Updated 19 Nov.; more late 26 November
This museum collection is "[U]nrivaled. .
. . [T]he best material culture collection on menstruation in the world."
- Menstruation: A Cultural History
(Howie, Shail, eds.)
This museum Web site is "a treasure trove
of information." -
Kotex, Kleenex, Huggies: Kimberly-Clark and the Consumer Revolution in
American Business, by Thomas Heinrich and Bob Batchelor.
Listen
to MUM director Harry Finley carry on about men and menstruation,
the MUM museum in his basement, toxic shock, etc., on the Keeper menstrual
cup site. No, they didn't pay me.
ABOUT MUM (MUseum
of Menstruation):
"May God close your horable museum."
From a letter, with original spelling, to
the Museum of Menstruation, from "Shocked, by women," mailed from
Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A.
"Consider how Surg. Gen. Koop changed the
country! . . . Carry on!" Judge Giles S. Rich (retired), United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Washington, D. C. (from
a letter to me)
Comments from TV, online and other media about this museum.
Three listeners' comments (more) from my half-hour interview with Howard
Stern (here):
° "Get a life, creep."
° "[I] am quite familiar with the obstacles
to a frank and intelligent discussion of menstruation." (Nancy
Freedman, author of Everything You Must Know About
Tampons, 1981)
° "I was just listening to your interview
with Howard Stern. You handled yourself very well with him. He lambastes
just about anyone with a peculiar interest, but you had him very much in
check. I was amazed!"
"Stick to jock itch products, buddy."
In a commentary about the museum and its creator in the defunct Sassy, an American magazine for teenage girls.
"Terrifically diverse" - The Independent on
Sunday (London, England)
"It's fabulous that somebody out there is
willing to . . . pull back the curtain." Mona Miller, national
media relations director of the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, discussing the museum in The
Prince George's Journal, Maryland, U.S.A.
"One of the best on the Internet"
- Britannica.com
"This gem
of a website is a virtual repository for everything
you ever
wanted to know about women's periods." - New
Scientist magazine (United Kingdom)
"More interesting than you might think. .
. . lively." The V Book: A Doctor's Guide
to Complete Vulvovaginal Health, by Elizabeth G. Stewart, M.D., of
Harvard medical school and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.
More media on MUM
|
Current articles & news below
An interesting but failed early Kotex tampon:
Kotams, probably from the 1940s
New response to
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
A MUM visitor writes,
in part:
"[T]here's a difference between a guy knowing about menstruation and
a guy knowing that his classmate is menstruating. Menstruation is at the
heart of what it means to be feminine, and so it is at the heart of the
mystery of being a woman. . . . [N]ot all shame is a bad thing."
The London Review
of Books gets this museum's name wrong
but MUM answers
a question for the writer
(Thanks to Lara Freidenfelds for the tip; as the
author of The Modern Period: Menstruation in 20th-Century America [Johns
Hopkins, 2009], she's the real subject of the article.)
BTW, the LRB writer, Jenny Diski, found her answer
here
and liked this and her mother worried
about this. But she's wrong
that Kotex
"designed and packaged the first disposable sanitary pad" -
see some predecessors here
and here.
Kotex's Becoming Aware Educational Kit is COMPLETE!
Final section: pads & tampon
and booklets for parents and girls, sample pads & tampons
New
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
New
Words and expressions about
menstruation:
(U.S.A.) Ugly
Sister
(U.S.A.) Shoots
New humor
"Judy
Blume: 'I Was Margaret' "
"Over her 40-year career, Judy Blume may have done more for sex education
than the last 10 surgeons general."
Read the interview.
"The Beauty of Artificial Virginity"
"If you're a woman in a conservative Muslim country, you
had better bleed on your wedding night. If you don't, your husband
or his family will know you aren't a virgin. For that, you
could be beaten or killed."
More.
Solving The Period Problem: Researchers Develop
Sanitary Pads From Local, Organic Materials
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2009) - For most American women, their
"time of the month" is seen as a hindrance to daily life. In impoverished
and developing countries, however, monthly periods are a major cause for
concern among women. The lack of affordable, quality sanitary pads results
in females missing up to 50 days of school annually thereby compromising
their educational and professional potential." Whole
article.
