See other underpants - See belts that hold pads - See suspenders
that hold pads
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
See more Kotex items: First ad
(1921) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog)
- Lee Miller ads (first real person in amenstrual
hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here
to Kotex items) - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s,
booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing
disposal method - box
from about 1969 - "Are you in the know?"
ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) -
See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
 
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Open-crotch drawers (underpants) and menstruation
(late 19th century, U.S.A.)
Although women sometimes wore pants underneath their dresses for riding
or to keep warm, pants were a symbol of men's power, and women's underpants
as such apparently developed very slowly around 1800 in Europe among the
upper classes, partly for concealment of the genitals and legs (Germans
called them "Beinkleider," "leg clothes," as "Hose,"
the German word for pants, referred to men's clothing and was considered
indecent when applied to women.) For hundreds of years before this time
both men and women of all classes wore the shirt-like chemise,
day and night, as their only underclothing.
In the 19th century, cumbersome and sometimes
huge dresses and complex underclothing made it practical for women to wear
underpants with a permanent opening between the legs, so they wouldn't
have to reach under and pull them down when urinating or defecating. (This
raises the troubling question of how - or if - they cleaned themselves
afterward. Folks did not think bathing was healthy for a large part of that
century. I don't want to think about this, actually. That fortress-like
clothing could have served as an odor barrier. I'm sorry I brought this
up. But, if you're game, or perhaps gamey, check out the odor
page.)
Fewer and lighter clothes in the early 20th century made open crotches
unnecessary - now pulling underpants down was easy - and underpants could
then fulfill their concealment function by covering the genitals. But they
were still wide-leg and long (but see this exception
for menstruation) until the mid 1930s, when briefs
for women appeared in mass markets.
Ultimately underpants functioned to preserve modesty,
and in a century when people covered their chair and table legs because
of their suggestive nature, it's understandable how long the ones below
are. High-top shoes covered the lower leg, and drawers, with lace covering
the lower part - in case someone peeked - covered much of the rest, as you
see.
(This raises another question: did the can-can
dancers in late 19th century Paris expose their vulvas when kicking
their legs up, since open underpants were apparently the fashion? If so,
no wonder it was scandalous! And I thought it was just because they were
showing their undies.)
The museum has this pair, below, made of linen. I will later post a
photo of them.
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Rear view
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Front view
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How a woman could wear menstrual-pad
suspenders over her underclothing. (Here's
how she wore it under all her clothing.)
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Below, left: U.S. patent No. 169,
245, 1875, granted to Stephen Ellis.
The holders at the bottom attach to the pad or pad holder,
often a trough.
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The back strap has farther to go and is longer - it must
pass over, or between, the buttocks - as the vulva and vaginal entrance
are more toward the front of the body (see a drawing).
Later, by popular request (read part of the 1927 Gilbreth
report), commercial pads for belts often had tabs of unequal length because
of this (see a Modess).
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Open-crotch underpants, unbuttoned and opened wide, from
the rear.
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See other underpants - See belts that hold pads - See suspenders
that hold pads
Copyright 2001 Harry Finley
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