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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Smallest possible amount of information. LA, 2024.

Modernity and a side eye. Note the cost; likely not enough to profit, but enough to symbolize that women must pay to bleed.

Being the thinnest, fresh breath, and freedom from pain; all that the modern woman needs. Trudeau airport, 2024

Indore airport, India 2024