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Gabby Edlin

Periods, in all their bloody glory


By Flo Kosky


I decided to start working on In Conversation With A Goddess after a discussion I had with some other female filmmakers about how femininity is represented on screen and the cutesy, kitsch aesthetic that often comes alongside it.


This is a trend I wanted to challenge, as I think when artists attempt to deal with topics of an intimate nature, particularly ones relating to the female body, such as periods, there is a tendency to pander to an audience who is expecting less brutally reality and more childlike version of womanhood.



This is not to say I don’t own my share pink notebooks covered in cute drawings of boobs or slogan t-shirts about feminism or have glittery stickers depicting vibrators all over my laptop. Yes, these are wonderful to normalise the female body and it is amazing to find these expressive and empowering. But I do think by exclusively representing femininity and the female body this way in female-led pop culture we run the risk of undercutting our strength and infantilising ourselves.


To try find a new perspective on how to celebrate ourselves and our bodies, I decided to look back to ancient cultures, to a time where human being’s impulses and daily lives were personified by deities as wild as nature. I repeatedly came across Goddesses, from all different facets of the ancient world, that were patrons of fertility, but also of sex and death, destruction and creation.


This really struck a chord with me as it is so far from how we talk about femininity today and I was fascinated by these strong, powerful representations of women that could inspire both awe and fear in their followers. So I wanted to create a meeting point, between the ancient and the new and allow that to play out, to let a girl of my generation be affected and moved by a different perspective. I know it’s a film that some people will find difficult and maybe unpalatable but hopefully they will see through that initial response to the power of it - just like we should with periods!


I also wanted to say a big thank you to Bloody Good Period for sharing my work and my thoughts and I am in awe of the wonderful work they do. Let’s end period poverty.

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