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eggs4breakfasy t1_iwe74j3 wrote

More recent than “early modern” in the case of Eastern Europe. I somewhere read a criticism of the communist block command economies that used the lack manufacturing devoted to feminine hygiene products (evident by the cloths lines festooned with drying blood-stained rags) as an example of production not being directed towards goods wanted by the population. Of course, the fact that production was controlled entirely by men must have been relevant.

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nur5e t1_iwjeqq5 wrote

Or, they didn’t have enough excess industrial capacity for luxury items. I worked with a couple of women in the early eights that had fled brutal communism in East Germany that got along fine without wasteful pads that most American women use.

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MistressErinPaid t1_iwzc4fq wrote

A majority of menstrual products favored in Western cultures may be wasteful in one degree or another, but I'd hardly call them a "luxury item".

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