- [Woman] Oops.
Oh.
(laughter)
- Getting a period can sometimes be tricky.
- And often we're taught to hide the fact
that we're even on our periods.
- It never happened.
- But why?
- It's the human body dammit.
So with the help of artist Sarah Levy,
we're taking period shame and flipping it on it's head.
It's Ladylike and today we are painting
with our menstrual blood.
- We're gonna paint the town red.
- Suck it.
(rock music)
Ladylike blood.
- My name is Sarah Levy, I gained notoriety
for my portrait of bloody Trump.
- Sarah thanks so much for being here and showing us
how to paint with our menstrual blood.
- Thanks so much for having me.
- First of all what gave you the inspiration
to decide to like, oh you know what, I bleed every month,
and that's my paint.
- It was mostly being outraged at his statement
about Megan Kelly, that she was just asking tough questions
because she'd been bleeding out of her wherever,
sort of a stab at all women for menstruating.
I felt like that needed to be called out and stopped
and that like humor would be a good way to do it.
I came home one day and was on my period
and I was like, oh that's how to do it.
- In order to paint with our period blood,
I have to collect my period blood, which means
that I have to use a menstrual cup for the first time
and I have to confront my fear of suction.
This is Trump's America too, so I feel like my vagina
already clenches a lot right now.
It's gonna be impossible to get out.
- What I learned is that you just have to do a kegel
basically to get it out and that was the key.
- That's what I was telling you.
You're a strong woman, I believe in you and the power
of your vagina.
- Alright.
This just in, my Diva cup has been in for three minutes
and I already feel it leaking.
- There was one time, I shocked myself
I went to sleep with my menstrual cup and I woke up
and it was full, it sounds like a fairytale but it's true.
At least that gives me a reason for having these cramps
because I filled up a cup of blood.
- When I painted bloody Trump, like I was, you know,
excited about the painting, but I was also like equally
as excited about having figured out how to use the cup.
(laughter)
- Since I've been using a Diva cup,
I've gotten very up close and personal
with my menstrual blood.
- You know when you're taking a bath
and you're on your period and you have a little clot
floating in the water?
- There are times where you take the cup out,
and then you just get those like long membrane strings
of blood, kind of like pulling cheese.
- I would like to like spoon up the clot
and take it in my palm and just see what it's made of.
- It's kind of cool that your body can make all that stuff.
Just embrace that cheese pull.
So we have to use a menstrual cup to get our blood
and then what do we put it in?
- I just put it in any sort of glass container.
- I did the first transferring.
We lost some troops but most of them made it to here.
- And then I just store it in the fridge
until I'm gonna use it.
- Great, in the fridge.
I don't have anything animalistic
and now I have my own primal ooze.
Just sitting in my fridge.
- About to empty my shit.
One of these mason jars is wine,
one of these mason jars is my period blood,
which one is it?
(drum roll)
- So when painting with blood, is it just kind
of a one shot thing 'cause you can't really erase it right?
- That's what I thought, an that's how I painted Trump,
but since painting it I've learned
that you can actually erase using saliva.
(groans)
Which is super awesome.
- I can handle any bodily function,
but I cannot handle spit.
I can't even date someone with a juicy mouth.
(horse whinnies)
- [Chantel] I want to try erasing with my spit,
just to see how it's done.
- Oh girl.
- [Sarah] You know just spit occasionally
into like a little thing.
- When you do that you have to give me a warning,
so that I can do this.
- Alright Dev, I'm about to spit.
I'm gonna spit really quick Dev.
- [Sarah] Do it.
(spits)
- Are we good?
- So what are you guys gonna paint?
- We decided to go with things that we rely on
when we're on our periods.
So I'm gonna be painting chocolate chip cookies,
and peanut M&M's.
- [Sarah] Fabulous.
- I'm going to paint a glass of red wine
and maybe like a moon in the distance.
- Beautiful.
- Because I think that all women are witches
and the period is a reflection of that.
I hope my period picture doesn't smell though,
because I've been collecting my blood and it smells.
- Our crew is just sitting over there watching us,
covering their noses might I add.
So do you have any like tips or pointers for us
as we're like going into this?
- I think the main thing is like to have fun with it,
explore the blood as blood and not just any other red thing.
Figure out how can you use the clots or the mucus.
- Oh, I could use my clots as the chocolate chips.
- Oh, yes.
(women oh)
- That's really good.
- I'm like never gonna look at cookies the same way
after this.
(laughs)
- I'm fully aware it's 10 am and that I'm drinking red wine.
- It's blood day.
So we all have blood to paint with,
we have our still like portraits all set up.
- Oh yeah, is it a date?
Or is it a portrait with period blood?
We don't know.
I have goosebumps because I'm so nervous
about opening my jar.
- Open the blood.
- [Chantel] I actually love the moment
where we all opened our jars.
- Alright well that wasn't so bad, hello blood.
Can I have a,
(coughs)
We all leaned into the fact that it smelled awful.
- Oh it smells.
- [Dev] Do you smell it?
- It hit over here yeah it did.
- It smells like eggies.
Gotta pussy up, let's do this, sisters.
(coughs)
- I might chew on some gum while we do this,
just to have a different
oh wow it's not letting up,
I'm gonna get some gum.
- We started off today painting with a tampon.
- [Chantel] She's using the tampon like a crayola marker.
I've never seen that before.
- It's dribbling, it looks so fresh.
It's kind of funny how I feel more comfortable painting
with this tampon then I do painting with a paint brush.
