Under wraps
Subtitle: a history of menstrual hygiene technology
By: Sharra Vostral.
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Lanham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 181
ISBN-13: 9780739113851
Subjects: Feminine hygiene products -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Women -- Health and hygiene -- Equipment and supplies -- United States; Menstrual Hygiene Products -- history -- United States; Menstruation -- United States; History, 19th Century -- United States; History, 20th Century -- United States; Menstrual Hygiene Products -- ethics -- United States; Social Perception -- United States; Women -- psychology -- United States
Description: "Menstruation provides one of the few shared bodily functions that most women will experience during their lifetimes. Yet these experiences are anything but common. In the United States, for the better part of the twentieth century, menstruation went hand-in-glove with menstrual hygiene. But how and why did this occur? This book looks at the social history of menstrual hygiene by examining it as a technology. In doing so, the technological lens provides a way to think about menstrual artifacts, how artifacts are used, and how women gained the knowledge and skills to use them. As technological users, women developed great savvy in manipulating belts, pins, and pads, and using tampons to effectively mask their entire menstrual period. This masking is a form of passing, though it is not often thought of in that way.

By using a technology of passing, a woman might pass temporarily as a non-bleeder, which could help her perform her work duties and not get fired, or maintain social engagements like swimming at a summer party and not be marked as having her period. How women use technologies of passing and the resulting politics of secrecy are a part of women's history that has remained under wraps."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Menstrual hygiene : a techno-social history; title: Technology and passing; title: Scientific menstruation and making menstruation political; title: "The Kotex age" : consumerism, technology, and menstruation; title: Menstruation in the workplace : private technologies and public policies; title: Virgin bodies, menstrual hygiene technologies, and sex education; title: Questioning menstrual technology : civil rights, design, and culture; title: Unveiling menstrual passing.