visceral reactions to these body fluids not only betrays our fear of destroying the unity and integrated form of the human body but also indicates our terror over it’s symbolic significance.
Man, in his fear of this symbol of death, blamed the menstruating woman for possessing this monthly reminder of his mortality. She was looked upon with repugnancy and hatred. Even in modern times, the assumption has generally been that menstruation itself is the aberrancy.
Psychoanalytical theorists have suggested that the menarche “is a bloody sign of woman’s loss of a penis, that it remains for all women in all times a sign of their uncleanliness and inferiority” [Delaney, P.73]. Freud “described women in terms of what they lacked anatomically, rather than in terms of what was present in their bodies and psyches. In Freud’s view, not having penises made women maimed and inferior. As a consequence, he felt, normal women suffered from penis envy, were masochistic and narcissistic” [Bolen, P.40]. I believe these theories derive from ancient fears of the blood goddess.
The menstruating female body has become the focus of cultural anxiety, ridicule and disgust. In major psychoanalytic writings, the menarche has been interpreted as a curse associated with penis envy, castration anxiety and female masochism, as well as many other female psychic disorders. Psychoanalysts Mary Chadwick, Helen Deutch, Ernest Jones and Melanie Klien discuss their menstruation theories based on equally negative assumptions [Delaney, P.73].
In Western Culture, the menstrual cycle is expected to be a private and hidden experience. As a result of man’s great aversion to blood, women have been forced to live in secrecy with the constant fear and avoidance of menstrual mess. During the menstrual cycle, many women feel as though their bodies have betrayed them; they feel that their period is a dreaded, dirty, disruptive and embarrassing experience. Women of modern day have been taught to feel shame and inferiority due to this natural monthly occurrence, instead of viewing it as a positive confirmation of femininity.
Positive Perspectives On The Menstruating Woman
The concept of the menstrual cycle as a blessing has been recently rediscovered by feminists both within and outside academia. Today, the menstrual cycle is openly discussed with political aims of self-empowerment and liberation of women from the dominant negative stories about menstruation. Women are learning to embrace their embodiment and their menarche.
We cannot escape our container and so we should not allow ourselves to believe in a mind/body dualism. The body is one whole integrated being that thinks and feels. Our body is our mind; we are united with every piece and every particle. We cannot separate from the body, so we must learn to love and accept all that is part of the processes of being female, including, most importantly, the menstrual cycle. It is important to realize that the complex menstruation process involves the whole female organism. There are hormonal reactions between the ovaries and other endocrine organs, such as the pituitary, thyroid, and the adrenals which affect the central and sympathetic nervous systems as well as woman’s entire viscera.
Women need to overcome the guilt and shame that has created a hatred of the female body. There are many positive aspects to acknowledging and accepting our embodiment and menstrual cycle, if we become aware of these benefits and work with them instead of against them.
Physiological And Psychological Process
One of the acknowledged positive symptoms of PMS is a sharp increase in drive and energy. Some women, including myself, enjoy this drive and energy and find it very inspiring and creative. Premenstrual tension, depending on who is defining it, can mean an acuteness of sensibility and a sharpening, rather than a dulling, of intelligence.
Throughout the cycle, women will find themselves experiencing a heightened awareness of the environment. Hormones produced by the ovaries effect the brain, breasts, skin, stomach, intestines, eyes, nose and mouth. At certain times of the cycle we are more responsive to sounds and tastes. We are more perceptive to the moods of others and more in tune with how things are said, rather than the actual words that were used. During her premenstrual phase, a woman may recall, word for word, what was said in an argument or conversation. Certain times of the month allow us to better articulate, remember and win arguments. A woman may experience keener night vision, as well as become more sensitive to scents, particularly the odor of roses and male urine around the time of ovulation.
One great benefit of our monthly biological process is the renewed capacity to develop a stronger sense of self awareness and the ability to be more perceptive to what others are thinking and feeling. Many womens’ perceived ‘psychic’ abilities can simply be attributed to the benefits of our biology in combination with keen intuition and perception. However, not so long ago, a woman would have been burned at the stake for demonstrating her valuable natural skills. Today, paying attention to these instinctive abilities and our body’s capacity for knowledge has become less important in our modern, impersonal, sterile and technological world. Instincts have become neglected and ignored, and the benefits of the menarche left un-harvested.
There is something of unalterable value in woman’s experience. The very cyclical motion of her hormonal body makes her life marked by upheaval, change and discharge. This is not to say that a woman is more vulnerable because of it, but, instead to suggest that the menstrual cycle is a source of her strength and power. In general, life’s changes will not stun or threaten most women because their bodies are in a constant state of flux.
Personal Experience, Pain And Creativity
For me, the menstrual cycle is an extremely painful experience. However, I believe a person has two choices in dealing with pain; one can allow pain to incapacitate or one can use pain as an advantage. Although this conception of pain may perpetuate the myth of female masochism, it is not my intent. My intent in discussing aspects of pain in this light is to provide a view of hope and strength.
