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By Melissa J. Adams
Written in 1906, The Railway Children was created in a time when menstruation and sex were not discussed in school systems. It was during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century that “menstruation was cast as a debilitating illness with the potential to effect considerable mental instability” (Strange 249). Any education of these topics was passed down only from mother to daughter, and consisted of the most basic information. “Medical texts warned against providing women with too much information about their own bodies” (Strange 251). In addition, many parents “ignored, and therefore failed to prepare” their daughters for the unavoidable menarche (Strange 251). Consequently, any children’s literature depicting a maturing woman would have to use metaphors and symbolic devices to illustrate the maturation process. Nesbit employs these techniques in The Railway Children, using symbols of the garden and the railway to show the eldest child, Bobbie, developing into a woman. When Bobbie and her siblings first arrive at their new home they immediately seek out the garden but can’t locate it (Nesbit 25). They eventually find the garden and are each given a piece of land to plant whatever they wish, and it is in this scene one can clearly see the garden reflecting the level of maturity in each of them. Phyllis, the youngest, plants romantic flowers but does not yet know how to tend a garden. This shows her naivety towards love and romance. Her brother, Peter, sows vegetable seeds, which never amount to much because “he liked to use the earth of his garden for digging canals and making forts and earthworks for his toy soldiers” (Nesbit 181). Peter tries to act like a grown man providing for his family, but his child-like nature comes out and prevents any real growth. His act of “sowing seeds” can also be compared to a man’s innate desire to spread his seed to produce fruit, his children. The fact that his vegetables never grow shows that he is simply too young to accomplish this task.
Bobbie, the eldest daughter, is at the pubescent age that lends itself best to the garden imagery. She tries to plant roses, a symbol of womanhood, which results in their leaves becoming “shriveled and withered” (Nesbit 181). Nesbit suggests that this is “because she moved them from the other part of the garden in May, which is not at all the right time of the year for moving roses” (181). Meaning that, despite her desires to reach adulthood, she is not ready yet. Her surrogate father, Perks, tells her rather bluntly that her roses are dead and offers to give her some other flowers to plant (Nesbit 181). This act is a symbol of the father figure letting her know that it is not time for her to become an adult and that it is all right to stay a child a little while longer. At the end of the book the “late roses” are in bloom and Bobbie begins to mature into a young woman (Nesbit 262).
Another image Nesbit uses to show maturity in The Railway Children is the actual railway. The children watch a hound race where the boys in town act out the parts of the hare being chased by hounds. The race path goes directly through the railway tunnel, a dangerous area to get injured or stuck. One of the ‘hounds,’ a boy in a red-jersey, enters the tunnel and doesn’t come out on the other side. All three children suspect an injury and are concerned that the train will come through before he can get himself to safety. It is during this encounter that Bobby has her first romantic experience, as well as where she symbolically begins menstruation. Nesbit makes the connection between the red-jersey and blood obvious when Phyllis sees a hint of red and asks, “Was the red, blood?” (Nesbit 148). Bobby is left in the tunnel to care for the injured boy, Jim, while the other two children go get help. In the tunnel she examines his broken leg and, in order to cushion it, she removes her white petticoat and tears it to comfort Jim. The innocent white petticoat is removed to deal with the boy in the red-jersey. Bobby and Jim hold hands while waiting in the tunnel for help in order to curb their childish fear of the dark, but both mature through this simple affectionate act.
By 1970, when Blume wrote Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, sexual education classes were already a solid part of school curriculum. This education that girls received was very basic, teaching girls primarily about the physiological aspect of menstruation, hygiene and product use. By writing Margaret, Blume forged new ground, presenting menstruation as a positive experience and showing girls openly discussing menstruation with each other. In this book, menstruation is discussed comically, frankly and in detail, uncovering much of the mystery surrounding female maturation. Margaret and her new found friends start a club called the “Four PTS (Pre-Teen Sensations),” a group entirely devoted to tracking the girls’ progress of becoming teenagers (Blume 33). They all have to wear bras and perform a silly ritual exercise with the hopes it will increase their bust sizes. Margaret even prays to God regarding it, “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. I just did an exercise to help me grow. Have you thought about it God? About my growing, I mean. I’ve got a bra now. It would be nice if I had something to put in it” (Blume 50). The school shows Margaret and her classmates a sexual education movie called, “What Every Girl Should Know” (Blume 95). Like the time period Blume was reflecting, Margaret’s movie is being shown “courtesy of the Private Lady Company,” a company trying to hook a new generation on their products. This educational film tells the girls about why women menstruate but doesn’t describe “how it feels, except to say that it is not painful,” and the representative, when questioned about Tampax, advises not to use “internal protection” until the girls are much older (Blume 96-7). Margaret recognizes that the film is “like one big commercial” and smartly makes “a mental note never to buy Private Lady things when and if” she ever needs them (Blume 97).
