Lily - the maxi pad dress

This was the second incarnation of the pad-dress theme. This dress felt very ironic - all white and frilly looking, hardly something one would wear on one's period, or even on a regular basis. At the same time, it seemed to personify an ideal type of femininity - innocent, pure, and clean. The gauzy, white maxi pad, designed to contain and conceal the alarming redness that flows from a woman's body on a monthly basis, really lent itself to this design. For me, this brought to mind the way that expectations and stereotypes placed on women and girls tend to come in conflict with the way we naturally are. A pure white wedding dress, for example, is something that most women are not only expected to wear at some point in their lives, but something they are expected to live up to ideologically, but remaining sexually inactive until they have boudn themselves to a man. Denial of sexuality has been a huge part of the expectations women have faced over the ages. Menstrual blood, being itself a sign of sexual maturity, would then become part of that which is considered unclean in a woman, something to be hidden and controlled however necessary. Even today, though accepted as a healthy part of a woman's being, menstruation is not considered to be something truly positive (at least, not in Western society, or many other known places around the world), so much as something to be tolerated.

Edit: What would a real menstruation outfit look like? For most people, probably whatever would hide it best. Even the sight of a maxi pad or tampon in public can be a source of embarrassment or discomfort. Menstrual blood is generally treated like our other bodily wastes, to be disposed of and forgotten, rather than a sign of healthiness and sexual maturity. What if menstruation were considered to be sexy? What if women went around showing off the fact that they were menstruating, wearing bright red clothes, or something that would show how positive they were about their sexual healthiness. It would be different alright.....to live in a culture where the sexuality of women is celebrated as more than 'Girls Gone Wild' fodder. Can you imagine that?

Materials:
- 'Kotex' pantiliners (top)
- 'Preference', 'Julie', and 'Quest' maxi pads (skirt)
- Zipper
- White polyester thread