See also Australian
douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.)
(date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.)
- Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual
pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections),
1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.)
- Myzone menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia)
- Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) -
Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany)
- Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci
Capo Rome) - the odor page
 
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Australian douche ad for birth control
The advertisements below are from a birth-control
publication in Australia, probably printed around 1900 or slightly
before. The Australian government prosecuted this "Wife's Guide and
Friend" for being obscene because it advertised contraceptives and
contained birth control information.
The nineteenth-century Comstock laws in
the U.S.A. outlawed contraceptive devices and obscene material, and some
visitors to this site will know the trouble Margaret Sanger had in the United
States in the twentieth.
Thank you very much to the Royal Australian
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Melbourne, which owns
the original of "Wife's Guide and Friend," and to The
Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which kindly gave MUM photocopies of
parts of the publication.
And many thanks to Megan Hicks of the Powerhouse
Museum, Australia's largest museum, for her interest, commentary and help!
Her museum will get MUM if I can't find a suitable place for it in the U.S.A.
(See the MUM future
and "A Visit to the (Future) Museum of
Menstruation" comic strip.
Visit the odor page.
Originals owned by the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists, Melbourne |
Vaginal irrigation - "douching"
- probably originated in prehistory. But at least from the latter part of
the 19th, and well into the 20th, centuries, douching became common, in
step with wide-spread Victorian fears of odor and of the body in general.
In the American Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogs from this century,
a woman could pick from many different models of apparatus. See an American set from the 1920s.
But women douched to prevent babies, too,
which is undoubtedly why we read the ad here. It wasn't very effective.
Advertising frightened women into douching, and American
ads from the early part of this century were especially harsh.
These Australian ads are similar to American ads of the time.
The recommendation today is normally not to douche, as the injection
of fluids into the healthy vagina disturbs the normal bacteria and chemical
equilibrium.
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NEXT: Fresca douche powder
© 1998 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
See also Australian
douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.)
(date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.)
- Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual
pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections),
1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.)
- Myzone menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia)
- Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) -
Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany)
- Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci
Capo Rome) - the odor page
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