The story of menstruation

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Movie
Original title The story of menstruation
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1946
length 10 mins
Rod
production Walt Disney Productions
on behalf of Kimberly-Clark

The Story of Menstruation ( The story of menstruation is) a color - animation of Walt Disney Productions from 1946, mainly as a teaching film before the US was listed students.

action

Animated diagrams of the menstrual cycle alternate with cartoon scenes that provide advice for girls. A female voice explains from the off that menstruation is a natural and by no means a worrying matter. Contrary to outdated popular rules, girls are advised to bathe or shower during their period and to do their usual physical activities such as cycling, horse riding or dancing. It is advisable to keep a menstrual calendar and explain how to use it. Exercise, a healthy diet and a good mood should prevent or alleviate symptoms during your period. In particular, constipation should be avoided as it disrupts the menstrual cycle.

background

After the First World War , a controversial discussion began in the USA as to whether the previously largely taboo topic of menstruation should be removed from the purely family sphere (from mother to daughter) and become a school subject. While doctors, educators and women's rights activists emphasized the absolute necessity of such teaching, critics saw it as a violation of decency and morals or a tutelage of parents with regard to their educational authority. Particularly fierce opposition came from conservative circles of Catholicism , who feared that such teaching content could seduce young people into lewd thoughts. In the 1920s, progressive schools and organizations such as the started Girl Scouts ( Girl Scouts ) to teach girls outside the family in this topic. The course content was "de-sexualized": They were limited to instructions on hygiene , there was no sex education . As a manufacturer of feminine hygiene products, Kimberly-Clark published the brochure Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday in 1932 , which provided information about menarche to young girls . The Story of Menstruation is the first medium of instruction on the subject in the form of a film .

In 1945, Walt Disney Productions founded the Educational and Industrial Film Division , which produced short films for educational purposes. Up until 1951, numerous educational films were made here in 16 mm format , which were financed by commercial enterprises and were not distributed, but distributed free of charge to schools by the contracting companies. Of these films, The Story of Menstruation is considered to be the most intensely received. The International Cellucotton Products Company (ICPC), the commercial and advertising subsidiary of Kimberly-Clark, commissioned the film in 1945. A gynecologist acted as a specialist advisor. At the end of 1945, storyboards were shown to teaching staff and students. It turned out that a planned cartoon scene with a smiling fetus could not be carried out, as any pictorial representation of naked human bodies was prohibited in schools.

reception

The premiere on October 18, 1946 in front of selected teaching staff was well received. The credits do not include the names of people involved in the production, only the company names Walt Disney Productions and Kimberly-Clark. Visible product placement is limited to mentioning the brand "Kotex", the sanitary napkin manufactured by Kimberly-Clark , in the opening and closing credits. In the brochure Very Personally Yours (“Your very personal affair”) produced by the International Cellucotton Products Company , which was given out to the pupils a few days before a performance in a class, there are scenes from the film and a form of a menstrual calendar and general advice but also include clear recommendations for Kimberly-Clark products. The brochure advises against using tampons (of which the most important producer with a dominant position was the competitor Tampax). The Story of Menstruation received positive reviews in the Journal of the American Medical Association and in Parents magazine, among others . The reviewer of the Journal of the American Medical Association praised the fact that the film presented the topic of menstruation with a “good-humored expression” as particularly modern and forward-looking, “without creating an atmosphere of tension, let alone fear and disgust”. The award of the renowned Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval gave the film an additional reputation.

The demonstrations initially took place in the 7th and 8th grade, i.e. in front of 12 to 14 year old girls. Soon they started showing the film in 5th and 6th grade. For these younger girls, Kimberly-Clark had published a second brochure since 1952, entitled You're a Young Lady Now . In 1957, Kimberly-Clark generally recommended demonstration in 5th grade. In addition to school lessons, the film was also shown in front of school parents' representatives, in groups of the YWCA and in maternity wards.

The Story of Menstruation was used as a teaching medium in schools from 1946 until the first half of the 1980s. During this period, the film reached an audience that, according to various studies, is estimated at 93 to 105 million people. The vast majority of these were girls; comparatively few boys were admitted to the performances. According to a communication from Kimberly-Clark from 1964, around 47 million schoolgirls had seen the film by then, and 31 million copies of the brochures Very Personally Yours and You're a Young Lady Now had been issued. According to the company, the film and the printed materials are said to have reached around 20 percent of American girls between 1946 and 1964. Very Personally Yours appeared in the last edition in 1970. As a definite end to the era of The Story of Menstruation in American education is considered the year 1984, in which the set with real actors of Cerutti Productions and Kimberly-Clark produced 19-minute short film Julie's Story for Standard educational film regarding menstruation was made.