Early in the book, the girls make a pact that whoever gets their period first has to tell the others everything about it. Gretchen, who gets hers first, describes it in relation to how it feels, “I was sitting there eating my supper when I felt like something was dripping from me” (Blume 98). Each of the girls want to get their periods so much that Nancy even lies about getting it. When Nancy finally does get her period, she is frightened, hysterical, and crying for her mother (Blume 106-7). At the close of the book, Margaret also reaches womanhood. Blume depicts Margaret in the bathroom, calling her mother to the door, and showing her mother her soiled underpants (Blume 148). Then Blume describes the scene in detail, illustrating how to put the pad on and the elated feeling that Margaret experiences from becoming, “almost a woman” (Blume 148).
Don’t Cramp My Style, edited by Lisa Fraustino, is a compilation of fictional short stories about that time of the month. Published in 2004, this book provides a perfect example of the progress that has been made concerning menstruation. Each story deals with a different aspect, issue, or concern about the female reproductive process. Some stories depict girls getting it for the first time, issues of pregnancy, hysterectomies, and everything in-between. In stark contrast to The Railway Children, these stories deal directly with intimate details of menstruation and puberty, and are even more forthright than Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The introduction “Snapshots in Blood” by Michelle H. Martin presents snapshots of her experiences dealing with menstruation at various times in her life. These experiences are ripe with imagery, expressing even more of what the actual event feels like.
Connie, a fifteen-year-old friend of my brother, grabbed me by the hand, pulled me into our tiny bathroom, sat me in the corner behind the door on the blue-and- white tiles, pulled down her jeans and underwear, and sat on the toilet. Immediately the bathroom filled with a smell that I had never encountered before and hoped never to again. She pulled her bloody sanitary napkin from her underwear, swung it around to face me, and said, 'Your turn is coming. You're going to do this too.' As I sat there, wondering how to hold my breath without her knowing, I sincerely hoped she was wrong. But if she's right and I am going to bleed, I thought, I can't possibly let myself smell like this. (Don't Cramp 2)
Here menstruation comes to life in a surprisingly vivid and comical way. Other examples of this exaggerated, highly detailed, comical style are when she is sent to camp with only “minipads,” and when one of her girlfriends is trying to insert a tampon for the first time (Don’t Cramp 3-4). The fictional stories continue in the same vein—humorous encounters with menstruation. One story “The Heroic Quest of Douglas McGawain,” by David Lubar, even deals with males’ menstruation anxieties—embarrassment over having to buy tampons for a girlfriend. “The Uterus Fairy” by Linda Oatman High has the two newly menstruating girls being taken to the “Museum of Menstruation” where they are educated about menstruation rituals from around the world (268-9). They are told stories of how “in the Philippines, they wipe their faces with the blood so that they don’t get pimples,” and how “in the Jewish culture, mothers slap their daughters across the face when they get their period” to slap “sense into them so they don’t get pregnant out of wedlock” (269). Don’t Cramp My Style is a perfect example of how explicit and acceptable menstrual literature has become.
