The history
of underwear sheds light on what women used for
menstruation.
What women used in earlier times:
See nineteenth-century Norwegian washable
pads and an Italian washable "rag"
from before 1900 - German patterns for washable
pads, about 1900 - Japanese patterns for washable
pads (early 20th century) - Contemporary washable
pads - Women sometimes wore washable pads with a sanitary
apron - Egyptian hieroglyphics telling of
tampon use - The first commercial tampons,
(U.S.A., 1930s) - Menstrual cups (1930s) - Special
underpants
 
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"When they menstruated, they left a trail
of blood behind them."
What did European and American women use for menstruation in the 19th century
and before? (With an addition about Muslim law.)
Many people ask me what women did in earlier times
about menstruation. It's usually impossible
to say for sure for most cultures, although
women have used tampons, pads ("rags"
and commercial ones), sponges, grass and other absorbent materials probably
for thousands of years.
In European cultures, the history of women, especially their everyday
affairs, is inadequate; men ruled the roost and women were "good"
for a limited number of things, few worth recording - at least, so thought
the men.
Dr. Monica Green, of the Duke University history department, warned
me of this lack of information right before I opened the actual museum,
in 1994. I had written her after seeing her quoted in a New York Times article
about ancient contraception.
But read why I have concluded,
in May 2001, that most European and American women probably used nothing
at all, bleeding into their clothing.
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Sabine Hering and Gudrun Maierhof, in Die unpäßliche
Frau ("The Indisposed Woman,"
Pfaffenweiler, Germany, 1991), write that German women almost never used
commercial menstrual pads in the late 19th century [see a German
disposable from that time]. They write,
"Most women seemed to have made their own pads or, like rural women, wore neither pads nor underpants. When they menstruated,
they left a trail of blood behind them." [My translation
of "Die meisten Frauen scheinen sich mit selbstgenähten Stofftüchern
beholfen zu haben oder wie die Frauen auf dem Lande gänzlich auf Einlagen
oder Unterhosen verzichtet zu haben. Menstruierten sie, so zogen sie eine
Blutspur hinter sich her." The authors don't say what their sources
were.] [See German patterns for homemade menstrual
gear from this time.]
Read also more evidence for bleeding into clothes from another German
source here.
I lived in Germany for 13 years and know that in the recent past Germans
worried less about body odor than Americans did, who seem to object to any
odor at all (I'm an American). And I think that a hundred and more years
ago body odor was much more apparent. I suspect that
the smell of menstrual blood was much more common and, I suspect, the sight
of it, too (read more about menstrual odor).
Telling the story of women who fought as soldiers in the American Civil
War, the authors of "They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the
American Civil War" (DeAnne Blanton and Lauren Cook Burgess;
Louisiana State University Press, 2002) remark that most of these
women were from working class backgrounds and couldn't write, thus not leaving
written records, which would be the case with menstruation if our German
sources are correct - not that literate women would eagerly record theirs.
I wonder how this "open" menstruation influenced the behavior
of men? It seems likely that women had to conceal both blood and odor before
they were able to extensively participate in male business society. The
relationship between men, women, menstruation and women's health is unendingly
complex - and interesting.
Extrapolating, my guess is that in "European"
America and Europe a certain - large? - percentage of women in the 19th
century and before (and into the 20th century) bled into their clothing,
especially those from the rural and lower classes, and American women migrating
westward, "pioneers." (See a more detailed
discussion, with pictures, of why I believe this is so.) After all,
America and Europe were mostly rural, and the standards of living were low.
American slaves might have also bled into their clothing. And there apparently
are societies today, in India, for example, where
women do not try to absorb their bleeding with anything special, or hide
the process. But these are just my guesses. [See some 19th-century Norwegian knitted pads and Italian
washable pads, probably from the 19th century.]
By the way, Megan Hicks, Curator of Health and Medicine at the Powerhouse
Museum, Australia's largest, wrote me that cloth menstrual
rags from a 19th-century women's prison are on display at that prison.
It could be that rags were used to maintain hygiene in this enclosed environment,
something perhaps less necessary if the women were free. It seems likely
that Australian customs for women of European origin were similar to the
European ones of the time, just as in America.
Keep in mind that prior to the 20th century, European
and American women menstruated infrequently compared with today.
They
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- started menstruating later, frequently
in the mid to late teens, and stopped earlier, if they lived long enough
to experience menopause, thus creating a shorter time for menstruation
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- married earlier, legitimizing the production of children, which
reduced menstruation
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- had more children, and used less contraception, stopping
menstruation for long periods
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- breast fed their children longer (and more often), which usually
stopped menstruation
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- were more likely to be under- and malnourished or sick, or any combination
thereof, which can stop menstruation
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- died earlier - stopping it dead
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(Read many of these same points, made by Prof. Patricia
Sulak, M.D., at Texas A&M University.)
