Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumFOR LADIES ONLY: Who Remembers "Very Personally Yours" and the 1946 Video from Disney?
#!http://www.themarysue.com/disney-menstruation-animation/
1946 WALT DISNEY MENSTRUATION ANIMATION TELLS US WERE OK JUST THE WAY WE ARE
No, this video from 1946 isnt perfect as far as feminism goes but I have to say, Im surprised to find it so not 1946? Though I guess Im even more surprised Walt Disney Productions made a video about our periods at all.
The animated film is about ten minutes long and was sponsored by Kotex. As you may have guessed, it was shown in American schools. (Presumably only to girls because boys are not supposed to know periods even exist.) That being said, its quite the film.
According to Wikipedia, Gynecologist Mason Hohn was hired as a consultant to ensure that the film was scientifically accurate. Hohn was hired to increase the likelihood that school doctors and nurses would allow the film to be shown. Hohns involvement led to a stronger emphasis on biology than other marketing by ICCC [International Cello-Cotton Company]. The Story of Menstruation increased its reputation when it received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
Along with the video, students were given a booklet titled Very Personally Yours filled with tips for what to do that time of the month but also discouraged the use of tampons, and as youll see when you watch, gave very specific hygiene advice. They also gloss over the whole blood thing and dont ever mention sex (though I could say its implied in the dance portion). However, it includes an important message for young girls having your period doesnt make you weird. Not to mention some very positive things are said about body image and it might have been the first film to use the word vagina.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)But I was only 7 years old at the time this film was released. I saw a different film when I was in the 7th grade.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)We did actually get some enlightened films shown to us in that era, including one in high school in the fifties about having babies. It showed a live birth and more or less what a woman goes through during pregnancy and child birth. It wasn't trying to scare us either but just explain our biology. I don't know if they showed it to the boys cause I went to an all girls' high school.
We also got the usual other misleading films like reefer madness and the duck and cover in case of a nuclear bomb attack ones. It was a mixed bag.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)I saw it in elementary school 1969 or 1970. But what the school did then was have the showing after hours, and the mothers would take their daughters to see it. I remember asking my mom where the Kotex goes. LOL! As a tomboy, I dreaded this. I still remember the first time March 15th 1974 and it ended in March of 2010. 36 long years, and to the day.
classof56
(5,376 posts)For girls only, of course. Given the dearth of knowledge about the female body evidenced by men lately, might have been good if they'd attended the presentations as well. I know a film was shown, but not sure if this was it. It was in my junior high in the early fifties, conducted by the school nurse, probably. I was about 13 the first time I saw the film and got the VPY pamphlet. This is interesting info about the film. The narrator sure sounds familiar, probably an actress, but her name's not mentioned.
Anyway, as I'm now long past menopause, this does take me back. Thanks for posting and for the memories! Oh, I might mention the time in my teens that I told a woman in our church I showered during my periods and she was quite shocked--told me I was going to have awful problems during menopause because of that. Happy to report she was wrong!
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)Can't speak for everybody, but on that day, they showed us a flick on how to avoid committing fouls on the football field.
femrap
(13,418 posts)in our 9th grade Health Class instead of the one where a woman was giving birth. The camera showed nothing but her vulva. The baby's head started to appear and then a man's hand covered in a latex glove came into view holding a pair of weird looking scissors. At that point he cut the women from orifice to orifice, at which point my head hit the desk.
It was bad enough learning about periods at The Girl Scouts. My mother had to go with me, but she refused to tell me why. I was absolutely floored. I had no clue.
I don't think I can even watch Disney's version. Walt must have had very little to do with the film. He was a sadist and always got rid of the mothers or the mothers were evil in his movies. Bambi, Dumbo, Cinderella....I hated them all. Oh, I forgot the live action, Old Yeller. Finally, I got old enough that I refused to go to his movies.
No tampons, so you'd keep your hymen.
No, not watching. I think I'll go lie down or maybe
Freddie
(9,232 posts)5th grade. They herded all the 5th grade girls to the auditorium for the annual "talk" with the school nurse. Also around the same time my Mom gave me an "intro box" of Kotex products and I think the booklet was called "Very Personally Yours" as well. Remember those horrible belt contraptions or special panties with tabs before they invented the self-stick kind? And no one ever told us about the cramps and headaches.
Mom told me that Grandma never said one word to her about this stuff and she thought she was bleeding to death. So at least our generation was forewarned.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I remember some kind of basic sessions for girls in 8th grade health class, but don't recall this film at all. It's quite well done and I really like the emphasis on the naturalness and normalcy of bodily cycles, and the importance of overall good health habits.
What it leaves out is any mention of sex, including emotional/behavioral changes and "urges" in teens. Maybe they had another film for that later on, but it, too, is one I never saw in school. Where I came from, we were left completely in the dark on that subject -- except for a general prohibition, of course.
littlemissmartypants
(22,418 posts)in the third grade the girls and boys taken to different locations in the school at Roosevelt Roads. I can remember it like yesterday. I felt so important and grown up.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)which was circa 1964, I think. I would have been better prepared, unfortunately.
oldhippydude
(2,514 posts)i remember the girls, being shown a film, and had a pamphlet... if i remember most of were pretty naive about the whole thing.. we were of course separated by gender... in those days there were 2 6th grade classes.. and that year the female teacher had the girls.. and the boys were handled by a male teacher (i just realized he was the only male teacher in the whole school) if i remembered right the boys just joked around.. this would have been 1957...
Hekate
(90,202 posts)It was the late 1950s for me and I already knew the basics, thanks to good old Mom, but it was interesting for a developing girl. I sure hope that something similar is still being shown to girls today.
In college I had a friend who was a decade older than I and she had a horror story I just couldn't believe. Her mother had told her NOTHING. She got married at 17 and was on her third pregnancy when she broke down in the doctor's office and sobbed that she didn't know how or why she kept getting pregnant one right after the other. By the time I met her she had those babes in elementary school and was class valedictorian at the college.
Lest anyone think there's no one left who doesn't understand basic human biology, I present to you the Congress of the United States of America. Oy. Maybe they should all have to see a movie about how babies are made before they are sworn in.
Hekate