Munroe Bergdorf And Grace Victory Are Fighting Period Stigma By Sharing Controversial Photo

Periods happen to, like, at least half of the population. They have since the dawn of man, er, woman.

So why do so many of us still act like it's some major taboo subject that has to be kept a secret?

In an effort to normalize periods and continuing to fight period poverty, YouTuber and founder of the HealGrowGlow movement, Londoner Grace Victory posted a picture along with a caption asking to open a discussion on the topic of the reality of periods.

It's not all horseback riding and playing tennis like in the commercials.

Here is her original Instagram post.

Here is her full caption:

"for the redness turns to shame and the inner peace blends to hate and the sweetness of chocolate to cure the pain does nothing - Grace Victory"

"(Thank you for all the love on my previous post with Always to fight period poverty. You guys came through and I'm thankful) 😘"

"Lets normalise bleeding. How does this image make you feel?"

While the post did garner some traction and attention, it also did something else interesting.

It lost Grace over a thousand followers in a single day. 

Outlets started interviewing her to see how she felt about the incident, and with each interview, Grace took the opportunity to re-post the images associated that so offended followers to begin with.

Clearly she felt the importance of the message—real periods are messy—far outweighed any loss in her own popularity.

While all of this was going on, it caught the attention of trans woman, model, and activist Munroe Bergdorf.

Munroe shared the image with her own take on why this was an issue and why it should never have been.

Here is her full caption:

"As a trans woman, I have to deal with a plethera of societal bullshit that a cisgender woman will never have to deal with. But at the same time, cisgender women have a plethera of stuff that I don't have to contend with. One of those things is menstration and the stigma that comes with it."

"Whilst trans women do experience the hormonal highs and lows that come with a period. We do not experience physically bleeding. It is SO crazy to me that in this day and age there is STILL such shame and secrecy attached to a human period. A completely normal and beautiful bodily cycle that without, human life would cease to exist."

"If anything, periods should be celebrated, not looked down upon like it's a surprising oddity. Let's also not forget that periods aren't exclusive to women, that some trans men and non binary peeps also experience them. Also, some cis women may not experience periods for a number or reasons and then they have the stigma of infertility to contend with."

"Standing in solidarity with @gracefvictory, if she is going lose followers that are so sheltered they can't appreciate the beauty in a life giving menstural cycle. Then so am I! Brava sis 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽"

Twitter is absolutely here for this movement.

So how does the image make you feel? Are you here for normalizing periods?

Or are you with the over 1,000 people who think the reality of menstruation needs to remain hidden from the world?

H/T: Teen Vogue, Twitter, Instagram