“Blood is a really sacred essence.”
A woman smeared period blood on her face on Australian national television, horrifying other guests on the show with the bizarre stunt.
Yazmina Jade Adler is a 26-year-old self-proclaimed “blood witch.” She appeared on an episode of “Medicine or Myth,” aired this week, to talk about an unorthodox ritual she uses to relieve pain caused by menstrual cramps.
Adler smears period blood on her face, and she urges other women to do the same as a way for women to “connect” with their bodies.
During the program, Adler, who collects the period blood by using a menstrual cup, performed the ritual to the apparent dismay of “Medicine or Myth’s” hosts and guests.
“I would normally connect with the blood, and by doing that it instantly does something to me,” Adler said. “I use blood in a way to connect either through putting it on my hand or anointing it on my third eye.”
Adler explained that the practice has been extremely effective in healing her pain.
“Doing this, it has relieved me of discomfort,” she said. “I’ve painted my whole face before. Every time is different. I’ve been using this remedy now for about 10 months to a year and my cramping has gone.”
“I found is taking that time out, actually be with myself, and meditate, connect with my body, it’s like the pain has gone away,” Alder added, breaking down in tears as she proclaimed “I just want every woman to feel it.”
“I know what women go through I know that pain, that shame. I feel for the women who are struggling with this,” Adler continued.
Adler, who went viral last year after sharing her personal ritual on social media, blames men for the stigma surrounding menstruation.
“We have shamed ourselves as women for bleeding, men have placed this taboo on us for bleeding. It’s a time to reclaim our power through reclaiming that which comes naturally for us. It’s a blessing.,” she said in 2018.
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Adler said in a video shared to social media the same year that the practice of smearing period blood on her face is “really empowering.”
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Adler isn’t the first person to use period blood as an instrument of feminist expression. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles based sex-coach named Demetra Nyx gained notoriety by posting public pictures of herself smeared with her own menstrual blood on her face and body.
Nyx said she started posting the pictures as a way to break down period taboos and empower women. “If I take something many people find disgusting and I touch it and play with it and smear it all over my face, then maybe some little girl, somewhere, will see the blood between her legs and think, ‘Well if Demetra puts it on her face, maybe this isn’t that gross after all.’” Nyx wrote in an essay on Medium.
Nyx’s stunt highlights a growing movement to combat stigmas surrounding women’s menstrual cycles. In February, feminist director Rayka Zehtabchi openly talked about her period during a speech at the Academy Awards.