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Paper short abstract

This paper examines menstrual taboo in Mumbai. Applying methods gathered from visual anthropology, it shows how images negotiate stigma and moral polarization, moving beyond regimes of invisibility and creating an ambivalent space of knowledge production.

Paper long abstract

In the Indian context, where visual culture plays a crucial role (Pinney, 2004), menstruation remains largely hidden within a regime of invisibility, dictated by cultural norms of purity and pollution. As Camilla Mørk Røstvik (2024) highlights, while visual representations of menstruation have increased since the 1970s, they often generate a dichotomy of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" signs, reinforcing the deep-seated taboo that shapes how menstruation is seen.

With a focus on Mumbai, this paper explores how artists, activists, and filmmakers are disrupting – or, in some cases, unintentionally reinforcing – the invisibility and stigma around menstruation. Drawing on fieldwork involving artworks, films, found visual materials (Pauwels, 2011), and participatory research workshops using drawing as a research method, I address the challenges visual anthropologists encounter when engaging with stigmatized subjects. I reflect on moments in which visual interventions, rather than challenging the taboos, have amplified menstrual stigma, revealing the ethical and methodological tensions faced by visual anthropologists when engaging with polarized moral frameworks.

In this context, images become powerful but unstable media through which artists, activists, and participants negotiate the boundaries of menstrual visibility and stigma. By moving beyond enforced invisibility, images open a contested space where polarized notions of purity and pollution are challenged and sometimes reconfigured. In this sense, polarization emerges not only as a constraint but also as a site for dialogue and situated knowledge production.