Leer la versión en español por María García de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Los riesgos de las duchas vaginales - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación - Sincronía menstrual y suspensión
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
NEWS | 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


"Care for a slice of spice cake with your douche, Ma'am?"
Read the Lydia Pinkham Come into the Kitchen
recipe 'n' hygiene booklet, about 1930.

"Complex Changes In The Brain's Vascular System Occur After Menopause
" In a new study, researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered significant changes in the brain's vascular system when the ovaries stop producing estrogen. MU scientists predict that currently used estrogen-based hormone therapies may complicate this process and may do more harm than good in postmenopausal women." Read the article.

"Hormone Disorder May Contribute To Lack Of Menstruation In Teenage Athletes

"ScienceDaily (Jun. 17, 2008) - Researchers from Harvard University have found a way to predict which teenage female athletes will stop menstruating, an important risk factor for bone thinning, according to a preliminary study.

"Amenorrhea, or absence of menstruation, occurs in as many as 25 percent of female high school athletes, compared with 2 to 5 percent in the general population, . . ." Read complete article.

 

See the first clear images of a human egg escaping the ovary!

Does the moon influence menstruation?
A Harvard medical school professor and MacArthur Award winner writes - it looks that way.

Are you flipped off by these ads for menstrual products?

How did women get rid of used pads and rags in the past? A reader writes.

"Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Linked To Irregular Menstrual Cycles, Premenstrual Symptoms In Women" More.


A woman visitor likes this museum
"I think the website is great!

"I think young girls who are SO EMBARRASSED about getting their periods and talking about it need to realize that EVERY woman on this earth has to deal with it also, and that there IS humor in it too.

"They need to see the website."


Three complete Personal Digest leaflets from Modess
 

A bunch of British menstrual ads
Another contribution to
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
"Irregular Menstrual Cycles In Teens May Be Warning Sign Of Bulimia" Whole article.

The early Pill's maker talks about planning your family, 1964.
And see an early birth control pill.
New words and expressions about menstruation:
From the United Kingdom:
Red rose and - does anyone know what "Can/Do I come in a car?" means? E-mail if you know.

Does estrogen make women want to feel powerful and have control? Maybe.

Daints tampons (1930s),
"For the Woman of Charm"



Lil-lets mini tampons ad from the U.K.


Nikini menstrual panties ads from England
What does "girl" mean to Australians?
And see menstrual products ads on YouYube.


EZO, a Tampax knock-off for Hollywood actresses?


An older box and color instructions for an early American tampon.

Many new words and expressions about menstruation:
TNSFF, ragdoll, What a bloody mess! shark bait, chumming the waters, dying the beard red, I'm a ragdoll. (read the users' thought processes.)


Black & red cans containing contraceptive & menstrual sponges
(American? First half of the 20th century?)


The Art of Menstruation: Megan Morris

A contraceptive/menstrual sponge in a cardboard box

"Hi,
"I'm an Irish teenager and thought you'd like some more expressions used in Ireland.
"Most common are euphemisms like 'I've got woman things/the woman thing', 'I'm not able to swim', 'I've got my flows' or 'I've got my flowers.' Some men refer to menstruation as 'Munster playing at home' (a reference to the red colours employed by the Munster rugby team). In the Irish language menstruation is most commonly referred to as 'ta cursai mna agam' (I've got woman things- the word 'cursai' is ambiguous but generally means events). Also heard are 'i got/have my friend', 'I've the visitor' and 'I'm menstruating/ have my menstruations' is becoming quite popular when referred to in a kind of playful way. It also has to be pointed out that verbal flexibility is highly prized and phrases vary hugely from person to person."


Music & curing women, men and hogs:
"The stomach of a hog needs cleaning out once in a while . . . ." You do too!
Find out how in The 20th Century Song Book (1904)
from the Chattanooga Medicine Company
Red dragon
"I have one that I didn't see. My good friend who's a guy always refers to it as the 'red dragon.' Red as in blood and dragon as in the girl's temperament at that time."
Read more
Words and expressions about menstruation
Stress worsens endometriosis
Read a study.