2 more contributions to
Would you stop
menstruating if you could?
Call for Papers, Artworks, Photography, Fiction, Interviews
TRUNK Volume Two: BLOOD
Did women who pined for freedom in Japan
use Pine tampons in 1977?
"New Device Could More Effectively Alleviate
Menstrual Cramp Pain"
a tampon coated with ketorolac (Toradol®), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
medication
Read
more.
Has anyone seen this funny TV ad for OB?
re: Cycling is
the new blog of the Society
for Menstrual Cycle Research. re: Cycling is written by members of
SMCR about all matters menstrual, especially sociocultural aspects of menstruation
and new research about menstruation and women's health.
The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research strives to be the source of guidance,
expertise, and ethical considerations for researchers, practitioners, policy
makers and funding resources interested in the menstrual cycle. Visit us
online at MenstruationResearch.org.
Next update I'll show more items from the MUM archives.
This week reality intervened in the form of a feral kitten with an ulcer
dissolving his left cornea (he's now hospitalized) and
an unruly neighborhood.
Not menstruation but important:
Manufacturers can add
substances to cat and
dog food
to increase your pet's (or pets') hunger, making them eat
more, increasing profit for the companies and adding to
veterinarian bills by increasing sickness. The German
news magazine Der Spiegel writes (in German)
that, for example,
the enzymes of the Danish firm Novozymes
(Protamex and Novo Pro D) DOUBLE
the hunger of test dogs and cats.
Former FDA chief Dr. David Kessler reports in his
new book The End of Overeating how food manufacturers
engineer flavor to make you eat more and not necessarily healthy food.
Looks like they do the same to pets.
A generous contributor to MUM comments on stick tampons
Tales of the Curse by Peggy Lumpkin
People's stories about menstruation
Kotex tried to stick it to Tampax:
Kotams stick tampon, 1960-65.
New
Words and expressions about menstruation:
"nosebleed pillow, the comma"
Letter to your MUM:
Hi Harry, I'm giving you links to two websites I've found useful.
http://clothpads.wikidot.com/ - Cloth Menstrual Pad Wiki
It's a database of different cloth menstrual pads-
patterns, photos, tips on washing and care, and a great way to search for
different sellers using the tags. Anybody can contribute.
http://clothbank.net/ A Cloth Menstrual Pad Co-Op.
It uses a moneyless system to trade in
pads and sewing supplies that don't suit the user, so more favourable pads
can be taken out.
Tampax made a tampon to detect cancer cells:
Draghi Detection Tampon, undated.
New
Words and expressions about menstruation (U.S.A.):
"Over the rainbow"
Letters to your MUM:
Hello,
A friend of mine suggested that I send this link to you.
It is an unusual ladies' purse or cosmetics bag
that has a special pocket just to hold feminine hygiene products in.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29433254
I don't know if it would be something worthy of including on the site
or in the museum. Either way, my friend thought you would be interested
in seeing it.
Best Regards,
****
Hi there,
I thought you would appreciate this funny craft
idea:
http://www.favecrafts.com/Christmas-Crafts/Unique-Tampon-Angel#
I like your website-it is very comprehensive. I have visited 4 or 5
times and haven't event scratched the surface!
****
The recommendation of wearing a thong-type panty over regular panties when
wearing a pad is [see A reader recommends for a tighter
fit, below], indeed, a very good one! The desirability of keeping
the pad intimately close is well documented and which regular panties don't
really do that well.
Check out patent number 7,537,587 relative to keeping the pad protectively
close and the merits of a thong in this regard. However, this is just one
of many, many statements in numerous patents about the desirability of keeping
the pad close so that absorbency is directly into the pad rather than running
across the surface. Compare, too, the length of the old traditional napkins
held closely via a sanitary belt versus panty-held overnight pads.
Also check out the Japanese Unicharm web site and their various sanitary
panties. Note how they are much like regular panties with a thong built-in
to hold the pad close.
Under Western Eyes the Japanese
Emil tampon (1974) was absorbed in its task. I
would
apologize to Joseph Conrad for his book title were he alive.
