Here's a quick translation for what the artist writes about this on her blog (http://menstruationskateboards.com/):

"The topic of my final project at university was founding a ficticious skateboard lable for girls. It has always seemed inappropriate to me that skateboard lables universally count on a discriminatory design for their female customers. To hell with pink, butterflies or floral patterns. Girls who actually like this girly shit don't skate, they ride horses and read "Wendy"*. "Menstruation Skateboards" is a confident, feminist, polarising Corporate Identity Project based on a market niche and it is anything but nice. January 2007"

(*Note: I don't know if "Wendy" is internationally known. It's a series of books for girls about a nice girl who rides horses. It's about as bad as you'd think.)

Let me know if you'd like anything else :)

I am SO disappointed that these are not real skateboards.

Also, in a great illustration of associations/expectations: when I first saw the images without reading anything, I thought that they were going to be dramatic PSAs about abuse or self-harm...not about being tough!

There is one problem with re-framing menstruation as a source of pride for women. What happens to women who, for various medical reasons, do not menstruate?

reminds me of that scene in Whip It when the girls are comparing bruises - oh, that's not a bruise, *this* is a bruise! It's refreshing to see women portrayed as tough & athletic (and injuries are definitely part of that) instead of just as violence victims.

Now that I know the context of the first three ads, I really like them.. they kind of remind me of the scenes in Fight Club where guys are showing up to work all bruised and there's that nod/wink type camraderie.

I can imagine going out for a night on the town and having all these bruises and scrapes and people going 'Oh my! what have you been up to' and just kind of smiling knowingly..

So what she's conceding by invoking a hypothetical is that men, in fact, have no parallel to a woman's menstruation (at least not one that is viewed in the ridiculous way that she presents the possibility of male menstruation) and that no actual double standard exists. We're moving from extant perceived double standards to imaginary ones. Thanks ladies, but I save my outrage for real issues and my guilty verdicts for real crimes.

I think the images are pretty effective with the exception of the first three. I'm kind of surprised that no one's mentioned how closely they resemble the current fashion fetish for injured/stressed/dead-looking models---the poses, the clothes, the vacant expressions. The women in the next few ads are confidently staring down the camera, which I think works a lot better for the message.

It isn't that the women in the first three are too "girly" to be skaters, it's that the images are too similar to high-fashion shoots and reference a culture that glorifies victim imagery.

I love the Gloria Steinem essay and refer to it constantly in my teaching. In fact, it was the inspiration for an essay in Mamapalooza Magazine in 2009 called "If Men Could Lactate" (what WOULD happen if men could breastfeed?): http://content.yudu.com/Library/A17o0i/Mamapalooza2009Magaz/resources/3.htm

What disturbs me about these ads is what several commenters have noted - these look like anti-domestic violence ads and it makes me very uncomfortable to have violence against women used in commercial ways. See this disturbing "colors of domestic violence" Benneton campaign to see what I mean: http://www.10ad.org/colors-of-domestic-violence-from-benetton/

Sayantani DasGupta
www.sayantanidasgupta.com
http://storiesaregoodmedicine.blogspot.com/

well, in the ad campaign there ARE models and they are SUPPOSED to be modeling fashion, and I find 4 of the 6 of them are giving very strong messages with their body language and expressions, far from looking dead or vacant, they are looking quite intensely right into the camera...no shame, no fear...no victim. Look at the first model...NOTHING about that image says 'victim'

What the hell? dudes menstruate all the time. way to erase them all in one fell swoop. I guess that was more the subject of the quoted article, but come on, really?? it didn't occur to anybody?

I love the slogan "SUCK MY GRIP". I want it on a t-shirt. I'll even learn to skateboard.

I wonder why there is a shame surrounding the business of menstruation, and I wonder why many guys have strange reactions to it- the first two guys I got involved with practically refused to acknowledge it, as if it disturbed them (!), and the only guy who seems just fine with it and will even keep track is also the one who doesn't have any prejudices against body hair on women or anything (he's the keeper).

I really love this article: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/body/i_being_born_woman_and_suppressed
But I find it so sad that it needed to be written in the first place.

I would totally take up skateboarding if I could get that board that says FatherFucker on it. Solely because I think it's a reference to Peaches, and I'm a little obsessed with her.

lisa,
you were asking for information about the artist & the exhibition: menstruation skateboards is the diploma thesis of käthe ivansich, 2007.
the exhibition took place until 08/29 in vienna, so you're a bit late to the party. ;-)
anyhow, you can get some english information here: http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/21337

@Captain Pasty: well, just do it yourself, it's not that hard. the typeface is helvetica in bold, the logo consists of a few pixels, google 'custom skateboards', done.
i don't think that this might get you into trouble, as long as you recreate it by yourself and make one only for yourself. :-)

cheers,
jitpleecheep

It's interesting, because when I first looked at the ads (Some girls bleed more than once a month) I thought they were an awareness raising campaign for domestic abuse. It wasn't until I saw the menstruation skateboard logo that it reframed it for me.