EEEK! What's a man doing here? Why, this eighty-year-old is attesting to the effectiveness of Black Draught in
Home Treatment for Women, probably before 1920.

New menstrual cup (What are cups?)
Hi, I love your site and I am a cup user. I just heard about a new brand of cups that is one the market (I believe in Finland. [It looks to me to be the Czech Republic.]) The website is http://www.ladycup.eu/. They just came out in January.
Thanks for your website.

 


Puberty & menstruation booklet for girls, 1963: How shall I tell my daughter?


Two letters to
Would you stop menstruating if you could?
1. "I absolutely would love to stop having periods. I've always had super painful and super long periods that last up to 8 days . . . [more]"
2. A bipolar woman writes, "I think it is so easy for many women, especially young girls just starting out to say 'Yes! Make it stop!' Most people if they knew what effect my periods have on me would probably be shocked by my answer. . . . [more]"


Where is a
"discussion of the many different ways women have conceived of and rediscovered/reinvented their understanding of menstruation in the last 20-30 years"?
A letter to MUM

I recently discovered your MUM website. It is so very helpful to have so many interesting links assembled in one place.

It's a little odd, I admit, realizing that this was started by a man. I'm puzzled how a man would become some passionately interested in what is a peculiarly feminine topic. However, as a teacher of mine was often fond of saying - ideas do not have pedigrees and there is much about this site that shows a lot of serious and thoughtful work has been assembled whatever the gender and academic credentials of its curator (you seem a bit defensive on your credentials. [More here.]).

As much as I appreciate the site, there does seem to be a very significant omission. If it is on the site, I can't find it. This is a discussion of the many different ways women have conceived of and rediscovered/reinvented their understanding of menstruation in the last 20-30 years. For example, Jewish feminist thinkers have done considerable work on the meaning of mikvah and woman's connection to cyclic notions of time - topics that are deeply connected to menstruation. The section on Judaism and menstruation contains no mention of their work. [True. Does anyone want to write something about this?]

I realize some women have found it affirming to make art out of menstrual supplies or refuse (they even dispute that the body fluids of menstruation should be called refuse), but this is not the only modern feminist reinvention of menstruation.

There are many others, myself included, who have taken a different tack in reclaiming menstruation - they have chosen instead to place the five days of flow into their larger context. Put another way, the importance of menstruation is *not* the five messy and sometimes painful days of blood flow (which is but a transition from one cycle to the next) but the creative process of which it is a marker. I have that five days because for the previous 20 days my body was preparing to do what no science has yet figured out how to do - nurture and create life from its very beginnings. And all science that has done to help in the process ultimately is modeled on the process which nature has given to my feminine body as a matter of course.

When viewed in that light the monthly period, even with all its pain and mess, is little more than a transition from one creative cycle to the next. Its presence reminds us all of the continual possibility that creativity can be renewed even when it seems to be losing its very lifeblood. I am by no means unique in feeling that there is something profoundly holy, even priestly in this uniquely feminine cycle and the lessons with which it can empower us.

Nor do I mean to romanticize the five day of blood flow - like many women, I can get pretty bad cramps and migraines. However, transitions of any sort - menstrual and otherwise - come with a cost. Whatever the outcome they are usually pretty messy when they are in process. This too is part of the feminine wisdom that can come from such intimate association with the cycles of nature.


The first Junior Tampax



Anshin - Peace of Mind - tampon for the
origami-loving Japanese


Hello Harry,

I am so pleased to be contacting you. I have appreciated, been inspired by and benefited from your Museum of Menstruation for years. Thank you for all the work you do!!!!

I am now contacting you on behalf of Metaformia, a new online Journal of Menstruation & Culture, www.metaformia.org. The founding of Metaformia and its editorship are jointly Judy Grahn, author of Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World and Deborah Grenn, of the Lilith Institute. Our journal seeks to further explore Judy's metaformic theory, a theory of human consciousness originating with menstrual consciousness, as well as other menstrual perspectives about the origins of culture. We invite submissions of all sorts and hope to engage with readers of all backgrounds and interests.

We want to inform you of our journal and also inquire about the possibility of supporting each others' work. . . .

Thank you again for all of the diligent work you do and I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

Annie Lapham


Hello Harry.

