Throughout the past two years, we’ve shown you various Walt
Disney propaganda films from World War II. Now it’s time to
visit a very different mid-1940s Disney production – The Story
of Menstruation. From 1945 to 1951, Disney produced a series of
educational films to be shown in American schools. How to bathe
an infant. How not to catch a cold. Why you shouldn’t drive
fast. Disney covered these subjects in its educational shorts,
and then eventually got to the touchy subject of biology and
sexuality. If there was ever a company suited to talk about
“vaginas” in the 1940s in a copacetic way, it was Disney. Hence
The Story of Menstruation. The film runs 10 minutes, combining
scientific facts with hygiene tips, and it was actually
commissioned by the International Cello-Cotton Company, the
forerunner of Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kotex products. An
estimated 105 million students watched the film in sex ed
classes across the US. And, according to Tinker Belles and Evil
Queens, the film remained a mainstay in sc