See how a woman wore
a belt in a Dutch ad. See a classy 1920s ad for a belt
and the first ad (1891) MUM has for a belt.
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 - modern
belts - modern washable
- Modess, 1960s
Actual belts in the museum
And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special
for you! - the American fax tampon,
from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
See a Modess True or
False? ad in The American Girl magazine,
January 1947, and actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter"
booklet ad (1955) - Modess
. . . . because ads (many dates).
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Ads for belts to hold menstrual
pads, U.S.A., 1949, 1955
Women wore commercial belts at least
from the latter part of the nineteenth
century (the earliest ad the museum
has is an American one dated 1891).
Because self-adhesive pads became
available only in the early 1970s, if
women used pads, they had to wear
belts, suspenders,
"sanitary
panties,"
(underpants with hooks or tabs or
something else to hold the pad in
place) - or invent some way of getting
the pad to stay in place.
Companies sold probably hundreds of
varieties of belts in the past hundred
years, but the
industry almost disappeared in the
early 1970s with the advent of pads
with adhesive (Stayfree and New Freedom).
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Below:
March, 1949, Good Housekeeping
magazine. "Sanitary" - wink, wink,
nudge, nudge - is sufficient to
identify it with menstruation. Look at
the safety pins, which held the pad to
the belt, and which tampon ads and
boxes endlessly
trumpeted as obsolete.
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Below:
August, 1949, Good Housekeeping
magazine. "'Off' days" is a new
addition to Words
and
expressions
about
menstruation. "On' is more common
as part of an expression - on that
page, anyway.
See a booklet
for girls by Beltx.
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Below:
21 February 1955, Life magazine.
"Those days" and "sanitary belt" are
the menstrual hints as well as "all
through the month." The garter part of
course held up stockings (men wore
garters too but not with a menstrual
belt). $2.50 seems like a lot to pay.
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Many actual belts - Menstrual pad suspenders! 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.
Menstrual panties.
© 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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