One way to think of the painful aspect of the menstrual cycle is to view it as the female body’s automatic process of initiation. Most non Western people are prepared to suffer in order to be worthy of initiation. The initiation ceremonies of our ancestral and tribal peoples included many difficult mental and physical ordeals. For these people, physical endurance was a valuable ability. Our ancestors lived very difficult lives. Resistance to pain and a willingness to persist in the face of difficulties was essential to the survival of the tribe. Today, our lives have become much more ‘civilized’ and the ability to withstand pain is not required for one’s self respect, nor an essential part of modern living. However, the ability to endure and overcome physical pain heightens one’s capacity for survival in any type of world. This capacity gives one confidence to confront less painful situations in life. Thus, in theory, women who regularly experience painful menstrual cycles should prove to be more resilient as well as more able to conquer and succeed in life.
Pain can be viewed as a potent vehicle of power; mastery over it can obliterate and recreate consciousness. I believe that being in touch with one’s bodily sensations is part of the process of self definition, awareness and a deepening realization of one’s femininity. This increased ability of perception and awareness is an important aspect of my creativity, intuition, drive and ambition. Menstrual pain gives me something to overcome, to be angry with and also incorporates a visceral angst into my art works. Through the creative process and determination, I can release the pain and gain a better understanding of my true self. Perhaps the female ability to bleed suggests how far into the center of the body/self/ego woman’s gender consciousness roots itself.
Many contradictions exist in the experience of pain. When one experiences intense pain, one can become acutely aware of physical existence and lose rational cognition. An individual in extreme pain may lose the ability to think or speak. Conversely, it is also believed that to be able to withstand pain is to transcend one’s physical limits and become closer to a spiritual realm of being. Pain can both reaffirm an individual’s physical existence and provoke a transcendence of this existence. The body is the nexus of all female experience. To ignore or neglect this experience is to miss out on one fourth of one’s life.
Unfortunately, to suffer experiences or sensations that cannot be shared can separate an individual from others. This may induce a profound awareness of one’s physical limits, fear of isolation, emptiness and emotional solitude. On the other hand, pain may also provide an escape from one’s separateness; a person in acute pain becomes oblivious to everything but the present moment and loses self awareness and high level thinking. This can be seen as an opportunity to be in touch with the visceral, primal self, the real woman within. Pain may be experienced as a loss of boundaries between the self and environment, evoking feelings of a union with something beyond one’s own bodily existence, possibly to a united existence with all womankind.
If we choose not to care for the body properly, there are many other side effects to the menstrual cycle besides pain. Menstruating women can experience high and low blood pressure, constipation followed by diarrhea and a swelling of the liver and breasts. Perspiration and nervous instability is increased and the red blood count drops. There is a loss of iron and a loss of calcium, headaches and a loss of sleep, producing irritability. The menstrual cycle is a consuming and demanding physical process that has negatives and benefits. The best way to avoid or lessen the negative aspects is to pay attention to the body’s needs and, overall, respecting oneself.
The Menstruating Body as Religion
On the positive side, the menstrual cycle can be viewed as a woman’s interior goddess. The menstrual cycle can be it’s own unique religious experience; this is a time women should set aside for introspection and meditation. There is no need for women to impose the traditional Western beliefs or practices of a patriarchal God. Vesting ‘Divine’ power solely in a masculine God reinforces the already internalized oppression of women. A woman’s body can be viewed literally as her temple and place of worship and, as such, it’s processes should be respected and treated as sacred. The female experience is as tangent, physical and real as it is ‘Otherworldly’. Like religion, the menstrual cycle is consuming and intimate yet universal. It teaches women about pride, pain and humility.
The menstrual cycle provides women with the important knowledge and acceptance of change and the never-ending cycle of life, death and rebirth. It marks the passage of time, and provides a monthly reminder of who we are and what we are made of. The female body tells us through it’s many transformations and processes if we are treating it with the respect it deserves or if it is being neglected. No exterior god will ever provide the continuous cycles of elation and penance that the female body as temple provides. Like religion, the menstrual cycle can provide a source of inspiration, enlightenment, creativity and mental well being. Seen in this religious light, this special, separate experience can be celebrated as both spiritual and physical.
During menstruation, women from ancient times, as well as modern day Aboriginal women, set a sacred place aside for communion and inquiry. “In many primitive societies, the menstruating woman was excluded from the most ordinary life of her tribe for four or five days every month. Unable to plant, harvest, cook, associate with her husband, or wander freely around the village, the woman went instead to a menstrual hut, a cramped dwelling made of leaves and bark, set at some distance from the village. The menstruating woman might, depending upon her culture be required to undergo purifying practices or simply enjoy the solitude” [Delaney, P. 9]. It is believed that during this part of her cycle and solitude, a woman is much closer to her inner self or self knowing than usual. At this time, she is more in touch with her deepest feelings, memories and dreams that are generally repressed during the rest of her cycle.
