See a later Dutch Mønlykke ad. See another Dutchman holding a pad! And a pleased Frenchman!
Read the fascinating Gilbreth report and see another example of Dutch honesty - and American squeamishness.
Pad directory
See a Modess True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
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? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | 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
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

A man holds a Libresse menstrual napkin in an ad
(1978, the Netherlands)

Although this ad in a Dutch newspaper might be the first or among the first to show a man with a menstrual napkin, men of course have always developed products and worked in the menstrual products industry. But this might be their outing.

The ad praises the male purchasers and retailers who helped make Mölnlycke the second-place brand in the Netherlands, after Kotex, and in only two years. A brave man at the bottom of the page holds aloft one of the company's napkins. See another Dutchman holding a pad! And a pleased Frenchman!

Quiz: How many American ads show men holding pads or tampons? Zero, as far as I know. But then the Dutch live in a famously advanced culture.

The kind Dutchman who has sent so many items to MUM sent these scans and information.

Below: "Not all men are afraid of menstrual pads" screams the headline in this full-page ad in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, 28 December 1978.
 
Essentially, the ad praises the men - and one woman! - who as business purchasers and retailers helped vault Libresse pads into second place (behind Kotex) in the Netherlands. The second and third paragraphs read (my translation):
Afraid that their masculinity would be affected, maybe? Ladies, forgive them - menstruation is a persistent taboo.
The oldest taboo in the world perhaps (according to some scholars the word taboo comes from "tapua," ancient Polynesian for menstruation).
At the bottom of the ad we read:
Mølnlycke compliments the Dutch men who without blushing buy the right sanitary napkin.
Below: The ad creators discussed the ad in a Dutch magazine and reproduced this easier-to-read version (if you read Dutch, that is).
Below: The picture on the package is the same as on the ad from the previous year.
 
 See Libresse ads right before this time.
See another Dutchman holding a pad! And a pleased Frenchman!
Read the fascinating Gilbreth report and see another example of Dutch honesty - and American squeamishness.

Copyright 2007 Harry Finley