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The Museum of Menstruation
and Women's Health
Personal
Digest Leaflet
(Personal Products, 1966,
U.S.A.)
Below is a Personal
Digest leaflet from 1966,
published by Personal
Products, maker of Modess
menstrual pads.. The
sanitary belt and panty
industry in the United
States almost
disappeared in the early
1970s because of the
introduction of adhesive
menstrual
pads, which
stick to the crotch of
panties with an adhesive
strip. Millions
of women breathed a sigh
of relief. But Kotex
reintroduced a disposable
panty recently (1998), I'm
sure in response to a real
need. Menstruation can be
unexpected and messy. Men
are lucky in many ways.
Pads attached to belts twisted
easily (that's called
"roping") and moved
out of place. The
pads chaffed women's legs
and vulvas (see the Dickinson
Report from 1945).
Pads in that earlier era
were thick and long (up to
20", almost 51 cm). The
original Kotex pad (with
tabs for pinning onto a
belt or clothing) from
1921 was 22"
long (almost 56
cm.)!
Companies and catalogs
sold scores of kinds of
belts from at least the
last century to the present
day. The Sears,
Roebuck catalog even once
offered a fancy trousseau
sanitary
napkin belt, I
assume to be given to a
woman about to marry! Here
are some belts
the museum owns.
I
thank the former
Tambrands, maker of
Tampax tampons, for
the Personal Digest
leaflets!
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© 2008 Harry
Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
or distribute any of the work on
this Web site in any manner or
medium without written
permission of the author. Please
report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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