Click on the SMCR Web site for conference information: http://www.pop.psu.edu/smcr/ (look at the contents on the left side of that page, two items down).
See my report, with photos, about the 1997 conference. Two of the stars from that proceeding were Prof. Martha McClintock, the first person to scientifically describe menstrual synchrony (read her article), and Dr. Susan Love, surgeon and author of popular books about women's health.
Researchers at the Emory University School of Nursing are conducting an Internet-based study looking at the experience of migraines in women between the ages of 40 and 55. The study includes completion of online questionnaires and participation in an online discussion group with other women who also have headaches. For more information, please visit the study Web site at http://www.sph.emory.edu/migraine, or call the research phone line at 404-712-8558.
Thanks so much.
Peggy Moloney
Greetings,
This is a reminder of the upcoming conference: Weaving the Red Web: Creating Community, Collaboration and Economic Well-Being among Bay Area (and beyond) Menstrual Educators. The conference will be held on Friday, April 11th and Saturday, April 12th, 2003 at the Women's Building in San Francisco. The registration fee is $50. If you have not already registered, please do so as soon as possible - space is limited!
You can register and get more information about the conference at www.theredweb.org. We now have online registration and credit card payment capability.
Please help us by passing this email on to any woman you know who may be interested in attending or becoming part of our Web.
Blessings to you all,
Kelly Rose Mason, Anna Yang, Helynna Brooke and Tamara Slayton, Women of The Red Web Project
Seeking paper proposals that explore women's health in popular culture for possible presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., November 7 to 9, 2003.
Popular culture offers a multitude of representations of women's health, women's relationship to healthcare products and to the healthcare industry, as well as of women's care of others, both formally and informally. What meanings are attached to print advertising, Internet ads, television commercials, television dramas, situation comedies, film, poetry, short stories, novels, or photography on the linkage between women's health and popular culture? Papers that explore the U.S. healthcare industry, women as medical professionals, and the medicalization of women's bodies in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality are particularly encouraged.
Send an email submission (NO ATTACHMENTS) with paper title, 250 word abstract, short CV, full address and audiovisual needs by June 15 to Dr. Katie Hogan, Area Chair, Women's Studies Panel, MAPACA, EMAIL: wsmapaca@aol.com
Hello, Mr. Finley,
My name is Michelle Amaya, and your museum has been a great help for my thesis work for my fine arts degree. All the information and bibliography have been basic for my work.
I come to you for help because I believe women in Colombia (where I live) wash their underwear in the shower. It's very important for me to know because I'm using this information to find an identity denominator between me and the Colombians. I was born in the U.S.A. from Colombian parents, and lived for almost 18 years away from Colombia (France, Venezuela, Italy). I feel I don't have an identity and this routine may bring me close to what I believe is Colombian only.
If it is possible, could you post these questions on your museum page or forward them to your database?
How do you wash your underwear?
Where do you wash them?
Nationality?
Sex?
Please answer at:
ayudaparamitesis@hotmail.com and say "forward."
[Read one response:]
During my fieldwork in rural Samoa many women washed their underwear, when they wore any, when they bathed. They also generally bathed in their lavalava so body and clothes all got washed at once. They also did separate washing, but I do not remember that they included underwear in that washing most of the time. While I was there I did the same thing and generally washed my clothes with the water left in the bucket after I washed (again wearing my lavalava as bathing is rather public). Women either bathe in a public-like shower, out of a pan or bucket, or in the sea or a natural pool.
I think women in many Micronesian and other island communities do the same, although I have not actually live with a family when I have done fieldwork in Micronesia. But I cannot remember ever seeing underwear on a line to dry. It would be unthinkable as there are brother/sister taboos that would make that inappropriate. Brothers should not see anything that would have anything to do with a woman's private parts, her sexuality.
I have suggested to many of my friends to take a look at
www.noperiod.com
This is a great Web site that has information you can print out and take to your doctor. One of my friends followed the suggestions and now that she has no period her binge eating and PMS symptoms have gone away.
Very well researched and by a female medical doctor!
[Read e-mail from women to MUM about stopping their periods.]
Hej,
I saw this on your news page:
"Manufacturers! Make 'Sneeze Pads'!"