"My goodness, what an awesome site of history
and humor. I think I have roughly been on your site for a good 2 hours now."
Then she and another contributor added the following:
New
Words and expressions about menstruation (U.S.A.):
It's sticky time! - The kat is runnin' amok - My uterus is falling
apart! - Sorry, no kitty for you. - I'm gushin' -
Grandma fell off the roof.
"Quick And Accurate Way Of Diagnosing Endometriosis
ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2009) - A quick and accurate test for endometriosis
that does not require surgery has been developed by researchers from Australia,
Jordan and Belgium, according to new research published online in Europe's
leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction." Details.
St Michael tampons & Tampax: too close for
comfort?
A reader recommends for a tighter fit:
"To get a closer self-adhesive pad fit, I recommend that a women
first attach a pad into a full size panty, pull them up, and then pull on
over these a thong type panty. It will then give a firmer, accident free
feeling, that was reportedly given by belted pads."
Protective briefs (menstrual
panties) from Boots, U.K.
New: Words
and expressions about
menstruation:
Dot, dot, dot (U.S.A.)
Old Boots pharmacy bottle.
The U.K. company also makes menstrual products.
"Chinese Herbs May Relieve Endometriosis
Symptoms, Review
Finds"
Belt to hold tabbed menstrual pad from the English
company Boots, 1990s(?)
The Modern Period:
Menstruation in Twentieth-Century America
The excellent
new book by Lara Freidenfelds.
Don't waste your time reading my review
- buy it!
Always menstrual pad folder
for girls, 1993
"For countless women across India who don't even have enough cloth
to cover their bodies, menses is a monthly disaster
in the absence of adequate clean cloth."
See the good work in India enabling women to
use menstrual pads
"Virtual Reconstruction Of A Neanderthal
Woman's Birth Canal Reveals Insights Into Evolution
Of Human Child Birth"
Read the short article.
Ethereal white folks in a puberty booklet
for mothers of girls:
How shall I tell my daughter? (1968)
New Scientist magazine on a roll:
"Everything you always wanted to know about female
ejaculation (but were afraid to ask)"
&
"Six things science has revealed about the female
orgasm"
"Contraceptive Sponge Makes a Return
to Pharmacy Shelves"
More
at the New York Times.
Girls' & boys' puberty booklet from Tampax:
"Q girls & boys A," (1987)
New words and expressions
about menstruation from
French Canada (Quebec):
Etre sur ma semaine
/ avoir ma semaine
Etre menstruée
"Higher Prevalence Of Early Onset Of Menstrual Periods Among Survivors
Of Childhood Sexual Abuse" More.
"Traditionally, . . women have been constantly under
the influence of a hormone [oxytocin] that promotes selective
social memory, and women seem often to be the
keepers of positive social interactions and the initiators of diplomacy
and peace-making." Much
more, also about the baleful influence of birth-control
pills, which suppress oxytocin.
"Genes That Influence Start Of Menstruation
Identified For First Time"
More.
Do fish bite used tampons?
"MUM.ORG is very interesting.
"Have you ever heard of anyone using used
tampons or pads as fishing bait?
"I have heard that fish are extremely attracted to
male ejaculate and could imagine the same for menstrual flow.
With fish attracted to blood and scents it would make sense
to me.
"I could imagine a cooperative wife dropping used tampons
into a ziplock bag and letting hubby freeze them until the next fishing
trip. I assume as they defrost he could cut them
up into nonrecognizable chunks.
"Thank you,"
Rubella tampon (1973) with an ad:
The French were not afraid of the measl-, er,
red
in menstrual advertising:
Fanni Fazekas changes a painting, Red Rain,
in her Art of Menstruation
The first Social Entrepreneurship Fellow from
Harvard Business School uses her $25,000 prize
to start Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), which
enables girls and women in Rwanda to use cheap,
locally made
pads for menstruation so they won't have to miss work and school. Read about
winner Elizabeth Scharpf here.
(Thanks to Prof. Elizabeth Kissling for the
info.)