My thesis, The Men$trual Origins of Money: Radical Economics in the Presence of the
Divine, Sacred Feminine
is a published book at: www.lulu.com/radwoman

Also, there are links to my book on my website: www.radwoman.com

Thanks so much.

Peace,
Polly
www.radwoman.com



A Rorschach test? Nooooo. Jennifer Weigel, The Art of Menstruation



Did you know the J.C. Penney stores sold their own brand of menstrual pads? And see many ads for pads made of disposable paper before Kotex appeared.


More Words and expressions about menstruation: "I'm pinkin'" and "I'm going through a detrital phase."
"I don't know if you are still collecting code words for menstruation, but I always just said 'I'm having my period' to other women; to men., 'I'm Pinkin'.'"

"I don't know if you're still collecting and adding, but I like to use the expression: 'I'm going through a detrital phase.' I derived it from the word detritus, which means 'loose material' or 'a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away.' 'Detrital' is simply the adjective form of the noun. So basically, menstrual blood and such are categorized as debris, or 'detritus.' Of course, it gets interesting reactions, but that's what I aim for in the first place!"


She offers a petition

I recently called the number to Always pads. I told them the last time I used their product my skin peeled. I asked them for a list of ingredients so I could determine what I was allergic to. They informed me that because pads are a medical device, they don't have to tell me the ingredients. They took all of my information, and told me to hold on to the pads in case their health and safety team needs to retrieve them.

I have started a petition. Menstruation is not a medical condition anymore than pooping. Pads are not a medical device in any way. Please read this petition, and if you like it, maybe you could put a link on your site.

http://www.petitiononline.com/pmppg9/petition.html

Thanks :-)


Kurb your enthusiasm because you're a few decades too late! Try writing a slogan for Midol instead and win $100! Aw, darn it, you're almost 100 years too late on that one!


Ever think you might want to try douching (even though you shouldn't) but didn't want to buy the thing until you're sure? Here's just what you need!



The earliest ads for Modess menstrual pads, 1927?



Midol: from headaches to (Oh, excuse me!) hiccups and back.


The Keeper menstrual cup writes MUM about a new cup

November 12, 2006

Dear Harry:

We want to thank you so much for letting women know about The Keeper throughout the years. Your kind words and support have been extremely important to us!

I am writing to you today because we want you to be among the first to know about our newest product, The Moon Cup, a silicone version of The Keeper. Our Moon Cup was developed in response to numerous requests from latex-sensitive women, who asked us to create a silicone version of The Keeper, so they could experience all the benefits their friends were enjoying: the freedom, as well as the economic and environmental advantages that are the hallmarks of The Keeper.

These women told us that they felt it was important that this new silicone product be manufactured by our company, since The Keeper, Inc. is the leader and most trusted name in the menstrual cup industry.

Like The Keeper, our Moon Cup has FDA approval. And since the Moon Cup has been in the planning and development stage for several years now, we are delighted that it is finally ready for "prime time."

Please feel free to go to www.keeper.com or www.mooncup.com (both are the same site) to learn more about both products.

Again, Harry, thanks so much for your support over the years.

Many thanks,

Julia Schopick
Marketing Director
The Keeper, Inc.

[See what menstrual cups are and see The Keeper page.]



Did American women send their washable pads out to be laundered in 1909?



Kotex starts! 1920.



Ad for Delicate pad 'n' belt in a tube, 1953


Words and expressions about menstruation: Shark week (U.S.A.)
"My favorite expression for mensturation is Shark Week. Blood in the water. I first heard it on a livejournal community called tmi_chix.  http://community.livejournal.com/tmi_chix/profile  I know it comes from Discovery channel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Week but I don't know who first coined it for use as an euphemism for menstruation. I do like it better than Aunt Flo, or surfing the crimson wave, or any of the others I've heard or used in the past. It more accurately describes how vicious an attack of menses can be for some women.  :)"
Read more Words and expressions about menstruation.



