To Combat Stigmas Surrounding The Female Body, She Decided To Do Something Rather Unusual

Quite the militant action! Demetra Nyx, a California-based sex coach, has posted several photos on her Instagram account in order to remove the taboos and stigmas surrounding women’s periods and deconstruct the idea that the menstrual period is dirty. This American has published a series of pictures on which she has her face covered with blood. The aim of her message? To prove that periods are ‘beautiful and powerful.’

The 26-year-old American also posted a picture with a clear message: the word ‘shameless’ written in blood on her thigh.

Triggering awareness

Telling her story to The Sun, Demetra explained that she had her first period at the age of 12 and was initially ashamed and disgusted. Later, she had an IUD inserted, which made her menstruation excessively painful and so she had the contraceptive removed after one year. That's when she decided to reconnect with herself and changed her opinion of her periods.

Forgetting about her initial shame and disgust, she began to express herself freely on the subject, especially on social media. And she began to regularly post photos of her face covered in blood: "I'll do this every month until people are no longer shocked, I'll do it until little girls learn that this natural function of their bodies isn’t disgusting or dirty. I’ll do it until women stop believing that they can’t have sex during their periods because it's disgusting," she explained in a comment on one of her photos.

Raising questions

"If I'm doing something so shocking and disgusting, maybe somebody somewhere will say, ‘well, if she can do that, maybe I don’t have to hate my period after all. Maybe my body is not so disgusting after all,’" she explains, speaking with hope.

For now, her approach is far from having unanimous agreement, and some of the comments remain very negative. But she has the merit of wanting to change things and her photos allow questions to be raised on a subject that is still very taboo.