This change in the way menstruation is portrayed in children’s literature has primarily come about because of Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Prior to this book, not only was menstruation education in schools limited or non-existent, but the medical community still viewed it as a disability or disease (Strange 247). In 1947, a Disney and Kimberly-Clarke sponsored film, The Story of Menstruation was one of the first educational films about menstruation to be used in school systems (Martin, Periods 21). During this time, women learned about their bodies either through these films, which were created out of commercial necessity, or by information given via parents. Prior to these films, girls were solely reliant on their parents, and often these parents were themselves “grossly miseducated” about the physiological process (Harper 241). The Story of Menstruation helped to discredit “many myths,” including “the medical texts of the 1930s and ‘40s that advise women to climb into bed at the beginning of their periods and remain there until their flow ceases” (Martin, “Periods” 22). Yet films at this time were still heavily stuck in the past; showing no blood, implying that menstruation isn’t messy, teaching that cramps are “an atypical problem,” and “hypersensitivity to hygiene” (Martin, “Periods” 23). Girls were being taught to “make every effort to conceal all evidence of” menstruation, consequently instilling the notation that “some amount of shame ought to accompany menarche” (Martin, “Periods” 23). The adamant caution for cleanliness during menstruation leads “viewers to suspect that there must be something intrinsically dirty about menstruation in spite of the film’s vociferous denial of the fact” (Martin, “Periods” 23). An article in Marriage and Family Living periodical in 1959 argues the importance of menstrual education in schools to alleviate students’ fears as well as to promote “personal cleanliness not only as a general health measure but also in girls whose poor menstrual hygiene makes them offensive to others” (Smart 177). A “publication produced by Kimberly Clark Ltd emphasized the need to be ‘sweet and clean’ at all times, but especially at the menstrual period as ‘the menstrual flow does develop an odour when it is exposed to the air’” (Strange 260). Films and educational literature stressing hygiene as a key point prevailed well in the 60s. In the film It’s Wonderful Being a Girl, produced in 1964, “good hygiene and care of the self are stressed” similarly to the prior mentioned Disney production (Maslinoff 407). This film also perpetuates the notion that emotional and physical aliments normally associated with menstruation can be sublimated by a “determined girl” (Maslinoff 409). Comedy and dialogue are not present in these films; the narrator’s voice is “sanitized” and “impersonal,” (Martin, “Periods” 21) and the material is presented so matter-of-factly that audiences “uncritically accept all that the narrator” says leaving no room for dialogue between students (Martin, “Periods” 23).
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret challenged these archaic films by pointing out their weaknesses specifically during chapter 15. In this chapter Margaret’s class watches the film What Every Girl Should Know (97). Blume plays on the faults of the real films in her portrayal of the representative from Private Lady Company, her fake sanitary supplies company, and in the ineffectiveness of the film the representative shows. Gray Suit, the representative, is as impassive as the narrator in The Story of Menstruation(Martin, “Periods” 24). Blume also highlights the missing elements of the real educational films through Margaret’s comment regarding the fictional film. “The film told us about the ovaries and explained why girls menstroo-ate. But it didn’t tell us how it feels, expect to say that it is not painful, which we knew anyway. Also, it didn’t really show a girl getting it” (Blume 96-7). Blume’s Margaret likewise shows how important dialogue between young girls is regarding the physical and emotional changes associated with puberty. The PTS, Margaret’s group of girlfriends, learn about menstruation and breast development through each other.
After Blume’s book, film creators and educators were influenced by her commentaries, and embraced her ideas for improvement. “The 1992 Procter & Gamble’s film, Always Changing, departed from the traditional approach established by the 1947 film” (Martin, “Periods” 26). One major improvement was portraying four young multiracial girls speaking from their own experiences. This format allows the audience to see menstruation from different perspectives and to be educated by their peers. This conversational approach brings openness to the film, which segues into an on going dialogue between the students. Always Changing begins to explore the details and messiness of menstruation in a slightly more open way, by discussing topics such as “soaking blood out of stained clothing” (Martin, “Periods” 26). Yet there are still drawbacks to this modern film. Firstly, it still perpetuates the idea that “menstruation remain a secret” and is essentially shameful “by offering a plethora of products to help viewers accomplish this task” (Martin, “Periods” 26). Secondly, this film continues to present the material without any humor (Martin, “Periods” 28).
