When was the last time you watched a film full of blood? Last week? Perhaps it was Gladiator II, with its decapitated arms, pins in ears, and bitten monkeys. Maybe Deadpool & Wolverine, with blood splatters in every scene. Or my action favourite film of the year, Monkey Man, where we see Dev Patel sexily drenched in the stuff after massacring his enemies. In most blockbusters, and certainly any modern action film, it is more common to see blood than not. But when was the last time you saw period blood on screen? Have you ever?

For me, the last time was during Nightbitch. Adapted from Rachel Yoder’s book and starring Amy Adams, the film follows ‘Mother’ (Adams) as she descends into madness while on maternity leave, ultimately transforming into a dog. In one scene, we watch as Mother takes a shower on her period, and we see realistic period blood. She feels herself ‘come on’ and looks down to see blood trickling down her leg, pooling on the shower floor, clots and all. It was so realistic that I emailed the press team to ask if it was, actually, real (it was not).

We so rarely get to see menstruation on screen, and when we do, it has often been in the horror space. There was Carrie in 1976, famously the first film to depict menstrual blood onscreen and still the example that springs to mind for most. In 2019’s Midsommar, many of the rituals in the film are centred around menstruation, while in 2022’s The Northman, a woman deters a would-be rapist by smearing menstrual blood on his face.

A non-horror example is Saltburn. It was the zeitgeist film of 2023, and audiences were either disgusted or delighted when Oliver (Barry Keoghan) went down on Venetia (Alison Oliver) while she was menstruating. Period sex is taboo, but the reaction to this scene showed just how ingrained that is. Speaking on the scene, director Emerald Fennell said: “Menstrual blood still is something that people are squeamish about, but I think actually, it’s an incredibly effective sex scene because he’s worshipping her body and everything that her body produces, and that’s not something that anyone has ever done for her before.” The same scene happened in the 2023 film Fair Play, which gained attention for being equally daring.

Even when the blood is shown within the context of menstruation products, there are some who are outraged. In 2023, an advert for period pants brand Wuka – which showed blood and clots in a shower, a woman wearing a sanitary pad in her underwear, and a used tampon being thrown into a bin – received over 300 ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) complaints. So, even a brand whose products are for periods cannot show real menstruation onscreen without receiving backlash. No, it must be an inoffensive blue liquid, as if we are smurfs.

The stigma around menstruation and its representation on screen highlights entrenched societal discomfort with the human body, especially its natural processes. Psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber suggests that outrage over period blood in media is rooted in deep cultural biases. “We glorify violence and wounds in our stories, but something as natural and life-giving as menstruation is still wrapped in shame. Putting it out there isn’t just visibility – it’s defiance,” she tells Dazed. This sense of shame, Fox Weber explains, has been cultivated across time and cultures, where periods have often been labelled as “dirty” or “impure”. These labels have fostered a sense of secrecy and disgust, creating an enduring stigma around menstruation.

Abby Rawlinson, a British integrative therapist, notes that the visceral reactions many people have to period blood are tied to “deeply ingrained societal taboos and cultural narratives.” She explains, “Periods have long been shrouded in secrecy and shame, portrayed as something to hide or sanitise rather than a natural, biological process.” These taboos, Rawlinson says, generate subconscious associations of uncleanliness, which shape people’s perceptions even today.

Media representations play a pivotal role in reinforcing these biases. “When something is rarely depicted, it can feel startling or even unsettling when it finally appears on screen,” Rawlinson observes. Period blood, unlike other bodily fluids commonly shown in media, disrupts a longstanding cultural silence. Its visibility forces audiences to confront biases they may not even realise they hold, she argues, not because it’s inherently repulsive but because of how it challenges these ingrained narratives.

For Fox Weber, breaking this silence is critical. “Menstrual shame thrives on silence and stigma,” she says. “By talking openly and challenging taboos, we can shift the narrative and reclaim periods as a normal, empowering experience. Let’s stop hiding and start celebrating.” 

Rowlinson agrees, adding that “Seeing period blood on screen is important because it can challenge the shame and stigma that many have internalised over their lives and can provide a sense of relief and solidarity. Representation can be a powerful tool in normalising menstruation, showing it as a natural and everyday part of life rather than something to be hidden.”

We live in a patriarchal society that benefits from oppressing women and other marginalised genders, and part of that oppression is via a lack of care, representation, and medical support for people who menstruate. It might not seem like a ‘big deal,’ especially given the extremities of misogyny prevailing in society today, but these smaller acts of gendered bias all feed into a wider culture of misogynistic oppression and socialisation. Seeing realistic period blood portrayed in Nightbitch stopped me in my tracks and made me feel emotional. It should be normalised, but, while we are making slow progress, we are still miles away from that being a reality. Directors, please show more period blood on screen.