(Paris) Blood, Basic rules, My rules and I, It’s only blood… accounts that talk about menstruation and show them are more and more numerous on Instagram, to lift the taboo.
Posted at 10:34 a.m.
“I have a lot of trouble with my periods, it makes me feel uncomfortable”. This is one of the many anonymous testimonies published on the Coup de sang Instagram account, created in 2018 by Clara Déplantes, then a student, who was writing a memoir on the taboo of periods.
“I wanted to create a space for free speech. In the comments there is a sharing of experiences, we feel less alone, ”she explains. His account now has 103,000 subscribers. A success that she did not expect: “At the beginning, it was mainly my friends who shared their testimonies”.
Under the testimony of a beautician who “plays down” in the face of her clients who are embarrassed to have their hair removed when they have their period, comments are pouring in: women say they do not go to the beautician during this period out of shame, others hide the string of their tampon so that it does not become known, beauticians refuse clients because they find it “dirty”.
Behind these accounts, we find most of the time feminist activists or associations like Elementary Rules, created in 2015 to fight against menstrual precariousness. In particular, the association organizes collections and distributions of period protection to people who cannot afford it.
Everyday life
“We must speak publicly about the rules, because they have direct consequences on daily life”, affirms Laury Gaube, in charge of the communication of Elementary Rules. The association is also involved in raising awareness through school workshops and social networks. His account is followed by nearly 25,000 people, “mostly 18-34 year olds”.
Clara Déplantes chose Instagram because the publication format is suitable for testimonials, but above all because the platform is widely used by young people, its target audience.
“There is a need for a speaking space that people can find on social networks. We see it in the private messages we receive, people come to ask us for advice, ”says Justine Okolodkoff, content and awareness manager at Basic Rules.
“There are SVT courses in 4and but they remain very biological, they do not answer the questions of everyday life, such as how to put on a tampon”, deplores Clara Déplantes.
An observation also made by the association Rules elementary. For activists, classes should be done earlier. “Often we will intervene (during workshops) in 3and and in 4and but the first rules, it can be between CM1 and 5and “, explains Laury Gaube.
Feminist issue
For Ludivine Demol, feminist and doctoral student, who is interested in the way young people learn about sexuality, social networks have become a space for the “production of knowledge” at the initiative of feminist movements and in the absence speeches at school or in the family.
On his account, Basic Rules answers practical questions like “How do I know if I have heavy periods?” with graduated pipette in support. “A heavy period is when you lose more than 80 ml of blood per cycle, when you have to change your tampon or pad every two hours”, explains the message, while advising to consult a gynecologist in this case.
For Justine Okolodkoff, “the exchange of knowledge between peers” is more suited to sexual health topics. “When it’s adults, who are authority figures, who talk to us about it, it can be a little embarrassing.”
However, the taboo remains, “it is very recent to no longer see blue blood in advertisements”, just as is recent “the diagnosis of endometriosis, while this disease affects one in ten women”, notes Ludivine Demol . She denounces an “invisibilization of women’s bodies” in society, which contributes to conveying clichés about the rules that these accounts strive to dismantle and explain.