Associate Editor, HuffPost Women

“I got my period in the store!”

“I got my period on the car seat!”
“My mom talked about my period in front of a cute guy!”

These headlines from Seventeen Magazine’s “Embarrassing Moments” feature reveal the humiliation many women grow up associating with menstruation. From a very young age we’re taught that our periods should be covered, hidden and cleaned up. Now, a new VICE photo series by photographer Emma Arvida Bystrom, “There Will Be Blood,” is challenging the taboo. (Click over to VICE to see the complete series.)

The series depicts women going about various everyday activities, like jogging, reading, texting and waiting for the bus. The photographs aren’t sexual, they’re nearly mundane … except that each woman is bleeding through her clothing — something that has probably happened to most women — some more than once. Although I’d like to say that I was indifferent to these photos or immediately appreciated (more…)