See how women wore a belt (and in a Swedish ad) - many actual 20th-century belts - a modern belt for a washable pad and a page from the 1946-47 Sears catalog showing a great variety - ad for Hickory belts, 1920s? - Modess belts in Personal Digest (1966) - drawing for a proposed German belt and pad, 1894 What did American and European women use in the past for menstruation? See a prototype of the first Kotex ad. See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal method - box from about 1969 - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page Ads for the Kotex stick tampon (U.S.A., 1970s) - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s. Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess) CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could? Some MUM site links: homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? | Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación. Early Japanese ads for menstrual napkin belts, part 2 (part 1, 3) In 1998 a Japanese college student, Tomoko Maeno, kindly sent a copy of her study of the history of Japanese menstrual products to this museum. Below and on the following pages I reproduce several ads for menstrual hygiene and sanitary napkin belts from the early 20th century from her thesis. These sanitary napkin belts replaced a homemade product called the pony, which bore a remblance to the cloth band that collected dropping feces from horses. Read the general discussion. next page first page   Ms. Maeno dated this 1921, but gave no publication source in the English language.    Again, Ms. Maeno gave no date or source publication, but it's probably early 20th century.  The lady below appears in a racier version at the bottom of the page, like the paintings The Maja Clothed and The Maja Nude, by Spanish master Goya. Whoa! Is she smiling in the lower picture? No date or publication for either ad, but it looks like early 20th century. No American menstrual ad would show a woman actually wearing a sanitary napkin belt - and this one's bare breasted! - but Scandinavia is different. But so is Japan, which until its Christian conquerors puritanized things in 1945 and the following years - at least a bit - had a healthy appreciation for sex unencumbered by Western prejudice.   next page first page © 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org