See how women wore a belt with a pad - Swedish ad showing pad with belt - belts sold in the U.S.A. in 1928 - Washable pad with belt - belt packaging, probably from before 1930
See packages of many belts.
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links: homepage | 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.

Formont menstrual napkin belt and "protector," U.S.A., 1951
The package

This menstrual belt and pad holder - "protector" - occupies one link in the long chain of devices to hold pads in place, all of which promise to be - finally! - the perfect solution. A better solution was the tampon or maybe the menstrual cup, both available since the 1930s, and to a lesser extent the pad that adhered to the crotch of panties, which appeared about 20 years after this belt. Or the menstrual suppression pill; but that probably has its own problems at least for some women.

The word "dainty," so common on packaging and instructions for menstrual products, appears more than once in the text, below. Just try being dainty when you have a soggy pad shifting between your legs. How did the lady - in white, no less - play tennis in the drawing below? Badly?

In discussing the features the text, below, suggests dividing the pad in half. Manipulating the pad was common, at least in the 1920s (and apparently later), according to Dr. Lillian Gilbreth in her 1927 report to Johnson & Johnson.

See a German belt with washable pads from about a decade before.
Harry Finley created the images.

 

The package measures 4" x 6.25" (10 x 15.6 cm).
Left: Enlargement of a sticker on the front (above).
Right: Enlargement of the drawings running down the side of the back. Let's see how many of these things are gone: close dancing (almost), the typewriter (my buddy Larry must use the last one - actually around 10), nurses' caps (a shame!), and those white tennis shorts (they're at least rare). I couldn't imagine playing tennis with the Formont.
Below: the back of the cellophane-enclosed package with a tag reading 3 98, likely $3.98, which seems very expensive. But this is silk and looks well made (see the belt and hold-, er, protector).
 

 

The price tag covers up the date, above.
Below: Enlargement of the text on the back of the package, actually a cardboard insert under the cellophane.

 

 

 

NEXT: the belt
 
See how women wore a belt with a pad - Swedish ad showing pad with belt -
belts sold in the U.S.A. in 1928 - Washable pad with belt - See the roughly contemporary Cashay and
Dale tampons, and very early Tampax and fax.

Copyright 2006 Harry Finley