While the view is variously held that the film was transferred to the public domain within the scope of US law in the mid-1970s , because Disney made the copyright declaration within 28 years of first filing under Section 23 of the US Copyright Act of 1909 allegedly not renewed, the copyright was actually re-registered with the Library of Congress on December 3, 1973.

Historical classification

More recently, The Story of Menstruation has been judged primarily against the cultural and artistic background of the epoch of its creation. For example, in their 1988 treatise on the cultural history of menstruation, Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton and Emily Toth addressed the clearly stylized portrayal of both anatomical conditions and the reality of life as well as the concealment of the topics of sexuality, conception and pregnancy:

“In the Disney World, the menstrual flow is not blood red but snow white. The vaginal drawings look more like a cross section of as kitchen sink than the outside and inside of a woman's body. There are no hymen, no clitoris, no labia; all focus is on the little nest and its potentially lush lining. Although Disney and Kimberly-Clark advise exercise during the period, the exercising cartoon Girls (who look like Disney's Cinderella) are drawn without feet; bicycles magically propel themselves down the street without any muscular or mental direction from the cyclist. The film ends happily ever after, with a shot of a lipsticked bride followed immediately by a shot of a lipsticked mother and baby. "

“In the world of Disney, menstrual periods are not blood red, but snow white. The drawings of a vagina are more like the cross-section of a sink than the inside and outside of a female body. There is no hymen, no clitoris, and no labia; the whole focus is on the small nest and its potential mucous membrane. Although Disney and Kimberly-Clark advise exercising on periods, the cartoon girls who play sports (who look like Disney's Cinderella) are shown without feet; Bicycles move miraculously down the street without being steered by the rider in any way by muscle or mental strength. A little later there is a happy ending with a scene that shows a bride made up with lipstick, immediately followed by a scene of a mother with baby made up with lipstick. "

- J. Delaney, MJ Lupton, E. Toth : The Curse. A Cultural History of Menstruation (1988)

Colette Dowling criticized in 1988 that the film and the accompanying printed materials only deal with aspects of hygiene, but do not address the emotional needs of the girls. In 2000, Sean Griffin saw in The Story of Menstruation the conservative image of women and girls typical of the Disney productions of the early post-war period, the image of the well-adjusted and good girl who relied on her role as a housewife and mother in a patriarchal led by men Society prepared. This ideal is further developed in the full-length cartoons Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). In 2008, Sharra Louise Vostral pointed out that the film shows adolescence as a completely asexual phase of life. Instead of addressing topics such as sexual education and erotic feelings, it is merely shown that puberty poses new challenges to the health (hygiene) of the body. The main goal is of course to attract young consumers to Kimberly-Clark products. According to Lara Freidenfels (2009), the educational film fits in perfectly with the American culture of the 1950s with its prudery and idealization of marriage and the staid middle-class family.

The film journalist Phil Hall pointed out that he was not aware of any previous film in which the word " vagina " was pronounced and written. For him, The Story of Menstruation is "Disney's least known and (unsurprisingly) most amazing production, and it shows that people are willing to do anything for money." The fact that the company is doing its own thing today completely ignored, Hall comments ironically:

“One can easily imagine a Disney World ride based on the film, with tourists climbing into an egg-shaped craft for a wild ride down a long and dark fallopian tube through a giant vaginal opening. Maybe there could be a catchy theme song, along the lines of “It's a Small World,” to add music to the menstruation - giving the vagina a voice, if you will? Kotex could sponsor the ride and sell feminine products at the concession stands. It could make millions! "

“It's easy to imagine a movie-based ride at Disney World where tourists get on an egg-shaped vehicle to embark on a wild ride that descends a long and dark fallopian tube through a huge vaginal opening. Perhaps there could be a gripping theme song, like it's a small world , to accompany menstruation with music - giving the vagina a voice, if you will? Kotex could sponsor the ride and sell feminine hygiene products at the food stalls. You could make millions! "