I'm curious if anyone else noticed that they could be read that way. I find it interesting that I saw it that way, not sure if it is because I have a sensitivity to that set of issues, or if it had something to do with the way that the women were photographed. When I look at the pictures again, they look "tough" but not necessarily self-satisfied. There is still that vacant, empty look that most models have learned to develop. Which doesn't strike me as empowering. So perhaps thats why I first read it the way I did.

Growing up I felt embarrassed by my period, but the older I get the more empowering I find it. I used to hate hearing “don’t trust anything that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die.” As I’ve matured, I think about that quote and think “why? Scared?” It actually makes me feel like I have a superpower :)

I also thought it was an add for domestic abuse awareness. I wonder if I'm missing the point of the photos. Is it supposed to be a pro-fighting (Fight Club-like) stance in which menstruation is viewed as being as "cool/tough" as fighting? I always find it disturbing when beat-up women are portrayed as being sexy. Not because it's un-feminine to fight, but because of the connotations for domestic violence.

I frankly don't understand the first 3 images "some girls bleed more than once a month." Those images are very... confused/confusing. The slogan is great, but:
1) as noted, their injuries don't really look like skating injuries (the #1 skate-related injury is road rash— not black eyes and isolated inch-long lacerations);
2) why are the models wearing party clothes (and not skatewear)?
3) why are the models at what seems to be a club (and not the skate spot)?
4) why do the models look so... lank?

All of it leads quite reasonably to the conclusion that this is some kind of domestic violence PSA. It's strange to me that the message would be so unclear. Especially since it's so obvious how to make it clear: if the models (preferably actual skate girls) were actively skating/biffing/bleeding, the tagline would instantly make sense. But like this, those images fail. Big time. They very nearly undermine the artist's entire point— they reference waaay too many already-in-use negative visual messages.

Sigh. It's a damn shame, because I SERIOUSLY LOVE the "Never bring your boyfriend to the skate spot" tee shirt. THAT one nails it— oh, she has a boyfriend. And she's not afraid to bleed; in fact, she likes it. But dudes? Just aren't 'core enough for the spot. ("They're always nattering on about their silly boy shit *rolls eyes* while we're trying to do serious business and get our x-treme on.")

Sure, it's het-centric. But at least it flips some of the script, in a way you cannot misunderstand.

For all I know, its probably my mom's gruesome explanation and habits + the thought of it as the curse upon eve, as to the environment of my upbringing. I'd say that's what the religious males believe, enough to treat women as the unclean image of mankind. Letting em believe its right to treat women as they like, and for women to subject to their treatment. Tis a painful laugh. Time to wake up and reveal that we have the gift of life, literally. Without women and their cycles, generations of men would never exist. I hope to stand firm against sexists who take advantage of this senseless belief. This revelation feels like freedom. Tis only now that Im able to come out of my awkward shell, it may still take some time for the rest to catch on.

Erm...I have to call out the elephant in the room and point out that the "Menstruation Skateboards" gallery looks as if it's glamorizing domestic violence against women. When I saw those photos, "reclaiming menstruation" wasn't the first thing I thought of. So contrary to the artist's intention of empowering women, I think they are doing the opposite.

Dear all,
I only found this article a moment ago by coincidence. As this is my diploma thesis I felt the need to answer a few of the raised questions below. Above all, thank you for the discourse as it can be considered one major goal of my work. I designed it to be provocative on purpose to make people think hard and argue even harder in favour or against my proposal. This project was designed to be a Corporate Identity project for a fictional feminist skateboard label. I used to skate myself and was always pissed about the fact that girls either had to rely on skate gear solely designed for boys or were ridiculed by t-shirt designs with butterflies on it or else. Don't get me wrong - I ain't got a thing against butterflies, I'm just allergic to clichés and stereotypes especially when they try to tell me how I should be or be perceived.
However, the first three images were designed to be double page ads in lifestyle magazines which actually also explains, why I chose to use skinny models in partyclothes that really don't look like women you would imagine to skate in their leisure time. I wanted the ad to look like stereotypical high end fashion photography in order to evoke a momentum in perception when the reader realises that the image is not a fashion shoot. That's when she/he sees the wounds - and, in connection with the slogan - gets the actual meaning. That is not my invention but rather one powerful strategy how advertisement works. Regarding the make-up I have to say that it had to be bold and disturbing in order to make the perceptive breach work. It has been almost ten years and I would probably stage things a little different now, but I claim that the original idea is still valid and working. Regarding the comment that the images evoke male violence I must say that the exact same question was posed to me at the original presentation by a (male) Swiss guest professor during my presentation. I will answer just as I did then: You should question your own stance if male violence is the first thing you associate with girls bearing visible wounds. At least you should question a society, where this is the most reasonable first association. Then again, my work has served its purpose.
And finally, yes, the "fatherfucker" deck was a Peaches reference :)
If there are still urgent questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you very much for the time and virtual space, I feel quite content right now, as many people seem to have thought about my piece and this makes me really happy.

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