HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and ancient art of menstruation) |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad, towel, napkin directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.

The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

Ad for Kotex Soft-Impressions deodorant menstrual pads
Unknown magazine, 1972, U.S.A.
"Be a giggle. Be a gag. Be a great day. But be sure."

Oh, that Kotex, always looking for a good time! (So was cartwheeling Stayfree.)

Freedom of movement was important for women; tampons, menstrual cups and sponges helped assure
that but required - and require - boldness to use. The Stayfree brand incorporated freedom
in its name and action photos and even showed Olympic gymnast and current "Peter Pan" Cathy Rigby
in a dangerous position.

And who wanted anyone to know she was wearing a pad? Ads again and again showed women that they could
wear the company's napkins and never reveal their "secret." Even when they dare you!

Of course at this time the belts that held these pads saw the challenge from sticky pads, pads that
adhered to the crotch of panties. (See a comparison of belts and beltless pads in a Swedish ad.) No belts and
no special underpants were necessary. Kotex itself had been selling a beltless pad since at least the early 1970s.

This was a revolution.

I thank the anonymous donor!

Pad, towel, napkin directory




MUCH MORE Kotex

© 2012 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org