The word she's looking for is "diaper." Diapers for grown-ups exist, in lots of different sizes and variations. I work with old people and most of them use diapers. Some just don't know they exist until somebody tells them (and that somebody is usually a nurse, not their best friend of 50 years. I even met one man who imported them from America for himself, and who was very surprised when I told him he could get them in Sweden).
If she wants more specific instructions, I think this site has them: http://shopinprivate.com/ (they also have Instead menstrual cups, in fact they are cheaper to buy from them than from softcup.com!)
[The Swedish e-mailer has helped this site many times.]
The silly and the serious of our busy lives as women, coming together for achieving a stronger self-esteem. Through networking ideas and sharing stories.
Share your insights!
http://sheesteem.net/womenresources.htm
Is the basin in backwards? |
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A woman born in France donated her mother's 1928 bidet to this museum. Your MUM, a man - yes, it's a paradox and ironic, maybe even comic - might have got the darn thing set up wrong, bidets being mostly a woman's thaang - although that has not stopped me before. You judge!
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Dear Harry,
This is something I really thought of right away, even though I didn't write it for a while.
On feminine versus masculine concepts as a compliment: the reason you don't hear "Oh, that's a menstrual work of fiction!" is that seminal is starting something, and menstrual is shedding something. No, menstrual is never going to be a compliment. If your book were menstrual, people would burn it. If you want a female principle to be a compliment, try "pregnant." To be pregnant (with something) in a figurative sense suggests fullness or generosity.
Sincerely,
Hello,
On your site "Phil" [Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr., probably the foremost researcher of the safety of menstrual products, and a MUM board member] has commented that the best way to get rid of germs on seas sponges is to boil them [read here]. However, boiling them causes them to become rough and shortens their life span about double! Please make a note that the sponges can be soaked in tea tree oil and warm water instead, which would thoroughly clean the sponges without the side effects caused by boiling. [I would say boiling would be better even though it shortens the life of the sponge.]
Hi, Mr. Finley,
I first visited your museum today. That is a great idea: it's funny, and of good taste. Sure, the subject deserves being discussed! Now I understand that PMS is part of the delicate psychological balance of a woman, and I guess I can deal with it better, once I know it happens to almost everyone with different intensity. And yet, it has happened to me in many ways, in different moments of my life. When I'm unhappy it really makes things worse. But I've been so happy recently that I've simply passed through my period without noticing it.
Thanks for your service, and good luck in raising funds.
**** (from Brazil)
[Read more comments from women about menstruation.]
Post-menopausal woman will sell you her Instead menstrual cups
Hi.
I don't know if Instead is still available or not (see their Web site, http://www.softcup.com). I ordered a case from Walgreen's when they were available. I have now finished menopause and have 7 boxes of 14 left. If anyone is having difficulty getting this wonderful product they can contact me. I will be happy to ship them.
Thanks.
Ellie, phone (U.S.A.) 386-437-5815, e-mail ehulford@msn.com
She has problems with The Keeper but will still use it
Hi,
Firstly I'd like to thank you for including my artwork on your Web site mum.org (here). It is nice to see that there are a lot more artists featured under "art of menstruation" than the last time I looked!
Secondly, I've been using The Keeper for three years now and am sad to discover that I need to buy a new one. This is what happened: three months ago I had trouble putting my Keeper in. The next two cycles I also had trouble putting my Keeper in. Generally I've not found it extremely difficult, but I just could NOT get it in right. I thought perhaps it was because I was stressed or tense or impatient, but this past month I tried very calmly to insert The Keeper and I still couldn't get it in right. After being inserted, the cup wouldn't pop open like it used to. It just stayed sort of crushed/folded. I figure that the problem is not that I've forgotten how to properly insert my keeper, but that the cup is just getting worn out and doesn't have the springiness that it used to have. I spoke to another woman about The Keeper about a year ago and she'd stopped using The Keeper because she couldn't get it in right anymore. I suspect that perhaps her Keeper was also worn out.
I haven't really heard much about this. Of course I'm going to buy a new Keeper - I think three years is a pretty long time for it to last anyway - but what do they really mean by "lasts up to 10 years"? Is that if you only use it sometimes? Only during the day?
Mine crapped out after three years.
Thanks,
Anne Encephalon
Diva and Moon cups compete with Instead and The Keeper
Hello,
I came across the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health online by accident while looking for info on the Keeper, and thought I'd pass along a few sites in return:
http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
http://www.divacup.com/
Both of these are silicone menstrual cups similar to the Keeper (which is made of rubber).