Two more MUM pages translated into Spanish by María García (Web page):
Sincronía menstrual y suspensión
Los riesgos de las duchas vaginales



Art of Menstruation: Mayra Alpízar (Cuba)



Very early Kotex ad, 1920



Art of Menstruation and an invitation to you from
Hélène Epaud (France)



The earliest disposable pads? Second earliest, maybe?


Words and expressions about menstruation: U.S.A.:
"I was at a hockey game a while ago, and my brother was joking around and said of the goalie, after stopping a puck, 'Fastest pads in the west.' Me and my aunt started laughing, as 'pads' can really only mean one thing to women, a bit to my brother's confusion. Relating this to my best friend (21, I'm 13), we now sometimes use 'playing hockey' instead of 'on my period.' I just hope I can keep going to actual hockey games without laughing, now!" (Read more words and expressions)


More trustworthy than Rely? 1977



Ad for Modess pads in France, 1972



German mothers, daughters and dancers celebrate menstruation, 1988


Words and expressions about menstruation: New: Philippines

"I have a Filipina fiancée and she uses the English words Red Tide or misred to describe her menstruation. She will not take a bath or shower during this period as she believes an ill wind will enter her vagina. She does however wash locally but no bath or shower." (read more)



Stick 'em in! Oops! I mean UP! Oh, no! Anyway, call Homeland Security!
The Menstrual Militia is on the move. Join them!
(I thank David Pressman, patent lawyer, S.F., author of Patent It Yourself (Nolo Press), World's Best Selling Patent Guide, www.PatentItYourself.com
for the tip.)



German
cartoon strip about menstrual synchrony - or lack of it.



Bath for Jews after menstruation, Germany, built 1260.


Would you stop menstruating if you could?
"I only do four times a year and would not change it for anything." (continued)


 

NEVER IN AMERICA!


1. What's the name of that pad again?


2. o.b. strikes again - but in Europe, of course!

3. Omagosh, you saw 1. & 2. WHERE?
In a government museum?!


Why don't elephants use tampons? (Answer)


"Instead menstrual cups are now at http://www.softcup.com
just for the people who worried that they was gone," writes an e-mailer.


Did suction pull her cervix out?

"Back in 1996 I discovered the Keeper and bought one. It was messy at first and I learned to break the suction when removing it. I even took it on a trip, part of which was primitive camping. I used it for three periods but quit when I had to push my cervix back up inside.  :-(  A few months later I tried it again - thinking maybe it wasn't the Keeper that pulled the cervix out. But within a couple of days it was out again. I haven't used it since, but often wish I could because I like the idea of not having to buy tampons every month.

"I wrote to the makers of the Keeper but never heard back from them. [Read more comments about menstrual cups and read a short & incomplete history of them.]" 


to take your temperature? Another nurse in Kotex ads, 1930s.


Make your own menstrual pads from "
bird eye" cloth - in 1904


Humor:
"My older brother loved to get into mom's thing's when little; make-up, jewelry, and pads. Around age 3 (before my birth) my father hadn't heard much noise from my brother and went looking for him. He found in the bathroom peeling back pads and [continued]"



Would you stop menstruating if you could?
"A resounding YES!!! I despise having my period every month. I have been experiencing my period since I was 11 years old and my family is known to menstruate into their 50s - 40 years of blood every single month is just too much! [continued]"

"The emotional effect of a male gynecologist examining my wife could very well bring a violent and dangerous response."
E-mail from a reader of Dr. Soucasaux's article The Psychology of Gynecology:

"Well, Doc, you've got a fascinating article on the psychology of gynecology. But you neglected one thing: a lot of women don't like male gynecologists because they just totally believe that the only man who should be there is her husband. My wife is Brazilian and she has told me the same. She would refuse to see a male even if it were a life-and-death emergency.

"See, Doc, we both believe that any male inspecting a female's genitalia would be violating the SACRED husband and wife intimacy - which we both believe GOD recognized - but notice that nowhere in Scripture does he recognize a doctor's intimacy with a man's wife. [continued]"


Read about the latest way of stopping menstruation on Slate.com

"I just wanted to let you know that the story on menstrual suppression is out!
http://www.slate.com/id/2151746
"Unfortunately, there was very little room for quotes so I couldn't include all the great info you gave me.
"Best of luck with your work!

