The modern period
Subtitle: menstruation in twentieth-century America
By: Lara Freidenfelds.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9780801892455
Subjects: Menstruation -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Feminine hygiene products -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Menstrual Hygiene Products -- history -- United States; History, 20th Century -- United States; Menstrual Hygiene Products -- economics -- United States; Menstruation -- psychology -- United States; Social Class -- United States
Description: "The Modern Period examines how and why Americans adopted radically new methods of managing and thinking about menstruation during the twentieth century." "In the early twentieth century women typically used homemade cloth "diapers" to absorb menstrual blood, avoided chills during their periods to protect their health, and counted themselves lucky if they knew something about menstruation before menarche. New expectations at school, at play, and in the workplace, however, made these menstrual traditions problematic, and middle-class women quickly sought new information and products that would make their monthly periods less disruptive to everyday life." "Lara Freidenfelds traces this cultural shift, showing how Americans reframed their thinking about menstruation. She explains how women and men collaborated with sex educators, menstrual product manufacturers, advertisers, physical education teachers, and doctors to create a modem understanding of menstruation. Excerpts from seventy-five interviews - accounts by turns funny and moving - help readers to identify with the experiences of the ordinary people who engineered these changes."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Before modern menstrual management; title: The modern way to talk about menstruation : education, the scientific narrative, and public discussion; title: The modern way to behave while menstruating : changing health beliefs and practices; title: The modern way to manage menstruation : technology and bodily practices; title: Tampons : a case study in controversy.