Read about & see two similar projects in
Rajasthan, India, (partly supported by the MacArthur
Foundation) & in Uttar Pradesh,
India.
The Times of India says,
basically, that these organization and I should mind
our own business.
E-mail update from Duncan McLeod:
"The duncan guy band has moved the Menstral Album
over to the band site. Your community can get the lyrics
on that site and we will have song clips up
soon. We are still getting a lot of requests for these songs live and the
on-line community continues to support them - I guess
women are still menstruating.
"Thanks for your support and if you want to change to a link that
works it is now under: www.duncanguyband.com
"
Join a MIGRANE HEADACHE study!
"In the past I've gotten several participants for each study from your
referrals [from MUM, this site] & now I'm doing a small study with a
pilot educational intervention -- a major focus of this study is menstrual
migraine. . . . The web site for our new study
is https://cfusion.sph.emory.edu/migraine2/
"
Margaret Moloney, RN, PhD, ANP
Associate Professor
Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing
Georgia State University
Stems, x-rays, the finder of the G-spot &
HEATING TESTICLES:
More from
Dr. Robert Dickinson's
Control of Conception (1931/32)
The most important sex researcher before Kinsey,
artist & doctor Robert Dickinson, describes contraception
and MUCH else in his
Control of Conception (1931/32)
New Words and expressions about menstruation:
(all U.S.A.) I'm rejoicing in my womanhood. - I have my girl thing.
- Well, your little plan failed this month. - Your vagina is emo!
The writer who made suggestions about the
What did women do about menstruation in the past?
page: PLEASE RE-SEND YOUR MAIL!
Dr. Pierce to you:
SHOVE IT!
Read about this in his
Ladies Note Book and Calendar (1914)
Boys needed to know about Women's Mysteries:
"For boys: a book about girls" (1981/87),
a booklet from the company that made Modess menstrual pads
The guys at a pharmaceutical firm wane poetic:
"You are a woman. Your body curves . . .your
skin is soft . . ."
Read the Norforms booklet from Norwich Pharmacal
Co., 1968
New
Words and expressions about menstruation
from India: The crow has touched them, Baith Jana, Mahwari, &
Maasik Dharm
A MUM visitor writes,
Hello, Mr Finley,
The people at this website
are apparently planning to sell a USB flash drive
housed in a tampon (it's at the bottom of the page in the "Coming
Soon" section). It comes in "Regular," "Super,"
and "Ultra."
In spite of the name, DYKON is a contraceptive
jelly from the 1930s.
What contraceptives could you buy in 1957?
Read the sometimes funny list.
Finally, read what you can do to
prevent and cure FEMALE TROUBLES!
Read Gilbert Thayer's Special Book for Women,
probably from the 1920s. Some are very up to date.
Articles continue below the ad(s)
Current articles & news below
Early sex researcher Clelia Mosher, M.D., corrects
myths about women in
Woman's Physical Freedom (1923)
She adds diaper, plug,
and not a good day to
Words and expressions about menstruation.
"I am quite sure you have received numerous answers to the name
of the 'weed' that provided fluffy material to use for menstrual pads in
the days of long ago ( maybe even today for rugged ' ladies of the woods'?
). The wild weed is assuredly what is known as Cat Tail or Cattail. They
grow wild near water sources ( most often ) such as streams, lakes, etc.
Just wanted to help.
****, North Carolina"
"My periods are not heavy or painful but they make me feel so dirty and vile I just cry and cry for hours."
And more of her mail at
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
New words and expressions about menstruation:
Tetherball, from 8th graders: "It
works perfectly and the guys have no idea what we're talking about!"
More.
The matron saint of the pharmaceutical industry
takes you on a tour of New England in
Mrs. Lydia Pinkham's
Landmarks of New England
You think WE have problems? Kimberly-Clark's
(Kotex) employee publication Cooperation
during the early Great Depression (1931-34)
She drew Dick and Jane and
made illustrations for this Lydia Pinkham patent medicine booklet
The Happy Baby
Smyle! It was Nice to have a Pro-Fo
Lactic!
Interesting names for contraceptive & anti-STD
products from the 1940s-1960s. (Start here.)
