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E-book
Author Freidenfelds, Lara, 1972-

Title The modern period : menstruation in twentieth-century America / Lara Freidenfelds
Published Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009

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Description 1 online resource (242 pages) : illustrations
Contents Before "modern" menstrual management : keeping secrets, wearing diapers, avoiding chills -- The modern way to talk about menstruation : education, the scientific narrative, and public discussion -- The modern way to behave while menstruating : changing health beliefs and practices -- The modern way to manage menstruation : technology and bodily practices -- Tampons : a case study in controversy
Summary "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."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-235) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Menstruation -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Menstrual products -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Menstruation -- History -- 20th century
Menstrual Hygiene Products -- history
History, 20th Century
Menstrual Hygiene Products -- economics
Menstruation -- psychology
Social Class
MEDICAL -- Reproductive Medicine & Technology.
Feminine hygiene products
Menstruation
SUBJECT United States https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D014481
Subject United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780801898297
0801898293