This is a disgusting post: you have been warned.

Aiden lives with 2 other guys. I assume all of them are interested in discussing gender identity and sexual orientation issues, since their house has plenty of art pieces and popular culture icons raising up gender-related questions. At their house, there are lots of intriguing pictures, films, books, posters, etc. All of them are quite confrontational, but there was one in particular that would make me feel extremly uncomfortable: in the living room, there is a fan with the word "FOAM" written in red letters. Next to it, a dirty pad. I swear.  For months, litteraly, I ignored its presence. It would make me feel uncomfortable to the point where denial was the only choice. I would just not look at it, especially when Aiden was around. I´m not showing you the footage because I´ll use it in the film, but please trust me.
What is it about menstruation that makes us so uncomfortable? I´m a pretty liberal woman of the 21st century, and still. It has always been a tabu topic-- why? I think that, when things makes us unreasonably unfomfortable is exactly when we need to stop and force ourselves to examine what is going on, what makes us react that way. Tiding things up, let´s not forget that this was one of the reasons for me to make this video: I was a supporter of gay rights, but when it was about transgender people I would draw a line. Transvestites would make me unformfortable. It wasn´t rational, it just was. Heck, effeminate gay men would make me uncomfortable back then! So, while filming I explored what was really going on in my mind and that´s how this story helped me raise the bar for myself. Hopefully, it would do something similar for viewers, too.
So, keeping the spirit, what is the deal with menstruation? What worries me is that, as a woman, I feel like I should have a good reaction when confronted to art pieces questioning the taboos around menstruation. I feel like my bad reaction (not wanting to even look at it) probably comes from some sort of internalized misogyny. When I can´t look at that stupid pad at Aiden´s house, I feel like an anti-feminist woman of the 60s´. Or 40s´.
There is this video art piece done by a great Chilean architect/artist: Juan Downey. I can´t understand it, but at least I can look at it now. It is some progress. I need to figure this out...
The interesting detail is that, even though I wouldn´t look at the video and wouldn´t examine what does it make me feel and why, I "favorited" it and saved it in my YouTube account a while ago. Maybe I wasn´t in complete denial, but just needing some time.