Thank you very much for a very informative site! I'll have to come back and read through all of it when I get a chance!
How she uses Instead
I love the use of Instead. I have learned many things through trial and error using Instead. I started with using gloves to insert and remove and wound up using toilet paper as a barrier to grab the cup and I do not get a mess on my hands. The convenience of the long wear, comfort and discreetness far outweighs any disadvantages!
Instead user searches for cup
Hi,
I used to use Instead (long time o.b. [tampon] user, so finger insertion wasn't a big deal). I had no problems with it, no leaking, no problem with taking it out or anything. It would sometimes take a while to get it in the right spot, but practice makes perfect, right?
However, I haven't seen it on the shelves for sometime now (U.S.A., West Coast).
Now that I've found your site (wonderful, by the way) and their Web site (http://www.softcup.com) I'll be able to order more. Thank you for that.
Like most people I wish that both the pro aspects of The Keeper and Instead could be combined. Reusable, environmentally friendly Instead.
Thank you for the informative Web site; I'm making sure to have it on my Favorites for easy access.
She likes The Keeper, but has tips for using Instead
I have tried both and have stuck with The Keeper! I love it! I know that it doesn't seem to work for everyone but it works for me! I am actually writing this because I was reading how some women didn't want to throw away the Instead cup because of its not being biodegradable, etc. That was also the big problem that I had with it but you know, they are only saying that it is disposable so that you keep buying more. If they market it as reusable they wouldn't make a profit. SO WASH IT OUT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, LADIES!!! That's what I did and I'm fine!
Article about menstrual cups in the New York Times
Illustration © 2000 Harry Finley The excellent "Menstrual Cups, at Age 66, Begin to Make Up for Lost Time," by Donald G. McNeil Jr., appeared in the Science Times section of the February 4, 2003 newspaper. [You can retrieve the article from the Times Web site.]
I liked seeing an authoritative, main-stream publication write about this important help for women; they seldom do. The article, which discusses The Keeper and Instead, quotes menstrual products safety expert Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr., who is a MUM board member, and others (including me), and basically is very positive about cups.
But contrary to the photo cut line, the picture of The Keeper cup in the article sure looks as if it came from this MUM site (here), not from Health Keeper Inc.
Read a short and incomplete history of menstrual cups here.
Buy Instead at http://www.softcup.com and at some drug stores in the U.S.A., and The Keeper at http://www.thekeeperinc.com, among many Web sites. And there is now the silicone (British) Mooncup, similar in shape to the Keeper, at http://www.mooncup.co.uk
Mr. Finley,
Thank you very much for the work you do with your site. I have been a reader for years.
I am looking into planning a worship service (no particular faith is preferred) around menstruation. Would you be so kind as to you point me to any resources you have come across?
Just so that I am not asking for your help w/o offering any myself, I will tell you that most modern scholarship on Christianity relies on the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. I noticed your scan of Leviticus 15 [supporting the religious pages at MUM] is from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. I'd be happy to scan you the passage from the NRSV. It may not differ much or at all, but it will help people to know you have a contemporary translation.
Thank you for your time,
Hi,
First, I have to tell you that I spent several hours digging into your site - it is an excellent source of info, gadgets and more! I enjoyed spending my time reading through the numerous articles you have included. I especially enjoyed the gallery [of my art; I'm a painter and graphic designer] - YOU are very talented! You have certainly covered a lot of territory with both positive and negative attitudes concerning women and menses. What a surprise to me that you are MALE !
One more thing, I ran across an old magazine from 1916 in some of my things recently. The ad starts out in BOLD PRINT: "THE FEAR that Blights Romance and Ages Women Prematurely" - a professional "appearing" women dressed in white is portrayed as an M.D. that recommends the use of LYSOL for douching!! I was surprised and had to re-read the ad to be sure that I wasn't wrong in how I interpreted what I was reading. LYSOL - can you believe it? For douching? [See some Lysol ads on this site: from 1928 and 1948.]
It's NO wonder women have become to believe that WE stink there!
