A resource of possible use and interest: the Museum of Menstruation.

[full_metal_ox]

(Crossposted to vaginapaginaThe Museum of Menstruation--a grand rambling cross-referential time suck covering cultural, historical, medical, and commercial aspects of the topic, and aspiring to be the Junior Woodchucks' Guide on the subject--is a monument to the geekish obsessive special interest of one Harry Findlay: Read more... )

Comments

[nathskywalker]

Rhat‘s so cool. Thank you for sharing

[germankitty]

Oh hell, I remember those belts ... a total nuisance to wear, and never held the pad in place properly, either. (And yeah, your assumption is right, I'm past menopause. Yippieh!)

Instead of the belts we also had special underwear -- waist-high knickers made of a kinda quilted synthetic fabric (imagine wearing that on a hot summer day!) that simply had rubber bands sewn onto the back and front of the gusset to thread the pad's edges through. No, it didn't really work, either. Not even when they had sticky backs.

Fun times. Not.

[mab_browne]

Belts to hold sanitary pads (and if you remember those, you've almost certainly outlived your menstrual worries)

I wish, but this is a wonderfully interesting set of links. Thanks.

[full_metal_ox]

I'm American, so my experience base is biased accordingly. I got one in 1972 as part of a fluffy pink Developmental Milestone kit, with pads, pamphlets, and discreet wallets; a friend whose menarche was seven years later had never heard of the things. Have sanitary belts been longer-lived in the New Zealand market?

(Trying to phrase it so as to circumvent questions that are none of my expletive deleted business.)

[mab_browne]

LOL, no worries. I was first menstruating in 1978 - and I would have used belts and the old tabbed pads for at least a couple of years. I suspect that NZ was a little behind the times and also my mother was an older mother who may have preferred the old timey ways. But it was a fresh new belt. I don't know if she bought it for me or if it had been in storage against the day that her little girl became a woman, etc etc.

I bought the old tabbed style pads for a first aid box in the late eighties, (Modess brand for any interested historians) so there must have been some belt and pad holdout market even though I wasn't part of it. (First Aid courses still advise you to consider sanitary pads for emergency bleeding use that isn't menstruation related.)

I honestly can't remember when I started using the big thick adhesive bricks that were available - late high school I presume. Certainly by late teens when I would have been able to buy my own supplies.

[full_metal_ox]

(First Aid courses still advise you to consider sanitary pads for emergency bleeding use that isn't menstruation related.)

Unsurprising, given that modern sanitary pads originated among Army nurses who snagged bandaging materials for menstrual hygiene.

(This brings to mind a cringeworthy moment in Jupiter Rising, when Jupiter uses a maxi-pad to staunch Caine's bleeding wound--and damned if she doesn't go and apply the sticky side! Without denying the Wachowskis' womanhood, I do wish they'd consulted someone with personal experience in the matter--did Mila Kunis not try to correct them?)

[madbadandplaid]

Just a note of appreciation for both the resource you've passed on and your musical cue.

[full_metal_ox]

It's my honor and pleasure to be of service.

(I was amused to discover that

(A) "Blood on the Saddle" was an actual (at least Hollywood) cowboy ballad, and

(B) Tex Ritter's classic rendition was as hilariously awful as the Disneyworld version.)

(ETA: ...for the excellent reason that Country Bear Jamboree in fact used Ritter's version!)