Watch this eight-minute explanation of the history of period paraphernalia by Montreal video artist Arizona O'Neill. She created this project out of her frustration with current products on the market that are all pretty 'meh' in their own ways: the pad, the tampon, the menstrual cup. She explains, in the accompanying article on CBC News:
Our silence on the subject of staunching period blood goes a long way to explaining why each of the most commonly used products — the pad, the tampon and even the menstrual cup — is so poorly engineered.
She then deconstructs the failings of each current product:
Pads are bulky and uncomfortable. They chafe. In tight leggings, you worry a pad will be noticeable through the thin material.
My grandmother says the Kotex pads she wore were so thick, she could not even get into her pants with one on. I associate them with an older generation that wore a lot of skirts and dresses.
Tampons come in different sizes: light, regular, super, super plus and ultra. But sizing is far from a perfect science. It is difficult to predict your own flow. Sometimes they hurt. Sometimes they leak.
Then there are the horror stories: I know one woman who accidentally put in a tampon, forgetting she already had one in place. The first tampon stayed lodged inside her for two weeks before she had to be rushed to the doctor in severe pain.
She's not alone. It is easy to forget you have a tampon in, and leaving it in too long can lead to infection and, in rare cases, toxic shock syndrome.
Finally, there are menstrual cups, commonly known by the brand name DivaCup. They are not exactly user friendly. They are tricky to put in, as they need to slip directly over your cervix. An imperfect fit can cause leakage and a mess. They are also hard to take out without spilling blood.
In the video, she explores the taboos around menstrual products and then dives into their history. She explains that the Kotex brand of menstrual pads was created in 1921 as a way use the excess Cellucotton that had been manufactured by Kimberly Clarke as dressings for wounded soldiers in World War I. Tampax started creating commercial tampons in 1933, and menstrual cups began being manufactured in the 1930s. She then asks, "How is it, since people have been menstruating since the beginning of time, that this is the best the marketplace has to offer?"
She doesn't cover the recent trend of period panties, but perhaps they are a step in a better direction?