"Sarah Richards"



There she goes again! Mrs. Pinkham's pushes her Vegetable Compound, 1897



Wanna buy a tampon, lady? Tampax reps sell tampons, 1934



A company fails on its second try. Tassaway menstrual cup, 1970



Wow! Mmm! Jersey doctors sure knew how to eat in 1897!



Oh, those nurses! A short-lived medical tampon in California, 1910.


Would you stop menstruating if you could? She writes,
"I did stop menstruating for over two years. One might wonder if it was a disease or maybe I'm some super athlete or something. [continued]"


Phone in your Kotex order, avoid embarrassment, 1923


Two new answers to Would you stop menstruating if you could?

Hi, MUM,

I wouldn't stop. I am a pagan and use my blood in rituals. I like the idea of it, how it (continued here)


Words and expressions about menstruation: U.S.A.: Kill the babies, the red tent, Would you look at the calendar?

I'm 21, from Connecticut, and when my dad or brother catch me being "moody" and start to complain about my attitude, me and mother say "Would you look at the calendar?" Also, while in college in Cambridge, Mass., I was in an all-girls dorm that was painted red and within the first month the boys across the street starting referring to our house as "the red tent" [the name of a famous book about menstruation]. My friends and I refer to cramps by holding our stomachs and saying, "Kill the babies," i.e. we're glad to have our periods cause we know we're not pregnant!

Love the site,

***



Writer disputes my interpretation of "wood wool" in the first disposable pads

Hi, I've been reading your fantastic site, and I noticed your explanation of "wood wool" on the page that has the ad for Hartmann's "sanitary wood-wool sheets." My husband is British, and I'm almost certain that "wood wool" is not shavings, but rayon. The British call "wool" anything that looks like cotton (i.e., cotton balls are called "cotton wool"). And rayon (or viscose, as it is called in Britain) has been manufactured since the 1890s from wood--cellulose. It is MUCH more absorbent than cotton, and for this reason it has been used in disposable "feminine hygiene products" since their earliest inception: rayon products leak a lot less, apparently, than cotton ones (although I've read that rayon tampons can leach chemicals into a woman's body more than cotton products, especially organic cotton ones).

Just thought I'd mention this. I really doubt wood shavings would have been used in these pads--the British would never have called wood shavings "wool".

--Jennifer Matesa

author of Navel-Gazing: The Days and Nights of a Mother in the Making (Random House, 2001)


Did Kotex Nurse Buckland really exist?


Read the explanations for four more contributions to
Words and expressions about menstruation:
U.S.A.:
"Ammunition," "I've got Grover," "Photons," and "She has her Red-Headed Stepsister"


Would you stop menstruating if you could?
No
, she writes:
"
I know that science can medicate all that away for me, but like ADD/ADHD and some depressions, I think magic pills take away from the multiplicity of human experience." [She continues here.]


Why are C-sections so popular? And why did doctors conceal forceps for decades even though they were far better than what doctors used before - and read about doulas, bleeding to death and other, um, gripping things about delivering babies.
And how a woman anesthesiologist revolutionized obstetrics by scoring.

"Forceps deliveries are very difficult to teach - much more difficult than a C-section. . . . With a C-section, you stand across from the learner. You can see exactly what the person is doing. You can say, 'Not there. There.' With the forceps, though, there is a feel that is very hard to teach." Read the New Yorker article (9 October) "The Score" by 2006 Macarthur Award winner Dr. Atul Gawande, of Harvard Medical School.


From The Onion, America's Finest News Source:
Excerpt from a story about an bad ad agency, here:

Despite the failed campaign, the agency remains optimistic. "Sure, we're disappointed" Kennedy said. "In this business, you're only as good as your last ad. But we're very excited about our newest client, Tampax. We feel we've really developed a great overall package for them."

The upcoming 30-second TV spots, featuring celebrity spokesperson James Garner and the slogans, "Tampax-For Those Awkward Bleeding-From-Your-Crotch Days"; "Tampax-Inserts In One Quick, Painful Jab"; and "That Ugly Bitch Is On The Rag-Tampax," will begin airing in late March.

and from the July 20, 1925 issue (hard to read; I did my best to improve it):

The Onion also compiled a list of words for menstruation, here.



