Topic: Menstruation

Vice loves the chance to provoke people (occasionally with memorable results) but this time we’re 1) kind of impressed by how far they’ve gone and 2) kind of shocked no one’s done it before*. In “There Will Be Blood,” we have what looks like a typical Vice shoot–a mix of new and vintage fashions, unconventional models, unglamorous locations–and period stains. Yes, the subjects appear to be menstruating.

The editorial was shot by a woman named Emma Arvida Bystrom who–based on a rough Google translation of her blogspot–seems very interested in the representation of women in media, especially beauty ideals (and, it would seem, subverting them). On the one hand, the images show nothing more than biological function and are only shocking because we never see things like this. On the other, some just seem like gory sensationalism. More »