A woman comments about boric
acid, childbirth and Intelligent Design:
"I think a woman's physical makeup proves that there IS
an Intelligent Designer, because there is no physiological reason
for labor to be painful, or for childbirth to hurt (with the exception of
IF the perineum is torn.)" More.
Modess menstrual pads produced this leaflet for women (1967)
with advice for new mothers after childbirth, &
information about menstruation & hospital-size
pads (really big ones!), & household tricks.
The company that brought you Kotex & Kleenex
also brought your forebears this antiaircraft gun!
Kimberly-Clark company history (through 1947)
Four men and a Machine (1947)
More comments added to
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Modess menstrual pads produced this leaflet for women (1967)
tied to a famous ad campaign.
An early American gynecologist discusses
his discovery and includes many patient
stories in his
(Dr. Alexander Skene's) Diseases of Women (1892)
Easy-to-make Christmas slippers!
Redheads
and menstruation - a connection?
The little pad for between lips of the vulva: inSync
Miniform
Promotional package, 1997
Two new views on
Would you stop
menstruating if you could?
Humor and a
question for YOU.
She's trying to get her boyfriend
to look at MUM.
The maker of the Keeper menstrual cup shows
photos of what you use in menstrual products
compared with one little Keeper.
Preparing for Your Daughter's First Period
at Harvard's
health site
"Fertile women more open to corny chat-up
lines"
Read
the story!
"Ecstasy over G spot therapy"
"It has evaded lovers for centuries, but in February we learned
that the elusive and semi-mythical G spot had been captured on ultrasound
for the first time." Read the story.
And read about it here on MUM.
Drug Maker Said to Pay Ghostwriters for
Journal Articles
[favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy
Prempro]
Story
FINALLY COMLPETED
the museum's Tassette material (unless I find more
in the thousands of items not on this site)
Prospectus & other material about the first
modern American menstrual cup:
Tassette (1930s-1960s)
More advice to teenagers in 2 ads from Kotex
during and right after World War II.
What's a cleaning lady doing in an elegant
Modess
menstrual pad ad?
Well, she isn't, she's . . . (click!)
Kotex explained why dumping water on your date
was INCORRECT
in an Are you in the know? ad from 1954.
New in Words and expressions
about menstruation:
Gruesome week
and Red storm rising
More stories from you about
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
"Brain
flip helps to relieve pre-menstrual stress
The female brain has a clever way of mitigating the stress experienced during
menstruation: it flip-flops."
Read
more.
Kotex instructed mothers how to handle
NAUGHTY GIRLS
and girls how to handle
NAUGHTY BOYS
in 3 ads from the 1940s.
Kotex taught teens how to deal with
STUPOR-MAN
and difficult situations in 3 ads from 1945-46.
Proposals for sex education in America
right after the Second World War:
How Can We Teach About Sex?, 1946
Giving pleasure to cure disease
courtesy of your doctor, 1890s, U.S.A.
New Hormone Data Can Predict Menopause Within A Year.
Read.
The George Bush you never knew - you betcha
Secret & illegal birth control in the Great Depression:
The manual
New Knowledge for Women (1933)
A tampon
from right after World War II
More stories about
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Uterine Jihad "It's a euphemism for
menstruation, particularly one with bad cramps. I don't know the origin,
but I've seen if floating around a few message boards for a couple of years
now."
Read more words and expressions
about menstruation
Women have a higher-pitched voice two days before
they ovulate and during ovulation. And that's not all that makes
them more attractive: their skin color becomes lighter,
certain body parts become more symmetrical - and men find their body odor
and face more appealing. All this from an article unfortunately in
German (here)
but find the voice study in an article from UCLA researchers in "Biology
Letters" of the British Royal Society.
Is Tampax telling its customers to Go fly a kite?
I don't think so. Tampax new ad campaign folder,
1967, with 7 new ads.
