See more underpants on this site.
See ads for menarche-education booklets:
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(Kotex, 1933), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey),
Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and
German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1970s)
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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Monatshöschen (Sanitary panties, underpants with holders for a
menstrual pad, early 1990s, Germany)
European cultures, such as Germany and America, seem to have sold tight-fitting
underpants (apparently a recent reinvention)
to hold a menstrual pad in place for much of the 20th century. The Sears,
Roebuck catalog sold one as early as 1922 for
night wear (and see many from the 1946-47 catalog,
together with pad belts). But so have the Japanese.
Self-adhesive pads chased most of them out
of the market in the early 1970s. See a similar American
brief from 1972.
By the way, Monatshöschen means something like monthly
underpants, meaning, of course, not that they
are worn for a month, but that they are used for that monthly business,
menstruation. The German Hose means pants. Adding the diminutive -chen (as
in Mädchen, the base word being Mädel, girl) makes them little
pants.
See more underpants on this site.
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Below: I bought the plastic package in
a Drogerie (roughly an American drugstore without the selling of prescription
drugs; that part is an Apotheka in Germany) in Heidelberg in the early 1990s.
Slip means underpants, either for men or women,
but Monatshöschen right below the word specifies it for women. Comfort is a borrowing from English. Translation
below the picture.
The dark background outside the pink is an artifact of the scanning and
should be white to gray.
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My translation, at left, top to bottom:
This sanitary panty offers:
perfect security, 100 percent protection of the clothing with a flexible
special layer [in the crotch], form retention and close fitting, good for
the skin, can be boiled, and can be washed in any washing machine. Ideal
also for tampon wearers, athletes, as well as for using panty pads.
The underpants with the soft protection layer covered with fabric.
Center:
Size 36-38 [German size, of course]
Comfort sanitary underpants
100 percent cotton
Right:
This has proved itself millions of times for 25 years
For security and comfort of women, also in the critical days [critical days is a common way of saying menstruation
in German commerce and has a two-edged feel to it, Germans also using critical
in a negative way as English speakers do]
[the price sticker] 6.99 German Marks, [Drogerie] Müller
Picture below: The other side of the package.
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© 2007 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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