Menstruation is having a moment, but this isn't the first generation to claim a MODERN attitude to periods. This booklet from the 1950s illustrates how things have and have not changed (in the UK).

The cover of this Boots sponsored booklet claims that menstruation is 'a natural function' and suggests that nothing should stop you from being an elegant, sporty dame. So far, so familiar.

The booklet includes more or less accurate biological information. We are warned that it is 'complete nonsense' not to wash hair and bodies, or to complain. Modern girls get on with it, clean and calm.

We get an illustration of the reproductive system, focused on how menstruation is really just in service of the function of fertility. The clitoris is not included.

If you feel discomfort, the booklet notes, it's probably just due to 'chafing by the sanitary towel on the inside of the thighs'. The solution? Change (and BUY) your towels more frequently, of course. A handy list of Boots brands attached.

A warning to not to flush products; 'just burn them at home whenever possible.' How lovely.
(some things have changed! but sanitary bins are still mostly tipped into incinerators in the UK)

Next, on to exercise and fatshaming: 'Whatever you do try to keep on your feet and do not lie down with a hot water bottle'. I feel we still hear this one.

The list of exercises that are listed as good for menstruation are: floor polishing, bending, twisting, swaying, rowing, floor patting and BEAN picking.

And at the end, we get a reminder that all this advice is MODERN, whereas back in the OLD days people were really stupid.

From a 1950s perspective, the old ways meant avoiding baths, lying about lazily, and wearing corsets. From their perspective, beanpicking exercise and not complaining was modern.

Today, we may laugh at the 1950s advice and call it the 'old backwards way', but what will the people of the future find odd about the way we manage menstruation now?

On modernity mythology, see Bruno Latour's 'We Have Never Been Modern'.