I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely Fantastic

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

"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.

I stumbled upon this short whilst watching a video on YouTube about the history of Disney from 1922 to 1999 and a short clip of this was included in the montage. I was intrigued to see the whole thing, which is also on YouTube. Whilst watching this, I was already familiar with the majority of information used but I found this short an interesting way to discuss the processes of puberty and menstruation and it made me realise that Kotex feminine care products are older than I thought.The animation was done in a combination of colour (the segments of menstruating females getting on with their normal lives) and black and white (the diagram of menstruation) and it was mostly simple yet smooth with old-fashioned yet beautiful character designs. The narration is informative and while this is the only known Disney work to fully discuss female anatomy, it does so in an educational context. Although the music is also old-fashioned, it is emotive nonetheless. One minor gripe with regard to the sound quality is that it is somewhat crackly but I guess this was natural for the time this short was made. I know there have been complaints about the exclusion of sexual intercourse but personally the producers did the right thing omitting it because it would have detracted from the short's main topic. Even though I am nearly 27 as I write this, I could relate to the narration regarding the lengths of menstrual cycles varying from person to person because I have PCOS, which makes my cycle irregular.Overall this is an unlikely yet intriguing and informative animated short from Disney. 8/10.

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.

When I saw this as a child, it answered all of my questions and dispelled any fears or misconceptions that I had. It is easy to watch because it is animated, which makes it unthreatening. It has no moral bias or "preachy" aspects, so nobody should have any objections to it. It is a pleasant film that simply gives the facts of menstruation in a reassuring, "matter-of-fact" way. I hope to show it to my daughter.