New this week:
Words and expressions for menstruation (Spain)
- Would you stop menstruating if you could? -
humor
Letters to your MUM
Menstruation a disease?
A bloody menses is a disease!
Viktoras Kulvinskas, in his book "Survival Into the 21st Century"
presents a detailed report on how only female animals, including humans,
who have a breakdown in their immune systems suffer from a bloody menstruation.
There is evidence that females not exposed to the pollution of society
do not suffer from this bloody disease. Check it out...
[I have not read or even heard of the book - has anyone?
I'm no biologist or physician, but a very heavy period sometimes indicates
a problem; all periods are bloody. Lack of blood would in itself indicate
a problem.]
Praise for the museum
Dear Mr. Finley,
Thank-you for pursuing your great idea for a menstruation museum. I
am a first time visitor to your fantastic Web site and have spent the better
part of the day perusing it. What a fun and informative thing it is; so
much so that I'm forwarding your site to the females in my life. How I
wish I had this information when I first began menstruating some 30-odd
years ago. [Thank you!]
With gratitude,
Have you seen slapping girls at menarche
in the movies?
I recently read the article on your site about
the above custom. I remember seeing a French movie about 10 years ago that
involved this tradition. The mother slapped her daughter's face and told
her it was so that her cheeks would always stay pink. I cannot remember
the name of the movie or even much about it unfortunately. I also do not
remember if the family involved were Jewish but I always had the feeling
that this was a French (or just generally European) custom. [Does anyone
have information about this custom
in the movies?]
If I remember any more I will let you know.
Great site!
When did the tests with the famous blue liquid
start? Why?
Dear Mr Finley,
First of all my compliments on the wealth of information you have made
available through your Web site. [Thanks!] There is something particular
which has intrigued me for some time and have tried to research. I am interested to find out more about the 'sanitary towel
tests' featured in television advertisements and particularly the use of
the blue watery liquid which is used in these ads.
Do you have any information on how these "tests"
came to be considered "informative" and the advertisement agencies
reasoning in devising the colour scheme?
Yours sincerely,
[I suggested in the Lillian Gilbreth
article that the blue liquid may be related to the popular practice
of making pad boxes blue in America in the 1920s, and maybe was a kind
of advertising. Many people seem to be spooked by using red, the approximate
color of the menstrual flow. Showing the tests themselves probably arose
when advertisers thought that women would be impressed seeing some kind
of "proof," as was and is done in the advertising of detergents.
[Earlier I suggested on a Canadian business-television program that
if menstrual-pad products and the liquids in "tests" should be
red, then toilet-paper wrapping should be brown and yellow.
[Does anyone know the answers
to the writer's questions or have other explanations?]
Link to menstruation site:
Hi,
I would like to be linked to your site. The Web address is
Thank you,
Gina Cloud
Call for Submissions: "The 100 Best Things
About Menstruation"
Looking for one-liners up to three paragraphs describing a "best
thing" about menstruation: Health-related, cultural, artistic; an
experience shared with an older or younger relative, or with a partner;
a dream, political statement, joke, proverb, and/or something overheard
at a party; scientific, sexual and/or religious . . . .
Be creative, be precise,
and make it a one-liner up to three paragraphs.
The book will start out with best thing #1:
"Menopause."
Which is a "joke" given to me by a woman in Australia - however,
I think it accurately expresses the menstruphobia most people feel, and
is a good starting point for the general audience
the book is aimed at.
From there, the book is a journey through all stages and aspects of
the lifetime menstrual cycle - and the last several "best things"
will be about menopause. So hopefully the reader will be brought full circle
- they will recognize their own menstruphobia in the first best thing,
but by the end of the book, they may be surprised to find themselves feeling
a bit . . . menstrufriendly!
Please include contact information for you and/or your group EXACTLY
as you would wish it to appear in the book - I think it will save a bit
of hassle down the road!
Any best things that don't make it into the book will be included in
a section on the Menstrual Monday Web site entitled "More Best Things
About Menstruation." I'd like the book to be
a snapshot of the worldwide menstrual movement in year 2000 - so
just like a group photo, there's going to be some adjusting and moving
people around and asking people to tilt their head a bit to the left, etc.
. . i.e., as editor of the book, I may e-mail back and ask you to expand
your best thing(s), or give some specific examples . . . so I hope that's
not going to put anybody off!!!
Here's another sample best thing:
#43. Cramping at the Savoy
I know it's traditional to lie in bed with a hot water bottle or heating
pad when one has cramps, but I can remember working in a fast-food restaurant,
and one day when I had my period, I'd worked an eight-hour shift from 6
am to 2 pm, and later that night, went dancing at 9 pm . . . I can remember
being on the crowded dance floor, and shouting up to my partner, "the
dancing's made my cramps go away!" and him shouting back (although
I could barely hear him above the music): "GOOD!!!"
So maybe the whole purpose of having cramps is to propel us onto the
dance floor!
Working deadline is October 1, 2000, for submissions.
Please feel free to e-mail me with your "best things," and
any questions or comments you may have!
Geneva Kachman [who has written poetry and
essays on this site and had toxic shock syndrome.
She founded Menstrual Monday.]
You have privacy here
What happens when you visit this site?
Nothing.
I get no information about you from any
source when you visit, and I have no idea who you
are, before, during or after your visit.
This is private - period.
Is this the new
millennium or even century?
You can get the correct information
if you go to these pages published by the U S Naval Observatory:
"whenIs")
A comprehensive site from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will put right any doubts:
Help Wanted: This Museum Needs a
Public Official For Its Board of Directors
Your MUM is doing the paper work necessary to become eligible to receive
support from foundations as a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. To achieve
this status, it helps to have a American public official - an elected or
appointed official of the government, federal, state or local - on its board of directors.
What public official out there
will support a museum for the worldwide culture of
women's health and menstruation?
Eventually I would also like to entice people experienced in the law,
finances and fund raising to the board.
Do You Have Irregular Menses?
If so, you may have polycystic ovary syndrome
[and here's a support association for it].
Jane Newman, Clinical Research Coordinator at Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, asked
me to tell you that
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of
reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility
and is linked to diabetes.
Learn more about current
research on PCOS at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University
- or contact Jane Newman.
If you have fewer than six
periods a year, you may be eligible to participate
in the study!
New this week:
Words and expressions for menstruation (Spain)
- humor
© 2000 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