I don't get why she gave that poor guy her period blood. I'm guessing she was trying to embarrass him by rejecting him but was handing out period blood a common gesture of the time? Why have it in the movie ?
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i hope you choke on your bacardi & coke!
*Team Landa*
There's records of her doing that to one of her students who declare to have fallen in love with her.
It's awkward to us in our times, but in the context, I think it was great. We shouldn't be ashamed of our period's blood! And it's ridiculous to compare it with men's semen, our menstruation's blood it has nothing to do with arousal nor orgasm, and we can't help it when we are menstruating.
Please excuse my terrible redaction, english is not my native language.
It was a really melodramatic gesture that got a lot of attention, and especially gave a once-and-for-all answer to Orestes.
That said, what a weird thing to do. Showing him that she bleeds just means that she's a healthy woman of childbearing age, whose plumbing works perfectly. Menstruation is also linked to fertility.
On the other hand, that blood is also a waste product, so maybe that's some kind of insult. Better than a handkerchief full of the waste product from the other end.
Hello - ancient history student here!
The episode is based on a real account of Hypatia, found in a 10th century Byzantine text called the Suda. Ironically, this account is actually a Christian account, and is likely made up - it's an attempt to portray Hypatia as a pure, Christian virgin.
In the original text, the episode is supposed to be Hypatia saying 'women are not pure, we bleed - you are in love with something you think is beautiful, and this is the ugly truth'. It sounds a bit misogynistic to us, which is probably because the person who wrote the source was certainly a male and wanted to portray Hypatia as being incredibly chaste, almost to the point of self-loathing.
Modern interpretations of the episode take the view that Hypatia was saying 'you are in love with me only because I have a menstrual cycle and can reproduce; because I am a scientist, I am not going to do that - you may as well find someone else'. This is a slightly more palatable explanation, and if the event did happen (which I don't think it did) then this is the reason I like to believe.
I don't think it was a malicious act on her part anymore than his declaring his feelings in public were for her.
But what she was pointing out was that he loved her for her mind and how she inspired him. She was showing him that the mundane, physical everyday body and life would eventually ruin that for him.
I think it should be said that the very fact she kept speaking to him and cherished their friendship indicates that she had feelings for him as well. But her work was too important for her to give up. Marriage would mean she would eventually have to give up her research in science.
Interesting with all the different interpretations. I thought she was trying to confront him with reality. He had an idealised image of here, calling her a godess and such, if I remember correctly. She didn't want to be perceived that way, and the menstrual blood thing was meant to make him realise that she's a normal, imperfect human like everybody else.
shareShe uses it to indicate that Orestes' claim that she is harmony is false, also it indicates that she knows what is the position of women and her own and how she is unimpressed by it. The blood means she is made to procreate and she feels that is not her destiny.
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