These points apply to millions of women today.
It's possible that women attained adulthood and gave birth to children,
but never menstruated.
People could, and often did, interpret menstruation as something bad - a sign of infertility, for example, and meaning
the woman was not doing her "job."
Reinforcing this was the fact that the appearance of non-menstrual blood
indicated something amiss; why should menstrual blood be any different?
This might partly account for the many beliefs about the evil
effects of menstruating women: they weren't doing their job as women.
And the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, of Hippocratic oath fame,
may have started the practice of bleeding sick people after observing women
recovering from bloating and aches and pains after starting their periods!
Muslim law
An e-mailer wrote the museum in November 2000, which I should add to
this discussion:
As with so many cultures, there are rules and etiquettes surrounding
menstruation in various Muslim cultures. Religiously, there are certain
rites that women are required to suspend (including a type of formal prayer
known as salat, and also sexual intercourse) during the time that they
are menstruating, which they resume after fully immersing and washing themselves
in water (known as ghusl) once the bleeding has stopped. At the time of
the Prophet Muhammad, the women in the Muslim community used to approach
the wives of the Prophet, asking them to inspect their cotton wads they
used as pads, to check whether or not they had 'finished' their periods.
(Emission of non-menstrual blood and other bodily fluids do not require
suspension of religious rites, but do require a minor ablution to be performed
beforehand).
The Prophet himself was asked about what method a (particular) woman
should use to stem the flow of severe menstrual blood. He advised her that
she should use cotton or a cloth. Although another report indicates that
for one wife of the Prophet who had extra bleeding (non-menstrual blood)
to place a tray underneath to catch any blood while she prayed.
Another hadith (tradition) reports that: "The woman who has a
prolonged flow of blood should wash herself every day when her menstrual
period is over and take a woolen cloth greased with fat or oil (to tie
over the private parts)." (Sahih Bukhari 1:0302).
In September, 2006, a retired American teacher wrote about her family
and NOT bleeding into clothing and other matters, such as no-belt
pads without underpants, recipes for poisoning instead of divorce, and interesting
birth-control methods in the previous two centuries:
I have been reading the Web site [scroll to the top of this page] and
I find it highly doubtful that women just bled into their clothing, I'm
sure they were more creative than that, but I can only tell you about my
family. My mother (born 1913) never wore underwear and used the diapers
she had used on me. (I was born in 1954.) Just folded it and tucked between
her legs. I never remember it falling out from under her skirt either.
When changing one she would dampen the one she was wearing, wipe well with
it and put it in the lidded enamel pail of cold water, and tuck a clean
one between her legs. We were very poor, living in a one room house in
the South with an outdoor toilet and pump in the yard and no privacy. I
went to live with an aunt at age 8 but have clear memories of my mother
and it was just matter of fact, no shame. I received the usual sex ed at
school that included a film about menstruation and the matching "Very Personally Yours" booklet that went with
it in the sixth grade and was given the sanitary belt
by Modess, the pink package that you have on the Web site where you
are not sure of the date. I received that package in 1964 so that helps
to narrow the date.
I was visiting my grandmother in the summer as I often did, when I started
my period one night. I began menstruation at age 14 as had my grandmother,
and am still menstruating at age 53; my grandmother's didn't cease until
age 56. She was born in 1884, died 1973 and we were very close. I went
to her because I didn't know what to use and had only folded some toilet
paper between my legs. The stores were closed. Grandmother said, don't
worry, I'll make you a travel napkin. She went to the kitchen got the cheesecloth
(she used it on cheese, straining fruit for jelly, wrapping fruit cake,
keeping flies off food, etc.) then went and got some cotton batting that
she used in making quilts, and went to the treadle singer sewing machine
she used her whole life, cut a length of cheesecloth folded into thirds
(single layer on top next to skin, two overlapped layers underneath the
batting) around four layers of the batting, (flat cotton layers for quilts)
sewed both ends near the batting, and when finished it was almost identical
to the commercial Kotex that I was used to, and she whipped up a second
one with three layers of batting so I would have one to change into in
the morning when we would go to the store to buy some. So with two safety
pins, which you pinned to the elastic of your underwear, and threaded the
napkin ends through like on the belts,(you did not pin the napkins), I
was all set. I asked why she called it a travel napkin, and she said that
when she was young she wore cloth at home but when you traveled, you made
these up so you could throw them away. She told me her sister used to make
little drawstring bags of cheesecloth and stuff with cotton, leaving the
string and used like a tampon, but you could open the bag and change the
cotton. (Great Aunt Amanda was a midwife, traveling on horseback.) She
had tried it, but it leaked for her so she would have to wear a napkin
(and she had always called it napkin) anyway so she didn't like them. She
