New this week: Mene
pad ad (United Kingdom, 1931) - Photo of Mary Pauline
Callender, writer of the Marjorie May stories for Kotex - humor
Letters to your MUM
Huge resource of advertising
I've loved your site ever since I first stumbled
across it back in '97; thanks to the resources you've had, I've not only
written several papers about the various aspects of feminine hygiene products,
but I've also taken up an avid personal interest in advertising (particularly
vintage advertising) for pads and tampons.
Of course, my heart leapt up when I beheld this
site:
It's a fairly extensive
collection of old advertisements from the 20s through the 50s, including
radio, television and wartime ads as well, but there's also a good number
of feminine hygiene ads from 20s to the 50s, not only for pads and tampons,
but also for douches and sprays as well.
It's both interesting and amusing, I was even
surprised to read ads from the 50s strongly advising menstruating young
women against ice skating or getting their feet wet during "those
days." Or seeing an ad of a proud grocer standing by a huge Modess
display contrasted with ads from women's magazines touting the new discreetly-wrapped,
smaller-size box. Anyhow, if you haven't seen it, I thought that you and
other mum.org visitors would enjoy this site.
Thanks,
George Eliot and menstruation
I read this in a book by John Sutherland, World's
Classic titled Is Heathcliff A Murderer?, on page 110, subtitled "What is Hetty waiting for?"
In Eliot's book, Adam Bede, she hints about menstruation.
In chapter 35 it is written:
"After the first on-coming of her great
dread, some weeks after her betrothal to Adam, she had waited and waited,
in the blind vague hope that something would happen to set her free from
terror."
Hetty was involved sexually with Arthur, and
was impregnated. She was blissfully ignorant of the fact, however, and
accepted Adam's proposal. After she was betrothed, she was educated by
Miss Sorrel on "the facts of life," that is, where babies come
from, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, etc.,
So, she was hoping that it was a late period
and not a sign of pregnancy.
Hope this prove to be a valuable input for your
Web site. [Thanks!]
God Love You,
A Brazilian student is writing a thesis about
menstruation
Mister Finley:
I'm from Brazil and my English is not very good, but . . . .
I agree with you: the body is not medicine, and knowledge about menstruation
isn't property of the physicians. I'm studying at Federal University of
Santa Maria and I'm writing a thesis about it. Through the relationship
between physical activity and menstruation we can describe the limitations
and problems that medical knowledge (science, studies) has. And show why
we need knowledge from other fields for a pedagogical approach.
I had been looking for information for six years and I think your work
is great. There isn't another source of information about menstruation
like your MUM. Because of it I´m sure you deserve to be open and
to direct your museum. [Here are my ideas for the future
museum.]
If I or my work could help you, I'm here, just waiting for your e-mail.
[Many thanks!]
Greetings,
We philosophy majors can do anything, including study psychology and
run museums
Dear Mr. Finley,
I cannot help but write to thank you for your wonderful Web site and
your truly inspired museum.
As a doctoral student of psychology about to begin my dissertation
on menstruation, I am more than grateful for this rich resource. [Happy
to be of help!]
I am also impressed and thankful for the spirit in which you provide
this resource. Your mission to educate anyone interested is refreshing
and admirable, thus, I believe that re-locating your museum within a hospital
or medical school would simply be disgusting. [!]
And, I imagine that it would also be destroyed within a couple of months
judging by what the medical model and medicine has already done to the
experience of menstruation. [!!]
Furthermore, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy [if you want, read
about my background], my sense is that you are qualified
to be the director of this museum simply because you have learned to think
and you do have a degree in an "unrelated field." (For one thing,
I disagree that philosophy is an unrelated field. We're still talking about
humans, human being and thought, but I could go on and on in that direction.
Anyway, I, too, have a bachelor's degree in philosophy, but this does not
make me prejudiced, of course. [!])
My view is that you have no traditional and tiring ax to grind (unlike
someone with a degree in medicine or the biological sciences might). And
I would rather see what you can put together with regard to the history
of menstruation instead of someone who has a degree in women's studies
only, for instance, and not your lived experience uncovering the material
over the last few years. Folks with degrees in "related fields"
are more likely to look at menstruation through a particular, limiting
lens. I am sure you have a lens, too, but it probably does not skew in
the directions in which we are accustomed.
And so I applaud your efforts and thank you for your existence as a
museum, a human being, and a style of consciousness. I close by asking
if you currently consider opening your doors by request. As I have said,
I am about to embark on my dissertation which revolves around the general
experience of menstruation in this culture. I am particularly interested
in the current cultural attitudes about menstruation and how women live
through them, despite them, etc. My doctoral program has an existential
phenomenological orientation, and so I will be doing qualitative research.
I am excited about this research and you and your museum's wealth of knowledge.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Work, M.A.
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA
Moggies - Australian for certain cats
- get more explanation from the contributor of Peg's
Paper (in New this week, at the top of
the page). (Read her letter from
last week.)
Dear Mr Finley,
"Moggies" is the plural of "moggy," a generic and
all-purpose word meaning cat. It is never applied to pedigreed, well-bred
cats (in my long career as a cat carer, I've only ever been owned by moggies).
Examples of usage of the term would be
"I took my moggy to the vet to have her teeth cleaned,""I'm
fed up with moggies peeing on the lawn,""There is a moggy on
the dunny roof," etc., etc.
"Dunny" is a peculiarly Australian word for toilet. Just
excuse me for being vulgar. Some houses (ours, for example) still have
an outdoor toilet (I hasten to add we also have an indoor one as well),
as we live in one of Melbourne's oldest suburbs. We are reluctant to pull
the dunny down, as the moggy likes sitting on the roof, and it is also
a bit of a conversation piece! Needless to say, it doesn't get cold enough
in Melbourne to upset outdoor plumbing. [Lucky you!]
See you in the soup.
Best wishes
Instead menstrual cups and Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
First, thanks for a wonderful site. [Thanks!] It was great to see the
Instead menstrual cup somewhere on the Web. I've
been using them for over a year and have become an evangelist for them
(its Web site is http://www.softcup.com).
I was also thrilled to see Lydia Pinkham's name and face.
My mother used to sing a song about her (British
pop group's lyrics) when I was little, referring to L. Pinkham in the
lyrics as "the saviour of the human race."
Grand memories and good show to all of you at MUM [you mean me and
seven cats?].
The Red Tent
I don't think I saw this book on your list,
maybe I missed it, its called The Red Tent,
by Anita Diamant. It's a biblical fiction book about women and how their
bonds strengthened in the red tent [meaning menstrual hut, writes the writer].
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: Mene
pad ad (United Kingdom, 1931) - Photo of Mary Pauline
Callender, writer of the Marjorie May stories for Kotex - 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