Woman blasts Instagram after her period photo is deleted

Lifestyle

Mar 27, 2015

Instagram are well-known for deleting images of breastfeeding from their site – and now it looks like they have some issues with menstruation too.

A Canadian-based spoken word poet named Rupi Kaur has blasted Instagram after they deleted a photo she shared recently.

Rupi’s photo featured herself, fully clothes but with an apparent ‘leak’ – something many of us will be all too familiar with during our time of the month.

thank you @instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. you deleted a photo of a woman who is fully covered and menstruating stating that it goes against community guidelines when your guidelines outline that it is nothing but acceptable. the girl is fully clothed. the photo is mine. it is not attacking a certain group. nor is it spam. and because it does not break those guidelines i will repost it again. i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak. when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified. pornified. and treated less than human. thank you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ this image is a part of my photoseries project for my visual rhetoric course. you can view the full series at rupikaur.com ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ i bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. my womb is home to the divine. a source of life for our species. whether i choose to create or not. but very few times it is seen that way. in older civilizations this blood was considered holy. in some it still is. but a majority of people. societies. and communities shun this natural process. some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. the sexualization of women. the violence and degradation of women than this. they cannot be bothered to express their disgust about all that. but will be angered and bothered by this. we menstruate and they see it as dirty. attention seeking. sick. a burden. as if this process is less natural than breathing. as if it is not a bridge between this universe and the last. as if this process is not love. labour. life. selfless and strikingly beautiful.

A photo posted by Rupi Kaur (@rupikaur_) on Mar 24, 2015 at 9:02pm PDT

The photo is part of a series Rupi is creating at the moment.

However, when the photo was taken down, citing a violation of ‘community guidelines’ – Rupi was enraged.

Re-uploading the photo to the social media site, Rupi wrote: “I will not apologise for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak … Their patriarchy is leaking. Their misogyny is showing. We won’t be censored.”

Help keep @instagram safe from periods ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ Their patriarchy is leaking. Their misogyny is showing. We won't be censored. ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ you can view the full photo set Instagram finds abusive and unsafe at rupikaur.com

A photo posted by Rupi Kaur (@rupikaur_) on Mar 25, 2015 at 5:50am PDT