See Sears, Roebuck underpants from 1928. More underpants.
See how women wore a belt (and in a Swedish ad). See a modern belt for a washable pad and a page from the 1946-47 Sears catalog showing a great variety.
More ads for napkin belts: Sears, 1928 - another Hickory, 1920s - modern belts - modern washable - Modess, 1960s
Actual belts in the museum
DIRECTORY of all topics (See also the SEARCH ENGINE, bottom of page.)
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | 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.

Hickory menstrual pad belts (U.S.A., March 1925)

Women in America generally wore belts or special underpants to hold menstrual pads in place until about the early 1970s, when pads that adhered to the crotch of underpants appeared.

The ad shows the size of one of these belts, large, although small compared to corsets that women also could wear.

What an elegant ad! It elevates lowly menstruation - at least in most viewers' minds - by the woman's dressing area. The Japanese kimono (note the cranes in the enlargement, below the uppermost picture), open and showing the lady's chemise (this was the time before bras as we know them, with varying cup sizes), shows the influence of Japanese art, which really started to influence Western taste in the late 19th century (see the ricocheting European-Japanese influence in designs for Japanese belt packaging).

According to some of my secret sources, belts were a pain in the - - -, if you get what I mean. The pad sagged and twisted and got loose. It's nice to be a man (oh, no, the e-mail I will get for saying that!).

See Sears, Roebuck underpants from 1928. Hickory menstrual pad belts. More underpants.

 

Parts of the ad are enlarged, below. 

 

I'm always suspicious of women's "real" names in menstrual advertising - Mrs. Ruth Stone, above - because the general disrepute of the subject should force people behind pseudonyms.

 
She lowers her eyes modestly. Look at the open box on the table, which probably contained the belt; it looks as if it had been wrapped, just as menstrual products boxes often were (the children of druggists who visited the physical museum told me they helped their parents wrap in plain paper Kotex and Modess boxes). A doll stands at left; as a guy with no sisters and no wife, I can't interpret it. To me, it's part of the mystery of women's culture which led to the founding of this museum.

See Sears, Roebuck underpants from 1928. Hickory menstrual pad belts. More underpants.

© 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