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   Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 08:59:33 JST Vagina Museum

   Good morning, eager beavers. We regret to inform you we're going to show you another awful old-timey patent. Today, let's take a look at the "Improvement in catamenial and urinal bandages and receptacles" or "Catamenial sack" patented by Madison Vedder in 1935.

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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 08:59:31 JST Vagina Museum

     in reply to

     We will also admit that Madison is a sufficiently gender neutral name for us to be unable to definitively say that Madison Vedder was a man, but on balance of probability, which we will present below, we suspect that Madison Vedder was probably a man.

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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 08:59:32 JST Vagina Museum

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     "Catamenial sack" was a term used for early menstrual products at the time. There are hundreds of patents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for various innovations in this field, of wildly varying degrees in quality. This one falls straight onto the "yikes" side in design.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:00:05 JST Vagina Museum

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     See the little gravy boat shape between the thighs? This shape is almost identical to an object called a bourdaloue, which was used in the 18th and 19th centuries to pee in. Here's a 1760s painting by François Boucher of a woman using one.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:00:06 JST Vagina Museum

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     Reason the first that we suspect Madison Vedder was probably a man: this is a classic example of presenting an object with which women had interacted for centuries as something new, novel, and had not existed until this patent was filed. With an air of supreme confidence in this assertion.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:08 JST Vagina Museum

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     And this brings us on to reason the second that we suspect Madison Vedder was probably a man: this object doesn't really seem to be designed with comfort or an understanding of how women live in mind.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:09 JST Vagina Museum

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     In short, the form of the bourdaloue was not just not innovative by 1935, it was downright old-fashioned. It also wasn't especially novel to use this shape for a menstrual product - many patents before Madison Vedder's use that shape because it's kind of ergonomic around the vulva.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:10 JST Vagina Museum

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     Bourdaloues were widely used in the Georgian and Victorian eras because there weren't really many other places for women to pee. It was a useful portable object to take to the theatre or whip out when the ladies all retired to the drawing room after dinner to relieve yourself.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:15 JST Vagina Museum

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     This is an alarmingly piss-focused thread for a summary of an old-timey menstrual product, but it's time to talk about piss yet again. See the little bag in the diagram, attached to the gravy boat? That's for pee. And according to the patent documentation, not as a medical aid.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:44 JST Vagina Museum

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     You may now be wondering where the pouch of wee is supposed to go. Vedder informs us it "sit[s] against the back part of the leg in walking, or to be suspended over the edge of a seat in sitting down". Just what you need on a long train journey or a brisk walk in the park.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:01:45 JST Vagina Museum

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     Madison Vedder specifically describes the purpose of the wee pouch as "for the reception of urine in traveling or under other circumstances in which it is diflicult to find a suitable place or opportunity to urinate". i.e. exactly the purpose of the bourdaloue, but in the era of public loos.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:02:26 JST Vagina Museum

     in reply to

     We will also note that there does not appear to be a ready way of emptying the pee-pouch without disassembling the entire gadget, so you're probably walking around with a bag of piss smacking the back of your leg until you're home.

     Ódio e Apatia :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jun-2026 09:03:55 JST Vagina Museum

     in reply to

     So thank you, Madison Vedder, for inventing a product which nobody asked for and sounds uncomfortable af. We cannot be certain of your gender. But we can say we're glad that your doohickey never went into mass production.