More recently, nonfiction books such as The Period Book, and the educational film Kids to Kids: Talking About Puberty, present menstruation in a more positive, open, and humorous style. These educational tools continue to show the changes in menstrual education that began with Blume’s Margaret. “In the 1995 Tambrands production, Kids to Kids: Talking About Puberty, one girl describes her first period openly and without embarrassment: ‘I didn’t really know what it was at first because when you first get it, when it first comes out, it’s actually not red—you know—your blood’s not red yet, so I thought I just, like, went to the bathroom in my clothes or something like that’” (Martin, “Postmodern”395). Modern educational films and literature “feature teens and preteens telling their own stories in ways that teens typically communicate” (Martin “Postmodern” 397). This style reflects the open conversations that Margaret and her friends share in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Until Kids to Kids was produced no commercially sponsored film had ever shown the external female genitalia (Martin, “Postmodern”398). In this film,
"a woman forms a triangle with her thumbs and index finders and positions it upside down, low over her abdomen where her uterus is located. Like an x-ray, this image then melts away, yielding to an animated image of the woman's pubic hair. Later, the nude animated woman stands with one knee bent to reveal her genitals: labels for the urethra, the vagina, and the anus appear in the appropriate places" (Postmodern 398).
Kids to Kids, like other modern puberty films, present stories from young adults’ personal experiences regarding topics such as, getting their period, inserting their first tampon, and buying sanitary products (Martin, “Postmodern” 397-9).
The Period Book deals with some of these same issues in a comical way, entertaining and educating the reader. Illustrations of teen girls in humorous dilemmas run throughout. One illustration depicting anxieties over breast size, shows two young girls, each of varying bust size, with the smaller of the two looking quizzically down her top (Gravelle 8). Another example of The Period Book’s entertaining caricatures is of a girl, walking out of the ocean with the pad she is wearing dripping, saying “Yuck!” (Gravelle 42). Gravelle’s book touches on many problems associated with menstruation including PMS symptoms, bleeding through clothing, fears of getting tampons stuck, and buying sanitary supplies from a male cashier. While addressing common concerns and problems, The Period Book doesn’t portray menstruation as a curse. One section, entitled “Celebrate This Time of Your Life” focuses on dispelling the archaic notion of shame and discretion, while sharing real stories promoting celebration and openness. The chapter “Is This Normal,” answers explicit questions pertaining to menstruation such as, “I’m really worried! My period isn’t just blood. There are blobs of red, jellylike stuff too. Are parts of my insides falling out?” (Gravelle 63). The Period Book presents menstruation accurately, giving the reader the all the dirty little secrets previous generations were too embarrassed and ashamed to discuss.
All of these modern films and publications “validate the articulation and sharing of previously silenced or compulsorily private discourses” (Martin, “Postmodern” 397). This silence was broken by Blume’s Margaret. Prior to its publication, young girls received limited menstrual education that reinforced shame, discretion, and hygiene. Comparing The Railway Children, Margaret, and Don’t Cramp My Style, the progression from silence and ignorance to communication and knowledge is evident. Each fictional story reflects the attitudes of the generation during which it was written. Overlaying the progression of these fictional stories with the transformation of educational films and literature from 1947 through 1996, the influence of Margaret becomes apparent. Issues and problems that Blume depicts concerning the menstrual education are the exact areas new filmmakers focus on correcting. Films and educational literature began incorporating a conversational teen dialogue, detailed descriptions of what it feels like, images and text presenting both positive and negative attributes of menstruation, and a celebratory tone. Authors even copied Blume’s humorous approach, as with The Period Book andKids to Kids. Over the 20th century, authors, like Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children, Judy Blume’s Margaret, and Lisa Fraustino’s Don’t Cramp My Style, have shifted the balance from ignorance to understanding, with Blume leading the way. These transformations in the way young women are educated regarding their bodies and menstruation contribute to the growth of equality between the sexes. During the early twentieth century, women were aware of “the importance of menstruation in debates over women’s right” (Strange 253). They knew that the more accurate knowledge the public received regarding menstruation, the more freedom and power women would obtain. In the world today, this attitude is still pertinent. By continuing the revolution that Blume began when she wrote Margaret, women of the next generation might experience more freedoms and less shame concerning their bodies, menstruation, and sexuality.
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