Period Sex

With the project, I want to normalise periods, sex during periods and the fact that not all people who menstruate are cis women. I want to also contribute to the conversation of ownership of one’s sexual pleasure. Even though healthcare professionals guarantee that period sex is safe, having sex during periods is still taboo. Period sex divides people; some do not have sexual desires during their periods, and some notice heightened arousal. People who do not menstruate also have different opinions of period sex; some are entirely okay with it, some view it as ”extra lube”, some see it as dirty, and some associate the blood with violence. For some, it can be a kink. Period sex has health benefits such as dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins that are released during orgasms, which kill the pain that can help with menstrual cramps, bloating and a person’s general mood. Still, when period sex is talked about, it’s usually addressed through the views of sex with other people rather than the notions of masturbation.

My work contributes to the discourse of diversifying and making the dialogue of menstruation more inclusive. There are essential sentiments for using periods to embrace the shared experience of womanhood globally. Still, this dialogue is also very harmful as it is a binary and insular notion of menstruation. It not only excludes a large part of womxn from the experience of womxnhood but also disregards trans, nonbinary, intersex and men who menstruate. Much menstrual art surrounds itself within these insular notions of womanhood. To make my work more relatable to a larger audience, I decided against using couples having sex to discuss period sex and instead explore it by masturbation by using sex toys that are made by companies that consciously cater to not only cisgendered customers but also nonbinary and trans customers. The sex toys showcased in my work are vibrators that are nonpenetrative and ambiguous looking, making it so that the viewer may not immediately recognise them as sex toys, forcing the observer to stop and inspect the work closely.


- Published in Rare Media in 2019