@menstrual - Bluesky Profile

Sanitary products disposal and napkin dispenser

Sanitary products dispenser; napkins and tampons are free

Sanitary napkin disposal box

Free napkin and tampon dispenser

More airport bathrooms; yay for free #menstrual products! Food for thought: when/why napkin vs pad? (Generally older) disposal boxes almost always say napkin only, as they may pre-date tampons being common. Icons tend to be newer; were these visuals previously considered vulgar?

31.07.2025 18:11 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Menstrual supplies dispenser. 25 cents for a pad or tampon.

Close up of menstrual supplies dispenser. 25 cents for a pad.

Another airport bathroom: cheap #menstrual products require a specific coin. Curves and arcs, no-caps-sans-serif font, and neutral greys suggest a modern dispenser retrofitted to the standard, brushed stainless steel box (with bonus pareidolia). Supplies get icons, money gets numbers AND text.

30.07.2025 19:13 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Photo of a large bathroom in an airport. Hand air dryer and trash cans.

Another shot of the airport bathroom, including a counter with two sinks. Paper towels and a hand air dryer are visible.

Airport bathroom, utterly devoid of menstrual supply dispensers. You can choose between air hand dryers and paper towels, however.

21.04.2025 15:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

An Evogen brand menstrual supplies dispenser. It is made of brushed stainless steel and has touchless dispensers.

21.04.2025 15:18 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It's sleek, it's modern, and it doesn't work. Broken? Empty? Who knows. Note the pad/tampon icons. They're minimalist, but include details like the quilted edges of a pad and the tampon string, differing from the thin cylinders and boxes of older depictions.

21.04.2025 15:18 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

A photo of a bathroom stall with a small gold shelf holding a basket of menstrual supplies.

Basement bathroom at wine bar w/free menstrual supplies. The faux-wood organizers and gold caddy (coastal grandma/Target minimalism) contrast with the hot pink, gold, and black (2000s MySpace/scene girl) walls. The empty baskets are a mystery; did they contain pads/tampons? Other supplies?

21.04.2025 15:14 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A photo of a menstrual supplies dispenser. There is an icon of a box with the female symbol and a coin labelled 25¢. Plastic has been added to the coin slot so that it is "free vend."

A first! This stocked napkin dispenser was retroactively made "free vend" with a plastic addition to the coin slot. Original directions for use were as bare-bones as possible, eschewing even words. Tiny mysterious lady-branded box (IYKYK)+ disproportionately huge quarter. #materialculture #freevend

15.04.2025 18:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A photo of a machine that dispenses GARDS feminine napkins and Tampax.

Gards: internal space/asset vs. external threat. Public menstrual supply infrastructure/design is often the most static part of a restroom (1989!) The use of "matron" also dates it. Note the $ on the how-to graphic, vs. ¢ on the price. Points for being stocked. #materialculture #menstruation

15.04.2025 18:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I just read Breaking the Curse and I love it. Sent quotes to friends as I was reading, put library holds on books referenced in it, etc. Just a wee crumb on the other side of the "everything will decay" scale.

15.04.2025 18:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Ann Arbor Sheraton with the menstrual supplies dispenser! Glad to see period health being valued alongside corporate art and design. #materialculture #periodhealth #menstruation #annarbor #sheraton

18.02.2025 23:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A large public bathroom with beige tiles and a menstrual supplies coin-paid dispenser.

A menstrual supplies coin-paid dispenser, with no labels.

Coin slots for a menstrual supplies dispenser, with marks where there used to be labels.

A single tampon, in a Tampax-brand tube, and a Gards-brand "regular" single maxi pad in a white box with black decorative swirls and green font.

Props to the Burlington VT airport, w/ a functioning menstrual supplies machine in its women's bathroom. At first I thought the unlabelled machine was defunct, but the slots took quarters and produced a tampon and a maxi pad. Note the decorative swirls on the maxi pad box. #materialculture #BVT

11.02.2025 18:46 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A door opening to a bathroom in a basement.

A basic bathroom in a basement, with cement walls.

A small shelf mounted on a painted wooden wall. The shelf contains sanitary napkins in blue, teal, and pink packaging.

Shoutout to the basement bathroom of this explicitly socialist coffee shop in Montréal. #menstruation #materialculture #sanitarynapkins #montreal #coffeeshop #MTL

11.02.2025 18:10 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Can assume close to 100% of adults care about bathroom odors.
@ 36% of Americans are lactose intolerant.
@ 18% of Americans smoke and/or vape.
@ 15% may need sharps disposal (best guess; 11.% of Americans are diabetic, 1.5% inject recreational drugs)

@25% of Americans menstruate.

13.01.2025 19:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A bathroom in a grocery store. A sign said, "No smoking or vaping please." There is an anti-odor bag handing on the handrails, and a picture of wheels of cheese. There are no menstrual supplies.

A shelf with paper towels and toilet paper in a grocery store bathroom. There is a sharps-disposal box, with an explainer sign that is too small to read in this photo.

Co-operative grocery store; staff said that they do generally have free menstrual supplies in the bathrooms. Observed priorities include cheese, odor prevention, abstaining from smoking/vaping, and sharps disposal. #materialculture #menstruation #citizensociology

13.01.2025 19:32 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Le plus ça change...

13.01.2025 19:26 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A bathroom with brown tiles on the floor and pink/beige walls. There is a toilet, sink, soap and towel dispenser, PSA about hand washing, a trashcan and a changing table for children. There are no menstrual supplies.

A changing table for children, made of white plastic and closed up against the wall. The logo is a white cartoon rabbit with blue text reading, "Small Comforts." Above it, in French, English, and Spanish it reads (respectively): Table a Changer les Couches, Baby Changing Table, and Mesa Para Cambiar Pañales.

Noticing a trend of "changing tables for children but no menstrual supplies" in bathrooms, even this one located in a hospital in New England. "Small Comforts" indeed; hard not to read into a cultural focus on motherhood as womanhood. Always pregnant/nursing = no menstruation? #materialculture

03.01.2025 17:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A bathroom stall with pink and grey tiles, and handwashing directions on a paper towel dispenser. No menstrual supplies are seen.

A close-up of a sticker advertising free mammograms, pap smears, etc. There is a picture of a smiling older white woman with short grey hair, pointing to the word FREE in large pink letters.

Bathroom in the pre-mammogram changing room of a hospital.
No to: menstrual supplies.
Yes to: the color pink, used menstrual supplies disposal, hand washing directions, and free mammogram services ad.
. #menstruation #women @materialwills.bsky.social @mcshistory.bsky.social

01.01.2025 22:59 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A pink and purple sanitary napkin sits on a grey public bathroom countertop.

The back of a pink and purple square sanitary napkin

The front of a pink and purple square sanitary napkin, with repeated text saying, "regular."

No menstrual supplies dispenser in this bathroom; just a lone, millenial-color-palette-coded, "regular" pad, its placement on the counter suggesting an altruistic gesture. #materialculture #archeology

09.12.2024 02:49 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A sanitary napkin vending machine that advertises its pads as Canada's thinnest. Included is a vending machine with breath mints.

Variation on another airport machine; being thin, ultra thin, Canada's thinnest. A magical thinness that renders menstruation incognito, invisible. Trudeau airport, 2024

30.11.2024 19:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0