No, I have no experience with painting,
I have very little artistic talent at all.
- There have been times, that I've drawn something
and shown people and they laugh because they genuinely think
it's a joke, but it's not.
Making the first stroke, ah.
Taking that first tampon stroke, completely changed the game
for me.
I was just immediately empowered.
Oh clot.
- This is proof that tampons don't absorb shit.
♫ This is my blood it is my life
This feels weirdly normal.
Oh got a good little chunker.
- [Sarah] I like that silence of concentration.
- My favorite moment while I was painting
is when I was working with my little chunks
and I would be like Sarah, come look at my chunks
and she would run over and be like oh yeah, nice
that's cool.
- We can call it, chunky chocolate chip.
- Yes, wow we really just collected out blood and did this.
- I never thought I'd say this
while painting with period blood,
but I'm getting kind of hungry.
(laughs)
I'm working up and appetite.
- I was more nervous about doing it in general,
once it was done, I was like I don't care what people think.
- I'm done ladies, I would high five you but I have blood
on my hands.
- Yeah, we'll refrain from the high five time for lunch.
An then we'll put these bad boys on display.
- And ask people to look at them,
yup.
- People are lining up.
- I didn't think I was gonna get nervous
but now that I just hear voices outside the door
I think I'm a little nervous.
- I'm fine.
I'm gonna tell people I didn't paint of it,
I just like squatted over it.
(laughs)
Open the doors.
- Go with the flow is open for business.
(hip hop music)
- [Woman] Who made the fruit?
- I had no idea you could do that.
- [Chantel] It's cookies?
- Oh.
(laughs)
- But I'm not an artist so it's open to interpretation.
- So you felt it necessary to paint a peperoni pizza
with your period?
(laughs)
A lot of people didn't quite know what it was,
I'm not that offended though.
- What is that?
- Is that a strawberry?
- I thought it was cookies?
- It's cookies?
Oh.
- And are these cookies, cause they almost look like,
- Yes they are cookies.
- I was gonna say cookies or (speaks foreign language)
- [Chantel] And it kind of made people guess
and it made them interact with period blood
which they probably have never done that before.
- Chunky.
- [Blonde] Yeah, yeah it's quite chunky.
- I was a little shocked when some female coworkers
where like ew and like initially, and then I'd come up
and talk to her and we got her to change her mind.
- I don't know what I was expecting, this isn't it though
this is great.
- I love how you're just by yourself.
And there's also some clots, you can see.
- Yeah I see that.
(dog barks)
- I don't think he likes it.
- People were pretty on board with it.
We work at a very accepting place.
- I mean it makes me just disappointed
about what I've been doing with my period blood,
it never looks that cool.
- I'm really impressed with period blood
as an art form, it's taking a part of yourself
and something that is generally deemed as a negative
and turning it into something beautiful.
- It was like really thrilling watching men
look at that art.
'cause like it's probably the first time,
they've ever seen period blood
and it was kind of like, whoa.
- A few of the men were like how did you get
that kind of like chunky consistency,
did you mix it after the fact to make it,
that gooey thing, and I was like uh nope.
That's how some of us menstruate.
- So that's like actual pieces of you?
- Yes.
- Wow that's cool, no that's cool.
- To was art but it was also an educational tool.
- [Man] Did you have to reheat it to paint?
- No period blood just stays blood.
- Doesn't freeze?
- [Dev] No, it just chills.
- [Man] As a male, I haven't seen clots before.
- This looks beautiful,
I would not know this was period blood.
Unless someone told me.
- [Woman] I think if you get close though.
- I don't know if I need to get close.
Blood has such depth and interestingness to it's texture,
is what I just learned.
- Wow, this also looks like a lot of blood.
Are you okay?
- Initially I thought they were going to be really like
emotionally driven paintings but to see that they were
just classic still life, that kind of just shows
that there's still the stigma, that I have at least.
- We did this so we could put our blood
in front of your faces some more,
so we could drop the stigma around it.
- It's just a period, you know.
- In some ways it felt like there was more pressure
on our viewers than on us, because it's kind of like
we did the work, now it's on you,
what do you think about it?
- The idea of like someone else seeing my period blood
might be the thing that I'm still ashamed of
and I didn't even realize it until this moment?
- Mm-hmm.
- And I think like there's nothing to be ashamed of.
- I definitely came in here with the idea like,
I think this is gross and I don't get it,
the reason being, it's biohazardous waste,
however, I found it neater than I thought I would.
- Yeah so you come in a little bit changed,
both of us.
- If I had any advice for somebody who's experiencing
menstrual shame, the person who is shaming you
or the structure that is shaming you
needs to grow up, because honestly,
this is the birthplace of life.
- I was like terrified and like super bummed out
when I first got my period, but like if someone
had come to me and was like let's paint with it,
I might have been a lot more excited.
- I wasted so much time trying to like hide tampons
and hide pads and stuff, now I love just marching around
with my period products, I'm like, who wants to talk
about menstrual cups, I'll talk with you.
Who wants a tampon, let me chuck it your way.
It's just so much more liberating.
It's also fun to see people squirm a little bit.
- We said we were gonna do it and then we did it.
I'm very proud of us.
'cause it's really intimidating to paint with your blood.
- So Sarah thank you so much for coming and showing us
this day was amazing.
- It was really cool.
- Thanks so much for having me, I had a blast.
- So painting with our menstrual blood,
- Lady tested,
- [All] Lady, period.
(soft music)
(whooshes)
(squeaks)