"Study says women on [The Pill] may sniff
out wrong mate"
"In its effort to prevent pregnancy, the pill alters a woman's sense
of smell, which is one of the ways she decides, consciously and unconsciously,
which men she is attracted to. When on the pill, she is attracted to men
with similar genes, the study revealed. With these men, she is more likely
to have a miscarriage or a baby who has a compromised immune system, or
suffer from infertility. When she is not on the pill, her nose tells her
to choose men who are genetically dissimilar, which increases her chances
of producing a healthy child. It is Survival of the Fittest 101."
More
at the Baltimore Sun.
Oh, no, the tampon deodorant doesn't work!
Just joking.
Tampax new ad campaign folder, 1966, with 6 ads.
A Procter & Gamble tampon from the Sixties
before Christian groups charged the company
was tied to the Church of Satan (because of
its logo, also on this box)
Two more replies to
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
The New York Times quoted from your e-mail about stopping menstruation for an article on menstrual
suppression in the 14 October 2003 edition, Science Times section (online here).
"My Aunt Flo from Red River is visiting."
"My Expression for Menstruation is something I've borrowed from others
and tried to add to. I say, 'My Aunt Flo from Red River is visiting.' And
if it's a particularly heavy or uncomfortable flow, I add, 'And I have to
go to the train station to pick up all her baggage.' That basically says
it all." (More Words
and expressions about
menstruation)
"First let me tell you that yours is a wonderful site.
Love the cat info too! . . .
"Your website is wonderful. It's
so sad that menstruation is once again being demonized. I can't believe
it is safe to suppress your periods and all this crap about breakthrough
bleeding is strange. Isn't it still a period if it has the same flow and
length? Only in America could we see such stupidity
and prudishness brought to such heights. It's a shame everything
that was brought up in the late 60's and 70's is now gone."
Leonardo turns in his grave
"Hi Harry! I was visiting Dave Barry's blog recently and I clicked
a link
that led to this item which is up for auction on E-bay. It is a tampon
Mona Lisa." [See more Art of menstruation.]
Klick your heels together for Cellopon tampons!
No, wait, that's a schematic view of the vagina!
Sorry.
More about Japan's Cellopon (1968)
A competitor of Kotex's Life Cycle Library?
Chapter 4, "A Girl Becomes A Woman,"
from The Life Cycle Library
(the Parent and Child Institute, 1969)
It's a Woman's World,
menstruation information booklet from Tampax (1980s?)
Well, in emergencies this was better than a sock, I guess:
Compad compressed pad & belt, 1940s-1960s?
Dealers' cartons of boxes of Wix
tampons, 1930s-40s
"Stem cells from menstrual blood save limbs"
"Stem cells derived from human menstrual blood have, in mice, prevented
limbs with restricted blood flow from withering. Trials in humans facing
amputations are expected to start next year."
More.
Counter display for the first successful Kotex
tampon,
1930s-40s?
A little Lysol with your tampon? No? Well,
how 'bout hydroxyquinoline from the same company??
Sure, on
F & L New Improved Tampons (1930s-40s)!
Sta-Pacs, a 1930s Tampax rip-off?
Brazilian TV Humor
I tried to finish this update but a car killed Max,
my oldest and favorite cat, this morning. I hope to have an update this
Sunday, 10 August.
Are you gasping at another picture of ripped
American Olympic swimmer DARA
TORRES or just another Englishman in women's underwear?
Curses, see
for yourself!
More Words and expressions
about menstruation:
The Axe wound: "This one is my favorite. My brother came up
with it. He calls it ... The Axe Wound."
periods and puberty: a practical guide for girls
(from Always pads, 1987)
Miss Buchholz needed Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
after 13 years of
EXAMINING MEN'S UNDERWEAR!
Read about more troubled ladies in the Pinkham company's "Stretching Your Dollar" (1920s).
A pill to make you a lesbian??
Wow, American enterprise at work!
So, what's so FUNNY about TV
ADS for pads and 'pons??
This Australian program shows you!
Is it right to tax menstrual products?
Help this tax payer learn more.
The Art of Menstruation:
Two more pictures by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux
Take THAT, fatness and falling wombs!
Oh, and take Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound.
And read her Home Exercises!
****
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Discover the rich history of menstruation and women's health on this
Web site - MUM for short - devoted to menstruation and selected topics of women's
health!
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