confronting him with the realities of her body
February 28, 2019 9:31 AM   Subscribe

We've talked about early modern menstruation tech previously, but what did Classical women use? Some people say Roman women would make tampons out of cotton and bits of sticks, but that's not true; they actually probably used cloth pads, which the mathematician Hypatia once famously threw at an unwelcome suitor. There's even some evidence that these cloths might have been held in place via leather briefs.
posted by sciatrix (13 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hypatia of Alexandra was alrady one of my favorite figures from antiquity. I desperately want to believe that she threw a used pad at an obnoxious dudebro type.

And yes, given the difficulty in getting things sterile and safe, any sort of pre-modern tampon equivilent seems like an invitation to toxic shock syndrome. In one of the books I read on Japanese history there was a brief mention that women back in early Japan may have used tampons made of natural sea sponges, but again that just seems difficult to manage safely in a pre-modern environment where even just boiling water was expensive.

Also, on the topic of underwear, for a while there was speculation that people in medieval Europe just didn't wear any because none was ever mentioned in surviving documents and no one had found any in archaeological sites. IIRC in the excellent show Connections the idea of linen underwear being invented coincidentally with the rise of the paper industry was brought up. Apparently it was total hogwash and back in 2012 they found some examples of late medieval underwear in forgotten room in a castle in Austria. Including actual bras with cups, though no underwire.
posted by sotonohito at 10:02 AM on February 28, 2019 [17 favorites]


There's a really good conversation with much thoughtful discourse to be had here that I'm quite interested in, but because I'm nothing but a little hedonist at heart all I can think about is that throwing my menstruation setup at a shitty dudebro who obviously and intentionally wasn't listening to me is a life goal I didn't know I had until this moment. It's just so perfect.
posted by barchan at 10:25 AM on February 28, 2019 [18 favorites]


I thought we were waiting for MenstrualMarch?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:51 AM on February 28, 2019 [8 favorites]


Sometimes these things come a little earlier than you were expecting. Not everyone has a perfect cycle.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:01 AM on February 28, 2019 [56 favorites]


Hypatia of Alexandra was alrady one of my favorite figures from antiquity. I desperately want to believe that she threw a used pad at an obnoxious dudebro type.

What gets me is the squeamish eighteenth century dudes who were like "she's too perfect for that! I should translate that as her throwing a used hankie at those men to stop then treating her as the pinnacle of feminine perfection and therefore inhuman! That's so much better!"

They should have taught us about this in women in STEM history! she is so much cooler now and I thought she was pretty amazing already why would you keep this from us
posted by sciatrix at 11:09 AM on February 28, 2019 [12 favorites]


I had a girlfriend once who knew I didn't like bloody pads, so of course once a month would come a time where she found it super hilarious to chase me around with one. I should just be glad she never thought to actually chuck it at me, just a little chasing because it's funny to see an adult freak out over something silly.

I have a question about cultures with underwear-less babies, where do they piss and shit? Just wherever they happen to be, so sometimes you get an armcrook filled with shit or find a soggy spot on the floor?!
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:47 AM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I have a question about cultures with underwear-less babies, where do they piss and shit?

These cultures usually practice some form of elimination communication, where the mother - based on knowing how long after feeding the baby usually eliminates and learning the physical cues that the baby needs to go - takes the baby to a convenient spot and/or holds them over their arm to go.
posted by northernish at 12:04 PM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]


I have a question about cultures with underwear-less babies, where do they piss and shit? Just wherever they happen to be, so sometimes you get an armcrook filled with shit or find a soggy spot on the floor?!

There is a sweet documentary called Babies which is almost dialogue-free. One of the titular babies is in rural Namibia, and she poops when she poops. Her mother cleans up with a soft corncob.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:14 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


If you took Latin in grade school, chances are someone shouted “Semper ubi sub ubi!” at one point. This nonsense Latin phrase translates into English as “always where under where,” so schoolkids for decades have found it endlessly amusing.

Damn, I must have been away when that happened.

I do, however, remember the teacher assigning us some homework, to write in Latin a piece entitled "Romantic Interlude".

Mine involved an Oedipal BSDM orgy involving Caecilius, Metella, Quintus and even Cerberus, so I guess it was bestial as well.

True to form, Quintus bibit.

The teacher remarked that my story was "a little racy".

In hindsight, it all seems just a bit creepy and pervy.

Wait. It was definitely 110% creepy and pervy, and I don't mean my weird schoolboy misunderstandings of what adults get up to in the dark.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:15 PM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]


If your floors are dirt or wood, and your kids play outside most of the time, diaperless kids make more sense. At some point they learn enough to toddle off to the bushes or a use a chamber pot or what have you.

Considering the number of women in human history who have had to deal with this issue, I assume the solutions were ingenious and varied, if not often recorded. Leather briefs, sure. Early tampons; well, women did use internal "pessaries" as birth control (not too effectively) and possibly some of them tried using the same principle for menses, but yes, infection or at least discomfort might have made that a problem. I imagine any number of pads, garments, and so on got used by women.

Of course, if your diet is scanty and you are pregnant frequently, you don't menstruate as many times as you might otherwise.
posted by emjaybee at 12:46 PM on February 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


Of course, if your diet is scanty and you are pregnant frequently, you don't menstruate as many times as you might otherwise.

Lactation also supresses menstruation for a lot of women. If you're extended feeding, which frankly is deeply sensible in pre modern times, you may not menstruate more than a few times in your life.
posted by Jilder at 3:29 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


I’m sorry but the word subligaculum is hilarious. Under-butt-tie!!
posted by bq at 8:28 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I’ve lost count the number of times since November 2016 I’ve thought about menstruation sit-ins. I remain confused why they’re not a thing, though I’m sure ADAPT or some other group has paved the way and I just can’t Google it easily. But the mental image of groups of women pissed off and quietly, vengefully bleeding onto their elected representatives’ upholstered office furniture just feels so fucking right some days.
posted by deludingmyself at 9:43 PM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]


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