said when she was working at the sheriff's office, 1904, she would wear
both in order to get through the day, but usually would just wad some extra
cotton between her and the pad and change those extra wads. Since she lived
in Arkansas, near the cotton fields, it was a cheap alternative for her
to make for her daughters even in the Depression. She still had the carding
tool she used to remove cotton seeds herself. I asked what her mother had
used in Indiana; she said her mother, born 1848 in Kentucky (on a tobacco
plantation), used sheepskins cut into
the size of the napkin body (without the tails). She would rub tallow into
the skin to resist moisture and wear the fur side next to her body to absorb
the blood. She soaked them in cold water just like cloth, and then would
boil them to clean them just as my grandmother and mother had the cloth
ones. She said her mother never wore underwear either
and at home just tucked the sheepskin between her legs, but hers did fall
out from under her skirt once in a while, and she often was reaching under
her skirt to adjust it. We decided it was because she was so thin versus
my mother whose fat thighs kept hers in place. (I have no trouble walking
around with one stuck between mine either.) When she went out somewhere
she would put a leather belt under her clothing, take a strip of cheesecloth
(obviously cheap and always around like cotton batting) and loop it over
the belt and between her legs to hold the sheepskin in place. My grandmother
also had used that method at times. Her mother believed the sheepskins
were healthier and better because she didn't bleed through the way you
would cotton because of tallow on the back and they didn't chafe her. She
wanted her girls to use them but neither grandmother nor aunt Amanda liked
them because grandmother insisted they smelled and that even washing them
the same way as the cloth they held the odor. According to her, she felt
the cotton was better. So, I can only tell you back to 1848 and assume
my great grandmother had learned from her mother but
I realize I am lucky to know that much since the other people in my family
did treat the subject like it was a dirty secret.
She also told me her cousins in Indiana used travel napkins when they
came to visit on the train from the farm in Indiana but they
gathered a fluffy material from a weed in the fall of the year (I can't
remember the name of the weed) that grew in fields to use to stuff the
cheesecloth with, she had tried it too but it didn't absorb as well according
to her. So, women a hundred years ago had a homemade disposable
before a commercial one was ever made both as a napkin and a tampon, 150
years ago a sheepskin method was being used that was probably learned from
a mother and I find it hard to believe that women ever deliberately just
bled into their valuable, scarce clothing when it is so easy to wad at
least a rag between your legs.
Now, a word about birth control.
My grandmother believed that a woman who had too
many children was "too lazy to get out of bed" and clean up,
and said so often and with disdain. She used quilting
squares of cotton, rubbed lard into the cloth (about four inches
square) and used it like a diaphragm during her fertile period (she kept
track of that too) and would get up and clean afterward. She said when
Coca Cola was available it was easier to use,
you just shook up the bottle and inserted it to douche and the six ounce
size was perfect. She had four children which is how many she said she
wanted but got pregnant once years later but miscarried. Aunt Amanda (the
midwife) and Aunt Edith only wanted one child each and that is all they
had but grandmother said they had a couple of miscarriages. I am now suspicious
of the miscarriages but didn't know enough at the time to ask the right
questions as I am sure she would have told me. She had learned to use greased
fabric squares from her mother.
One last thing: my great grandmother had divorced
in Indiana and at that time it was such a disgrace that they moved to Arkansas.
Her oldest daughter later divorced too. My grandmother,
in defense of her mother and sister, said, well at least they didn't poison
them, which lead to an interesting discussion of poison; according to my
grandmother, women preferred over divorce. She said the most common
was castor oil beans cooked in the same pot with brown beans and also oleander
and mandrake root. My grandmother knew a lot about herbs from her mother
and taught me a lot (we used to make shampoo from soapwort, and it was
the best to whiten old linen; I wonder if
textile museums know that?) and this had been passed down in the family
along with the knowledge of poisons. So, you were looking for a new topic,
it would be interesting how many women have heard about this.
I remember years ago about a woman writing in her diary about the Civil
War and including the fact she had poisoned someone. It may have been more
common when women had no rights to property. I haven't known anyone
who admitted to using it but I have known other woman who had heard about
the recipes.
My grandmother had lived in interesting times, she loved yellow roses
because they were the symbol for a woman's right to vote, and she was widowed,
working and raising four children on her own before getting that right.
She told me about the broadcast of [Orson Welles'] "War of the Worlds"
and thinking it was true at first. She told me about going from horses
to cars, electricity, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and was thrilled to live
long enough to see a man on the moon. I wish everyone had a grandmother
like mine.
© 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
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