See a Dutch Stayfree ad from 1973.
See the American New Freedom pads. List of menstrual belts, underpants & panties on this Web site.
See a prototype of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal method - box from about 1969 - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
Ads for the Kotex stick tampon (U.S.A., 1970s) - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
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.

Stayfree menstrual panty pad ad, the Netherlands, 1972, in Eva magazine

In the early 1970s the American Stayfree and New Freedom pads introduced the modern era in sanitary napkins. They no longer required a belt or complicated underpants (or suspenders!!) to hold a pad in place but used a sticky strip to fix it to the crotch of panties.

This European ad for Stayfree contrasts the old belt, which zillions of women hated, with the new sticky panty pad - in this case, a small pad for light days, which the ad emphasizes along with the sticky strip. Look how less bulky the new pad is, at right, compared to the old one. Women had always complained about how big traditional pads were, as here in the influential Gilbreth report to Johnson & Johnson (1927).

People would have never seen a woman wear a sanitary napkin belt in an ad in America - perish the thought! - but they would have in Europe as we see here (also here in a Swedish ad for panty pads and here in another Dutch Stayfree panty pad ad). In the past American ads and catalogs offered belts by themselves, not worn.

Look at the flowers, which manufacturers often associate with menstruation, almost as if they want to cover up an imaginary smell. "Flowers" is an old term used for menses but probably stems from the French, meaning flow. (See more words and phrases for menstruation.)

See a Dutch Stayfree panty pad ad from 1973.

A Dutchman kindly sent this scan.

See a Dutch Stayfree ad from 1973. List of menstrual belts, underpants & panties on this Web site.

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