Unintentionally, a similar ancient ritual occurs among Western women. Any woman who had female roommates for a length of time has experienced the bizarre group menstrual cycle phenomenon. The Western menarche is generally celebrated in a similar fashion to traditional religious holidays with feasting on sacred foods (pigging out on pizzas, chips, chocolate, raw cookie dough and ice cream), passing of sacred knowledge (revealing secrets and gossip), and the release of one’s inner demons (complaining about the opposite sex). The holiday guests must be female and in the proper stage of their cycle in order to reap the full benefits of the rituals. Special costumes are worn (oversized sweatpants and T-shirts) and many purification and beautification ceremonies are performed. This includes facial masks, deep conditioning for the hair, painting nails and plucking unsightly hair. The ritual also involves a forced emotional release. This is achieved by visiting pet stores to coo over baby animals or by renting movies that will induce laughter or crying. During this time, many women are driven to spend exhausting hours shopping for a completely useless or frivolous item to mark the sacred occasion. Although I have described this in a humorous light, the basis of many of our ‘normal’ feminine behaviors have their origins in the religious and spiritual concepts we once held as sacred. This unconscious recreation speaks deeply of Western woman’s desire to treat the menstrual cycle in a more positive light, to unearth it’s once celebrated existence.
Depicting The Menarche In Art and Literature
One way I chose to celebrate my embodiment as well as my complex relationship to the menstrual cycle is through painting. Menstruation has its own female language and its own distinctive images. Women have certain connections with specific universal symbols.
Throughout history, from the mythmaking imaginations of centuries, are symbols of the eternal feminine: blood, flowers, the witch, the egg and the moon. A number of poetic symbols may at times signify menstruation in art and literature: sickness, mud, volcanoes, the arrival of a visitor, bathing, dumping garbage, falling from a high place, odors, leakages, stains, clocks, containers, circles, swamps, rags, tidal rhythms, and the colors red, pink and purple. It is believed that these symbols that transcend meaning or a precise definition are part of the residue of our ‘collective unconscious’. When these images appear in art, poetry, fiction, or mythology, critics are reluctant to associate them with that most fundamental of female attributes, the menstrual cycle.
The image of the witch has historically been the most consistent because it is an image of the transforming and changing menstrual cycle. As little girls, we secretly suspected our mother, grandmothers, sisters and female relatives of having magical capabilities. The image is ancient and universal; the concept of the witch is older than Eve. The witch (menstruating) aspect of woman is thought to be evil because men fear the power, blood and abilities of women. The fear travels the spectrum from her possession of fertility (the original magic), the creation of life, and the castration fear of the bleeding vagina which men believed might swallow a penis (as it has swallowed this month’s possible baby). Also, witch burning evolved out of a jealous fear of the sexual and mental abilities of a woman in tune with her perceptions and instinctual capabilities.
Celebrating Woman And Her Menstrual Cycle
I have chosen to incorporate many of these concepts and images into my own works as a tribute to and celebration of woman and her menstrual cycle. Women need to learn to value the feminine and take control over their own destiny. I believe we should validate our life experiences by using them as a source of inspiration when it comes to our creativity. I hope my work creates a sense of connection for women everywhere. I believe that it can provide fresh insight and be supportive and enlightening for its viewers. My goal is to portray the true nature of women as well as to eliminate womens’ repression and inhibitions about their own corporeal beings.
Western culture has turned woman’s time of celebration, heightened sensation, emotionality and sexuality into a time of shame and punishment. I feel this is wrong, so, the women in my work are allowed to be free and naked, regardless of menstrual state. They can dance in the moonlight and behave in any manner that they see fit. The image of women offered is one of wholeness and strength. She is about having self confidence, a strong sense of identity and she knows what it is to be a woman. These women are uninhibited and unselfconscious. They draw their strength, determination and defiance as the original and rightful holders of power since ancient times.
Reclaiming, Revitalizing and Reincorporating the Menarche
Women need to view the body as a shrine to be revered and not despised; it should be honored and not treated with shame. By reclaiming the old pagan imagery and revitalizing it, women can re-incorporate it back into their psyches in a new and empowering light. I see the works I create as beautiful, inspirational images of powerful women full of nature’s potential and primitive energy. These women are striking, determined, provocative and primal. I use the older visuality and ancient matriarchal theories because they are increasingly associated with humanity’s origins and notions of the past, the sacred and the lost. My paintings reinforce the point that women are not passive vessels at the disposal of others, but empowered beings, in control of their own destiny.
Asserting positive aspects of embodiment and bringing the menstrual cycle into the light of our consciousness is a positive move toward a new feminism. Women can reclaim the powerful, ancient and universal symbols of the menarche. I choose to re-invent and re-interpret these symbols and theories to construct new meanings and form a 21st century feminist perspective. This should be seen as a reclaiming of our bodies, our menstrual cycles and of our place in history. All of our notions, images, fantasies, and ideals have their sources in our bodies and nature. Our mental and physical lives are of one piece, bound by the human form and it’s relationship within nature.
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