We’re all familiar with the old canard that Leave it to Beaver was (kind of) the first TV show to portray a toilet (and in those repressed and uptight days, even just showing the tank, as they did, caused much pearl-clutching).
When did TV decide to ditch the menstruation taboo? I have vague memories of commercials for pads & tampons back in the early 1970s, but that was advertising, and not show content. Does anyone remember the first show to openly discuss menstruation? What about the first show to openly discuss menarche?
This article suggests it was the Cosby Show in 1990. That seems way later than I would have thought. There must have been some misogynistic reference in a 70s sitcom surely?
The film version of ‘to sir with love’ alludes to them when sanitary pads are thrown in a fireplace. That was 1967.
I remember an episode of All in the Family that talked about it, but perhaps didn’t actually use the word menstruation. That was in 1973. The episode was called “The Battle of the Month".
Funny enough, the first time the word “period” was uttered on TV (in the context of menstruation) was in a Tampax commercial in 1985, and Courteney Cox (from Friends among many other things) was the one who said it.
That was also the year that My Girl was released in theaters, and it showed the main character Vada getting her first period, so I guess that was a breakthrough year for it.
I believe the first film to portray menstrual blood on screen was Carrie from 1976.
That’s the first one I thought of as well. When an unsuspecting Carrie gets her first period in the locker room, the other girls throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her.
I can’t remember if they used the word, but it was very clear throughout what they were talking about. Tweenage me understood. Archie, for example, was explaining that instead of referring to it directly, Gloria should use a euphemism like “my friend is visiting me this month”.
I would say that episode counts as openly discussing it.
Dave Foley discussed his “good attitude towards menstruation” in a 1989 episode of the epic comedy show The Kids In The Hall.
Hi, my name’s Dave Foley, and, uh, something you might not know about me is that … I have a good attitude towards menstruation. That’s right, I’m the guy! The guy with a good attitude towards menstruation!*
Oh, I know a lot of men are made uncomfortable by this monthly miracle. But not me. No, I embrace it. Embrace it the way the way some men embrace the weekend! Why I anticipate it the way a child anticipates Christmas!
Did you know that, uh, in alot of native Indian cultures, menstruating woman were forced to leave the village, lest their powerful magic should overwhelm the Shaman? If I were Shaman, I wouldn’t be so competitive. I’d be more open and giving. I’d be a shaman with… a good attitude towards menstruation!*
I’ll wager a thousand quatloos that the first American TV show to discuss menstruation was a daytime soap opera. No, I don’t know which one, or what year, but if it hit prime time with All in the Family in 1973, it was probably somewhere on daytime TV by 1969.
Borderline but early - The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction contains the verse:
When I’m ridin’ 'round the world And I’m doin’ this and I’m signing that And I’m tryin’ to make some girl Who tells me baby better come back, maybe next week 'Cause you see I’m on a losing streak
Jagger and Richards wrote it as a veiled reference to menstruation, and were surprised that it was so readily missed.
Anyway, they played the song on the Ed Sullivan Show on 13 Feb 1966, and it slipped through then as well.
Because it wasn’t openly mentioned it doesn’t meet the OP’s criteria. But I win regardless, I think.
Maybe they did, but seriously, no one can be faulted for missing it. Those words can mean anything. Including that she’s giving him the brush off simply because she’s not impressed.
