Post created by Lizeth
Introduction
Everyone's been there, you're sitting at your TV waiting for the commercials to pass to get back to your movie. Then the dreaded period product commercial comes on showing a mysterious blue liquid. You sit there thinking about the last time your blood was blue - which was never. Why is it that commercial directors think that it is best to use blue liquid in place of red natural blood? Whether male or female everyone will experience a period, or bleeding for that matter, and 100% of the time the blood is a shade of red.
Blue vs. Red
For centuries menstruation has been seen as taboo or unclean. These thoughts have been passed on to each coming generation that a natural experience is deemed as gross. Because of this when commercials began to come around for period products they decided to use blue liquid as opposed to red. Bustle states that all other colors have a correlation with a body fluid so they could not be used, but "By contrast, blue is uniquely clinical and evokes cleaning products, like bleach or dishwashing liquid, emphasizing a sense of 'cleanliness' and hygiene rather than one of dirtiness (or even natural-ness)"(Thorpe). Most companies wanted to correlate blood with being dirty, not because it was blood itself but because it was period blood, thus making it dirty. Which technically speaking "menstrual blood and tissue are entirely sterile, until it comes out of the body" (Thorpe). These statements have caused a lot of hate towards women and many insecurities have formed because of it.
Conclusion
Although blood and menstruation are completely natural and happen to about half of the population, it is being deemed as something gross that needs to be covered up with different colors to not offend anyone. This coverup can lead to many insecurities in young women and can be harmful to their mental well being. We need to as a society be better and educate ourselves and others about the truth that is menstruation. We need to help our young generations grow into the best person they can be, and we can't do that if we tell them that what is happening to them is disgusting and unnatural. The good thing is that this movement has sparked change in some companies that are now slowly beginning to add red liquid into their commercials. I hope that one day we are able to live in a place where everyday natural occurrences are not seen as taboo and we can grow as a society to move past our ignorance and pettiness.
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