The ad remained on my mind, so one day when I was out shopping at the local drug store, I decided to take a stroll down the "feminine" aisle. HOLY MACARONI, there are numerous products to cover up women's odorous condition daily, whether menstrual or not! As I inspected various products I noticed there wasn't a single PENILE item. Hmmmm. Why is this? Men do NOT have a GENITAL ODOR? Ya, right. I enjoy doing little sociology experiments when the opportunity is before me, so I asked the clerk where the PENILE DEODORANT PRODUCTS were located. I mentioned that I already looked in the aisle that displayed an array of "daintiness" products for women but did not see a single one pertaining to men. The clerk got a puzzled look and asked another employee (both genders) - another puzzled look. They both walked to where the female hygiene products were displayed to see if if any male hygiene products were available. What happened, of course was that there were NO products for men. ARE there products for men? (Kama Sutra Oils and such for sexual use does NOT apply)
The message sent to women is: WOMEN STINK DOWN THERE!!
And years ago it was suggested that LYSOL be used to eliminate the foul scent? EGADS! LYSOL???
Thanks.
Have a great day!
Hello, Mr. Finley,
I am a woman graduate student, working on an M.A. in Latin American literature, and happened upon your site by accident. I am intrigued by it, and have spent some four hours over the last two days investigating it. It is refreshing and delightful to see menstruation treated with curiosity, respect and openness. Your collection of photos and articles is broad, authoritative and very interesting. I am sorry that you do not have a physical museum. [See the museum that was in my house for four years. I'm looking a permanent, public space for it; read my plan.]
I applaud you for your work on the MUM and hope that you only find success as you continue its life on the Web. Please do not close. I will be telling my girl friends about your wonderful Web site. Thank you very much!
**** Canada
I would love to add your site to the Links page on my own Web site. Please check out www.blessingmoons.com and consider reciprocating by adding my site to your own links page.
Thank you, Ivy McNiven
Hi, Harry,
My name is Kate Laidlaw and I have designed a site called The Moon is Red: A Positive Approach to Menstruation,
http://www.themoonisred.ca
Check it out if you like and if you want to link it to your site - I would appreciate it. I have an extensive link section as well and you are in it.
Thank you for your great work and I hope to come to visit your museum one day!
Sincerely,
Kate
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What you have listed on your Web site as a sewing kit is not a sewing kit. It is a mending kit or a needle and thread case as it says right on it. I am attaching a photo of the sewing kits with Lydia Pinkham on them [at left]. These are two versions of who knows how many. They are easy to find at almost any flea market. There must have been millions made.[See the MUM mending kit and read and see more about America's first really successful businesswoman.] |
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY presents
THAT TIME OF MONTH
Four Female Artists Bridge the Personal and the Universal
MARCH 8 - MAY 4
Opening Reception, Saturday March 8, 2003, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue at 10th Street; call (212) 475-0108 for information
Gallery Hours M-Sat 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sun 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Diane Apostolacus
Born and raised on the Jersey Shore, Diane Apostolacus graduated from Alfred University with a B.F.A. in 1987, afterwards making her artistic life in Brooklyn, N.Y. Throughout many creative interests such as book carvings, box constructions, collages, printmaking and photography, Diane has remained most devoted to painting in encaustics. She was awarded a residency at Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, N.Y., in November of 1999 where she focused exclusively on her encaustics works. Since then, Diane has exhibited in various galleries and functions in Brooklyn and was accepted into "Encaustic Works 99," a juried International Biennial in Kingston, N.Y.
On exhibit will be four paintings by Diane, reflecting her unique perspective on everyday things.
Zenzele Browne
A native of Philadelphia, Zenzele Browne distinguished herself at the renowned Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. For the past 19 years, she has made New York City her home, particularly the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she lives, loves, laughs and paints paints paints paints paints! Zenzele's work was recently featured in the traveling exhibit "The Politics of Racism" at ABC No Rio, Lowe Gallery at Hudson Guild and Fire Patrol #5 Gallery. Other recent exhibits include " Erotic Art of Black Women" at Satta Gallery in Brooklyn and "Mumia 911" at Rush Fine Arts Gallery. To view more of Zenzele Browne's artwork visit www.inthelightfinearts.com.
Five large-sized exuberant interior landscapes by Zenzele will be on exhibit.
Barbara Ann Slitkin
Barbara Ann Slitkin has won numerous awards and grants including memebership in the National Mural Society and art residency from the Friends of the Library in 1992. She has also been invited to exhibit numerous one-person shows at the Tompkins Square Gallery.
