DILANI BALA; INSTAGRAM/@RUPIKAUR_In 2015, Canadian writer
Rupi Kaur made international
headlines when she ’grammed
herself in bed with menstrual
blood on her pyjamas and
sheets as a way of demystifying
the taboos around periods.
The image was flagged as
inappropriate and removed
from the social media platform.
The ban revealed
Instagram’s double standards:
sexualised pictures of women
in their underwear are fine,
but not if that underwear has
period stains. When Kaur
called out the misogyny, she
was met with both support
and death threats.
The 24-year-old admits the
immediate fallout from the post
had her second-guessing herbold move. “When I first started
getting the negative feedback,
I thought ‘Oh no. I’ve made a
terrible mistake.’ There was a lot
of regret,” she says. “But it was
the positive feedback that kept
me rooted in my decision and
kept me fighting that fight.”
By standing her ground,
Kaur has amassed 1.4 million
followers to her Instagram
account where she shares short
poems and drawings that tackle
difficult themes like trauma,
abuse and healing.
The poet and illustrator’s
work translates to the printed
page too, with her anthology
Milk and Honey selling over
a million copies and sitting
on The New York Times Best
Sellers list for more than a year.It’s incredible to Kaur
that she’s reaching both the
18-year-old girl on Instagram
and a 50-year-old woman in
a bookstore. “We all go through
different issues, but they make
us feel similar. We all feel
sadness, loneliness and
happiness in the same way.
That’s why I think my words
ring true universally,” says Kaur.
While Instagram has
proven to be a powerful
platform for Kaur, she feels
mixed about being labelled
an #Instapoet. “It’s upsetting
when I’ve worked on my writing
for 10 years and I’m summed up
with [a hashtag]. Then again,
social media is something I’m
really grateful for. And I think
honest work defies labels.”Rupi Kaur took her poetry from Instagram
to The New York Times Best Sellers listNEW-GEN POETSBEAU TAPLIN
Insta followers:
476,000
Location: Australia
Words: “What a
privilege it was to
matter to you.”LANG LEAV
Insta followers: 366,000
Location: New Zealand
Words: “I don’t think you
need to be in love to
write. But you had
to have been once.”TYLER KNOTT
GREGSON
Insta followers: 325,000
Location: USA
Words: “Do we seek relief
or is it understanding?
Maybe love is both.”The rise of the INSTA POET
@PLAY