Girls to the Home Ec. classroom, boys to the gym

Who remembers that movie? You know, the Walt Disney one called "The Story of Menstruation"? It was just part of the prolonged siege that girls underwent (and I suppose still do) when they got within shouting distance of puberty. The besiegers were a powerful alliance of social interests whose one goal was to convince all girls that they needed to 1) be happy about becoming fertile; 2) express their happiness through a determined display of female-coded behavioral markers, usually expressed with words like "dainty," "fresh," "cheerful," "sweet," "pretty," "radiant," "delightful," and "gay," (that last one only up until 1960), and 3) buy the feminine hygiene products produced by whichever company was sponsoring the movie (Modess, Scott, or Kimberley-Clark).

After you watched the movie (in pained silence heightened by the constant threat of hysterical giggles), you usually got a pep talk from either the girls' gym teacher or a middle-aged saleslady. You also got a booklet. Remember the booklet?



Oh yeah. My friend Karen recently sent me four of these gems dating from 1946-1961. One of them seems to be the same one my older sister brought home in the 70s--at least, the cartoons inside are the same. It's the one on the right in the image, titled "Very Personally Yours."

Now undoubtedly these presentations and booklets were a big improvement on the prior method of informing girls about menstruation, which as far as I can tell consisted of not telling them anything about it. But they still leave much to be desired. I'll have more in the next few days.