See more Kotex items: First ad (1921; scroll
to bottom of page) - ad 1928 (Sears
and Roebuck catalog) - Lee
Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual
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
See other flushable pads: Society
(American?, 1920s - 1930s?), Modess
(American, 1972) and Sani-Flite
(American, 1971)
See an early ad for New
Freedom (1971) and an early
leaflet (date unknown) promoting it
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) -
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are
many links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in
Spanish showing disposal
method - box from
about 1969 - Preparing for
Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are
you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads
on the Ads for Teenagers main
page
|
New Freedom
menstrual pad (Kotex; box bears a copyright of
1970)
Personal Products Company, maker of Modess, introduced
Stayfree beltless pads (see an ad featuring gymnast
Cathy Rigby) right before (1970)
Kimberly-Clark started selling New Freedom,
the pad below. (See a Dutch
ad showing women wearing the BELTLESS
and BELTED pads.)
Both pads virtually killed
the sanitary napkin belt industry in the
United States. Why would a woman want to wear
something that allows the pad to twist and
shift (well, I guess they still do)? Pads
quickly got better, smaller and more absorbent
and took flight with wings, which protected
underpants.
Note the effort to prettify menstruation
with the words feminine
and femininity, the flower (a common
device with menstrual
products; add an "s" and you have an old
synonym for menstruation) and the stylish clothes and stylish
women (the ad
for New Freedom has similar imagery).
The former Tambrands, maker of Tampax,
which acquired the box in 1971, donated it,
opened, to this museum in 1997, part of a
large gift.
|
|
|
|
Enlarged words on left
side of box
|
|
|
|
Side panel of box
|
The sticky side
|
The business side of the
pad. The pad is about 1" (2.54 cm)
thick.
|
See an early ad
for New Freedom (1971) and an early leaflet (date
unknown) promoting it.
© 1999 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
|
|