Artist Promotes Feminism with Messages on Menstrual Pads

A young woman from Karlsruhe, Germany is writing feminist messages on menstrual pads and displaying them in public places around her hometown to fight sexism, and she wants you to know about it. Period.

The “artist,” named Elonë, found inspiration for her project through a tweet last year, which read: “imagine if men were as disgusted with rape as they are with periods.”

Since that time, Elonë has taken to the streets of Karlsruhe to post the pads with phrases such as, “My name is not baby.”

While she says her new campaign is designed to put social issues into perspective, she insists it’s also meant to humanize the female body by reminding people that it’s not just an object with which to be sexualized.

She also reportedly hopes to challenge a negative stigma surrounding the female menstrual cycle, as she believes many people are taught to be embarrassed of or ashamed by it.

“Feminism is equality, not men hate,” she stated on her Tumblr in response to backlash she received. “I did this to provoke. I did this to get people to think.”