(someone really did a number with the ad campaigns that taught us disposables were the best option, huh?)
They were, back when most women would be running a whole household (and doing the laundry for them) and menstruation was a deeply shameful subject, which bringing up, discussing or having people SEE THE RESULTS OF was ill-bred and humiliating. Reusables required you to add YET ANOTHER THING TO WASH to your list of things to wash (sometimes with a non-electric washing machine, witness my grandmother), and you ran the serious risk of someone SEEING your DIRTY BLOODY CLOTHES.
Disposables, however, you could buy, use, roll up and hide in a bunch of toilet paper in your bathroom garbage and, short an unfortunate pet-related incident, nobody would ever know.
*looks things up* Ahah, and the composition of these ones is another part. For lo, when disposables became the norm, both nylon and in some cases various kinds of lycra (and sometimes even cotton) were nowhere near as useful on a textile level as they are now. They were replacing what were effectively a bunch of rags stuffed in your crotch, or pads that were big enough to feel like diapers.
(Not that the disposables were less diaper-like, but at least you didn't have to wash them.)
no subject
They were, back when most women would be running a whole household (and doing the laundry for them) and menstruation was a deeply shameful subject, which bringing up, discussing or having people SEE THE RESULTS OF was ill-bred and humiliating. Reusables required you to add YET ANOTHER THING TO WASH to your list of things to wash (sometimes with a non-electric washing machine, witness my grandmother), and you ran the serious risk of someone SEEING your DIRTY BLOODY CLOTHES.
Disposables, however, you could buy, use, roll up and hide in a bunch of toilet paper in your bathroom garbage and, short an unfortunate pet-related incident, nobody would ever know.
*looks things up* Ahah, and the composition of these ones is another part. For lo, when disposables became the norm, both nylon and in some cases various kinds of lycra (and sometimes even cotton) were nowhere near as useful on a textile level as they are now. They were replacing what were effectively a bunch of rags stuffed in your crotch, or pads that were big enough to feel like diapers.
(Not that the disposables were less diaper-like, but at least you didn't have to wash them.)