Red titled works will be at Boston show

What does it mean to have “blood on one’s hands?” Generally, the idiom is used to implicate or accuse a person of being either personally or tangentially responsible for the death or injury of another. This comes from the obvious fact that often when someone is killed, in close contact, personally, their blood can end up on their assailant’s hands in one way or another.

And yet, all around the world, far more women will invariably have blood on their hands, than those whose hands are bloodied by aggression  Each time a woman changes a pad, tampon, she may get blood on her hands, and certainly if she is changing a sponge or cup or applicator-less tampon, and when washing reusable pads, sponges, cups, and undergarments.

In this way, “having blood on one’s hands” is a perfectly normal experience for the majority of women.

However, our language reflects our great fear of blood. The way we speak about blood and use blood-related imagery is most often in terms of violence, death, and disgust. How could this not have a negative influence on those for whom being bloody, and coming into close contact with this blood, is a fact of life?

I am a woman. I experience a menstrual cycle. I bleed. To occasionally have blood on my hands is a fact of life which I do not begrudge. To accept this, and appreciate my cycle as a whole, my bleeding especially, is to accept and appreciate myself. Bloody and messy and human and all.

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