- Phil Hall : The Bootleg Files: "The Story of Menstruation"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b German translation of the film and brochure title to: Colette Dowling: Perfect women. The escape into self-expression. 2nd edition, German first edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-10-015307-3 , p. 168. Original edition: Perfect Women. Hidden Fears of Inadequacy and the Drive to Perform. Summit Books, New York 1988, ISBN 0-671-54747-X .
  2. ^ A b Joan Jacobs Brumberg: "Something Happens to Girls": Menarche and the Emergence of the Modern American Hygienic Imperative . In: The Girl's History and Culture Reader , The 20 th Century. Edited by Miriam Forman-Brunell and Leslie Paris, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2011, ISBN 978-0-252-03580-7 , pp. 31f.
  3. ↑ Sharra Louise Vostral: Under Wraps. A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology. Lexington Books, Lanham 2008, ISBN 978-0-7391-1385-1 , pp. 118f.
  4. ↑ Sean Griffin: Tinker Belles and Evil Queens. The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out. New York University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8147-3122-8 , p. 35.
  5. ^ A b Thomas Heinrich, Bob Batchelor: Kotex, Kleenex, Huggies. Kimberly-Clark and the Consumer Revolution in American Business. Ohio State University Press, Columbus 2004, ISBN 0-8142-0976-9 , pp. 121-124.
  6. ^ Medical Motion Pictures. The story of menstruation . In: Journal of the American Medical Association , April 5, 1947, p. 1033, quoted in: Sharra Louise Vostral: Under Wraps. A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology. Lexington Books, Lanham 2008, ISBN 978-0-7391-1385-1 , p. 122: “an air of good cheer”, “without creating an atmosphere of tension, not to say fear and disgust”.
  7. ↑ a b Sharra Louise Vostral: Under Wraps. A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology. Lexington Books, Lanham 2008, ISBN 978-0-7391-1385-1 , p. 122.
  8. ↑ Lara Freidenfels: The Modern Period. Menstruation in 20 th -century America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2009, ISBN 978-0-8018-9245-5 , pp. 54f.
  9. ↑ a b Colette Dowling: Perfect Women. The escape into self-expression. 2nd edition, German first edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-10-015307-3 , p. 168. Original edition: Perfect Women. Hidden Fears of Inadequacy and the Drive to Perform. Summit Books, New York 1988, ISBN 0-671-54747-X .
  10. ^ A b Susan Kathleen Freeman: Sex Goes to School. Girls and Sex Education Before the 1960s. University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2008, ISBN 978-0-252-03324-7 , p. 86.
  11. ↑ a b Lara Freidenfels: The Modern Period. Menstruation in 20 th -century America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2009, ISBN 978-0-8018-9245-5 , p. 56.
  12. ^ Very Personally Yours (1970) in WorldCat , accessed March 21, 2012.
  13. ↑ Julie's Story in the German and English version of the Internet Movie Database
  14. ↑ a b Phil Hall: The Bootleg Files: “The Story of Menstruation” on Film Threat, also as a full citation in the Internet Movie Database , accessed March 21, 2012.
  15. ↑ File descriptions for File: Storyofmenstruationtitle.jpg and File: Story of menstruation 2.jpg on Wikimedia Commons, accessed September 18, 2013.
  16. ↑ Entry no. R564909 in: The Library of Congress, Copyright Office: Catalog of Copyright Entries , 3rd Ser., P. 12/13, Motion Pictures, Vol. 26 (1973), p. 118 , accessed September 18, 2013.
  17. ↑ Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, Emily Toth: The Curse. A Cultural History of Menstruation. University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1988, ISBN 0-252-01240-2 , p. 109.
  18. ↑ Sean Griffin: Tinker Belles and Evil Queens. The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out. New York University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8147-3122-8 , p. 41.
  19. ↑ Sharra Louise Vostral: Under Wraps. A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology. Lexington Books, Lanham 2008, ISBN 978-0-7391-1385-1 , p. 123.
  20. ↑ Lara Freidenfels: The Modern Period. Menstruation in 20 th -century America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2009, ISBN 978-0-8018-9245-5 , p. 55.
  21. ↑ Phil Hall: The Bootleg Files: “The Story of Menstruation” on Film Threat, also as a full citation in the Internet Movie Database , accessed March 21, 2012: “Disney's least known and (not surprisingly) most intriguing production, and it proves that some people will do anything for money. "