This is a very interesting and informative post about menstruation in medieval times. This was posted by deadcatwithaflamethrower in response to the question, “How did people with a female body deal with menstruation in earlier centuries?” And there are many sources and more info posted in the links below:
Sources that are (Mostly) not bullshit and at least consider how the Real World bloody works:
The Lady in Red: Medieval Menstruation
To Bring on the Flowers: Medieval Women Menstruating
The History of the Sanitary Pad
Modern Period Commentary stumbled over in the process:
A Brief History of Your Period, and Why You Don’t Have to Have It
Around the World in 28 Periods
Some Cultures Treating Periods with Respect
Banished for Menstruating (focuses on India but the same sort of practice is also done in Nepal)
Source: deadcatwithaflamethrower
Makes me re-think the whole legend of the Selke wife
1. women have always had periods, that’s just how fertility works
2. I know of no one who doesn’t consider them an inconvenience or would willingly just bleed everywhere, of course having blood running down your legs wouldn’t be a pleasant thing ever, of course you have to do something about it
3. washing your entire petticoat is obviously way more work than just washing a little pad
4. do you not know what hard labour laundry used to be??? they often had to stand in a cold river beating their clothes with sticks and that sort of thing, or boil the clothes in big vats, it is not something you can do willy-nilly- also making soap used to be pretty dangerous too so you wouldn’t waste it on bleeding into your clothes all the time