See some pad
dispensers and ads for pads that come with
pouches: New
Freedom and Whenever,
from the U.S.A., and Camelia,
from Germany.
And read Lynn Peril's series about
these and similar booklets!
See more Kotex items: First ad
(1921) - ad 1928 (Sears
and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads
(first real person in amenstrual hygiene ad,
1928) - Marjorie
May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for
girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are
many links here to Kotex items) - Preparing for
Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls;
Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in
Spanish showing disposal
method - box
from about 1969 - "Are
you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) -
See more ads on the Ads
for Teenagers main page
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The Museum of
Menstruation and Women's Health
Disposal bags for sanitary
napkins, page 8 (see pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11)
Years ago Dr Melissa Terras started
these pages on MUM by sending me
disposal bags while studying for
her doctorate at Christ Church,
University of Oxford, and has
contributed many more since then.
She's now (2014) Director, UCL
Centre for Digital Humanities and
Professor of Digital Humanities,
Department of Information Studies,
University College London.
This note
(excerpts) accompanied Dr Terras's
donations to MUM (I reddened and
emboldened the words):
Ch[rist]
Ch[urch] 9/11/02
Hi Harry,
Some more disposal bags for
you. ...
The one with the advert was
from the Bodleian Library,
Oxford (hmm, are they
trying to say something
about the career prospects
of female academics?)
The one with the
Pamela-Anderson-a-like was from
the Hoegaarden Brewery in
Belgium. [Oh, for the academic
life!] ...
Hope that you are OK!
Best,
Melissa
The bag reflects the often wonderful
humor the Brits
show in many ads for menstrual
products (here,
non-menstrual here,
here,
and here).
Thanks again, Mel!
Read a general discussion
on page 1.
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Below:
The wrapper's pouch measures 4 x 14"
(10.2 x 35.6 cm).
The bottom sentence, "Win
a ...," seems to mean you'll find a
job in Mauritius if you win the trip
there. Sounds better than sitting in a
WC at Oxford's Bodleian library, no
matter how esteemed. The library,
... well, the toilet too?
"Stuck in the wrong position?"
is an image for deconstruction to a
woman poised over a hole filled with
water and ... um, yes, with
water. And the air's better in
Mauritius, ranked
second worldwide in a quality index
released by the World Health
Organization in 2011 according to
Wikipedia.
Reflecting the academic atmosphere,
the very bottom sentence reads, "free thinkers
welcome."
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Above: a beach in
Mauritius, not the view in the
Bodleian WC. (from Wikimedia
Commons)
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Below:
Other side of the wrapper.
If you do win the trip, subscribe to
the Guardian in case you want to
switch to a secretarial or
administrative job from your winning job
as a WC attendant.
Gosh, Guardian, don't you have jobs
serving gin and tonics to people lying
under umbrellas? Tips might be better,
too. More sand. More, er, water.
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Below:
The wrapper measures 4 1/2 x 11" (11.4
x 27.9 cm) and is obviously not to the
same scale as the Mauritius wrapper
right above.
Dr Terras picked this up in the
Hoegaarden Brewery in Belgium. Like, what goes on in
brewery "rest" rooms"?
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Below:
The back is all white, blank, like
white sand on a perfect beach.
Oh, wait, that was the other
bag.
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© 2014 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or distribute
any of the work on this Web site
in any manner or medium without
written permission of the author.
Please report suspected violations
to hfinley@mum.org
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