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Under Wraps
A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology
Authors:
Publisher:
2008
Summary
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 lens of technology provides a way to think about menstrual artifacts, how the 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.
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Bibliographic data
Edition
1/2008
Copyright Year
2008
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-1385-1
ISBN-Online
978-1-4616-3462-1
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
181
Product Type
Monograph
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
1 Menstrual Hygiene: A Techno-Social History No access Pages 1 - 8
2 Technology and Passing No access Pages 9 - 20
3 Scientific Menstruation and Making Menstruation Political No access Pages 21 - 58
4 "The Kotex Age": Consumerism, Technology, and Menstruation No access Pages 59 - 88
5 Private Technologies and Public Policies No access Pages 89 - 114
6 Virgin Bodies, Menstrual Hygiene Technologies, and Sex Education No access Pages 115 - 140
7 Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and Technological Options No access Pages 141 - 168
8 Unveiling Menstrual Passing No access Pages 169 - 174