From 1992-2001, her work has been shown widely at many group exhibitions including "Wheel!" juried by A. Aiches, chief curator for the Bass Museum in Florida, and "Tool" juried by Ms. Bonnie Clearwater, chief curator for the Museum for Contemporary Art, also in Florida. The artist's work is in many private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Last year, she was archived by the Museum of American Folk Art as a 20th Century Folk Artist.
On exhibit are four paintings from Barbara's Paint My Flowers Black series.
Tamara Wyndham
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Tamara studied traditional drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach; and more experimental drawing, book works, and performance at the University of California at Irvine. She moved to New York City in 1979, where she continued to explore different methods of art making. She became involved in the feminist movement, organizing consciousness-raising and study groups, and attending numerous demonstrations and actions. She also became involved in feminist spirituality, and has led meditations. She traveled through Mexico and Central America for one year in 1984-1985, painting and learning about the different cultures and languages. More recently Tamara has been influenced by her travel and work in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey.
She has been awarded artist residencies at the Henry Street Settlement, the Kate Millett Art Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, the Mariz Ceramic Workshop in the Czech Republic, and the Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain.
Tamara will give viewers a whole new way to look at bodily fluids with six mixed media pieces from her series Blood on My Hands. [See her performance and paper art here.]
Read more about it - it includes this museum (when it was in my house) and many interesting people associated publically with menstruation. Individual Americans can buy the video by contacting
Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126Canadians purchase it through the National Film Board of Canada.
If so, Lana Thompson wants to hear from you.
if I die before establishing the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health as a permanent public display in the United States (read more of my plans here). I have had coronary angioplasty; I have heart disease related to that which killed all six of my parents and grandparents (some when young), according to the foremost Johns Hopkins lipids specialist. The professor told me I would be a "very sick person" if I were not a vegetarian since I cannot tolerate any of the medications available. Almost two years ago I debated the concept of the museum on American national television ("Moral Court," Fox Network) and MUM board member Miki Walsh (see the board), who was in the audience at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, said I looked like a zombie - it was the insomnia-inducing effect of the cholesterol medication.
And almost two years ago Megan Hicks, curator of medicine at Australia's Powerhouse Museum, the country's largest, in Sydney, visited MUM (see her and read about the visit). She described her creation of an exhibit about the history of contraception that traveled Australia; because of the subject many people had objected to it before it started and predicted its failure. But it was a great success!
The museum would have a good home.
I'm trying to establish myself as a painter (see some of my paintings) in order to retire from my present job to give myself the time to get this museum into a public place and on display permanently (at least much of it); it's impossible to do now because of the time my present job requires.
An Australian e-mailed me about this:
Wow, the response to the museum, if it were set up in Australia, would be so varied. You'd have some people rejoicing about it and others totally opposing it (we have some yobbos here who think menstruation is "dirty" and all that other rubbish). I reckon it would be great to have it here. Imagine all the school projects! It might make a lot of younger women happier about menstruating, too. I'd go check it out (and take my boyfriend too) :)
Hey, are you related to Karen Finley, the performance artist?? [Not that I know of, and she hasn't claimed me!]
Don't eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor
The Bush Administration is planning to propose, in next year's budget, to eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. This decision signals the Administration's intent to dismantle the only federal agency specifically mandated to represent the needs of women in the paid work force.
Established in 1920, the Women's Bureau plays a critical function in helping women become aware of their legal rights in the workplace and guiding them to appropriate enforcement agencies for help. The Regional Offices take the lead on the issues that working women care about the most - training for higher paying jobs and non-traditional employment, enforcing laws against pay discrimination, and helping businesses create successful child-care and other family-friendly policies, to name only a few initiatives.
The Regional Offices have achieved real results for wage-earning women for eighty-one years, especially for those who have low incomes or language barriers. The one-on-one assistance provided at the Regional Offices cannot be replaced by a Web site or an electronic voice mail system maintained in Washington.
You can take action on this issue today! Go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/home/ to write to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and tell her you care about keeping the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau in operation. You can also let E. Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director of the Office of Management and Budget, know how you feel about this. You can write a letter of your own or use one we've prepared for you.
If you find this information useful, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive Email Action Alerts from the National Women's Law Center at www.nwlc.org/email.
Thank you!
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (publisher's site)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
I earlier mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
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.
