Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "The Story of Menstruation" is a 1946 animated short film that runs for 10 minutes and was made by Disney. This one has its 70th anniversary this year. I believe Disney showed a great deal of courage by making this film. Even if sexuality is not really existent in here, it is still closely connected to the complicated topic of female genitalia and menstruation. And I do believe girls back then may have understood themselves better with the help of this short film. Maybe if this one here was actually still known, it could also help girls today. Anyway, the film manages to walk the fine line between being informative yet entertaining and Disney is always really good in combining these two. I do believe this is among the company's better educational videos and the brief runtime is also perfect for the subject here. I recommend seeing it.

MissSimonetta Oh no! A Disney film used the term "vagina" when talking about the menstrual cycle. It refers to ovaries and blood and the possibility of pregnancy. All healthy, normal, natural issues, yet for some reason The Story of Menstruation (1946) is infamous... for whatever reason.It's just a little educational film, nothing problematic about it. It is dated in its presentation (though the facts still seem legit, but I'm no doctor).I don't know. I feel like the only people who would be scandalized by this are immature twelve year old boys who find the idea of girls having periods gross or terrifying.

Steve Pulaski If you scour the internet long enough, you may be able to find some little soundbites, pieces of information, or little projects you may not have known existed. With the ubiquity of Disney and its countless number of products, animated shorts, and films, it's only expected that some of their works get lost in the shuffle only to potentially resurface in the future. Consider the controversial - and still unreleased - film Song of the South, which has been withheld from a release on home video due to its depiction of old-fashioned race relations and politically incorrect mannerisms the United States once possessed. Consider the underground, home-brew short Mickey Mouse in Vietnam, a very brief animated film with anti-war themes of an optimistic, nationalistic Mickey Mouse going off to fight The Vietnam War with true pride only to return in complete agony and despair.Now take a look at The Story of Menstruation, a ten-minute long educational short film from Disney that defines the menstrual cycle for young girls beginning or currently experiencing puberty. The film chronicles it all, from what the cycle is, why it occurs, how it occurs, how to cope with it, the issues that may arise, how a girl goes through her routine when it's her time of the month, and so forth. The film only goes so far, with the sexual intercourse aspect being untouched, unsurprisingly.The film is more fun to talk about than it is to actually endure. Speaking as a male who is pretty well-informed on females and their menstrual cycle thanks to actual female friends and the benefits of a high school health class, this is pretty much old news from my perspective. However, that's not to say the short's age, brevity, and obviousness won't teach young girls even in today's world how their body operates. It does a nice, squeaky-clean job at detailing the process and what is exactly occurring in a female's body, which, as we all know, can cause extremely hormonal tendencies, self-consciousness, and confusion in even the most hard-hearted female.The Story of Menstruation is also the first film on record to use the term "vagina" because of America's long-standing queasiness and apprehension to sexual topics, especially during the time of the 1940's. As novelty viewing and a curious piece of history, The Story of Menstruation holds little conversational value outside of the aforementioned fact and the surefire giggle that will ensue when people are informed that Disney made a film about the menstrual cycle. But as an educational short, which is how the project should be viewed and critiqued in its respect, it's competent and easily-accessible.Narrated by: Gloria Blondell.

J. Spurlin The story of menstruation begins, as the motherly narrator informs us, with the pituitary gland - a gland at the base of the brain that sends hormones throughout the bloodstream that order growth. When a girl reaches an age somewhere between 11 and 17 - the average is 13 (in 1946, at least) - the pituitary gland sends maturing orders to the ovaries, which in turn order the uterus to create a thickened lining, filled with watery fluids and blood. If an egg is fertilized it will remain within that thickened lining for nourishment. But if the egg is not fertilized, the body has no use for the extra nourishment, and it passes out of the body - which is the process called menstruation. The narrator proceeds to disprove taboos against bathing or exercise during menstruation. She advises that girls should keep a calendar that keeps track of the number days between periods. And she notes how good posture, healthy foods and positive attitudes can affect the menstruation cycle.Walt Disney Productions always made educational films that far outclassed the dull and laughable product of its rivals, and so it's no surprise that "The Story of Menstruation," sponsored by Kotex, is a tasteful and interesting animated short film - though it is surprising to see Walt Disney's name on a 1940s film that comes perilously close to providing sex education.Today's reviewers (in blogs and on this user comments page) criticize the film for not dealing directly with the issue of sex, which probably would have been impossible in 1946 - certainly for Walt Disney. The film was progressive as it was: according to IMDb's trivia page, this was probably the first Hollywood production in which we hear the word "vagina." They also criticize the film for advising girls not to feel sorry for themselves when their emotions become strained during a period. Supposedly the advice is condescending, but "Don't feel sorry for yourself" sounds to me like good advice for anyone on any occasion.Some reviewers even ridicule the film's refutation of the taboo against bathing, which is supposedly too patently obvious to mention. It couldn't have been patently obvious at the time, or the movie would not have mentioned it. If the taboo has completely died out, it's thanks to those who took the trouble to expose it for the nonsense it is.As far as I can tell, little if any of the information in this film has become outdated. The worst you can say about it, now that the taboo against sex education has been damaged (if not destroyed), is that it's incomplete.