So what if the punctuation's wrong? It's America's first disposable menstrual pad!



Marvel vaginal douche in the Wild West!
and


Zonite antiseptic for douching and scrubbing the floor, 1916



Dutch feminist exhibit about menstruation, 1982



Lysol in the press, 1891-1924: cleaner, insect killer, birth control fluid, douche


An immigrant from Norway shows tampons to Americans, 1935



Women discovered it in the personals section: Tux tampon, U.S.A., 1930s


Contribution to Words and expressions about menstruation for U.S.A.
I lost my baby
"There was a time a while back when I thought/hoped I was pregnant (not really really hoped, but you know, like, would have been happy), and my roommates and I were joking about it and one of my roommates kept asking me if I was still pregnant, and then one day I said, 'Well, I lost my baby,' so now that's my euphemism of choice but it's not one that I use out loud, obviously. Please sign me anonymous. Great site! Thanks!"



Read newspaper ads for early American tampons: B-ettes, Tampax, Dale, Wix, Fibs and
one for the patent medicine Cardui.


Two women contribute to Would you stop menstruating if you could?


A reader wants to know if you can you identify this model in an American 1970s Tampax ad. An e-mailer thinks it's Angie Dickinson. Another says Jane Fonda. Right?


A retired American teacher writes about how her very poor family did NOT bleed into their clothing, and other matters, such as no-belt pads with no underpants (!), recipes for poisoning instead of divorce, and make-shift birth-control methods in the previous two centuries passed down in her family.

She also writes of the Tassaway menstrual cup:

"I used Tassaway cups at age 17 when they first came out. They were the best and I have used the other products made since (Instead, which often leaks, Diva cup, which sometimes has leaked but I will continue to use) but none of them have been as good. The holes prevented excess suction; the ridges prevented any leaking, and held it firmly in place. Yes, they could be rough inserting especially when cold (our bathroom where I kept them was very cold in the winter) so I learned to run warm water over it before inserting to soften. Even though they were supposed to be disposable, since money was an issue, I reused it throughout my period then threw it away and use a new one next month. I have missed them and was searching for them on eBay and the Internet which led me to your Web site. I would love it if they were brought back but I feel the main reason they failed is not enough women knew they existed, and still don't. I have not known another woman personally who even remembers them. I ordered mine from the back of a magazine, then found them later at the drug store, but then they were gone. Thank you for the Web site.

"P.S. The figure drawings in the instructions are misleading as I inserted it all the way into the vagina and reached in to grasp the loop to remove it. It wasn't sticking out. (women today are cutting down the stick on menstrual cups that are too long)  In fact I remember something in the instructions that said if you had a hard time grasping it, to bear down to push it out so you could grasp it."



Growing up in the Netherlands: puberty booklet, 2004


Korea spinning out of control!
Korean Transgender Singer to Do
Menstrual Pad Ads



Beauty in advertising: the Hickory menstrual pad belt, 1925



The irony of daintiness, pads, belts and menstruation: Formont belt and "protector"


Girls with no father in the house have earlier first menstruation
"Scent Of Father Checks Daughter's Maturity"
Read the riveting story.


Fractures, no menstruation, death:
Running and not eating

The New York Times has a great article about anorexia among athletes; coaches' reluctance to ask about menstruation part of problem



A mother writes a letter to her daughter's doctor about tampons and hymens.


And speaking of hymens and virgins, as this e-mailer does:

"About page: http://www.mum.org/tamvirad.htm [a Tampax ad about tampons and virginity]

"I think the magazine must have been 'YM' (an offshoot of 'Cosmo,' if I remember rightly). I had a subscription for a while when I was about 13. I remember this ad distinctly, because even as a pre-teen I thought, 'What the hell? You'd have to have SEX to not be a virgin! How stupid can you be??'

"Anyway, I just thought it might be useful! I love the MUM project, by the way!"


"Our church was going to the beach for a camp. My twelve-year-old sister and her then-best friend Lyn were on their periods and were a bit upset that they'd be unable to swim at the beach (tampon use is still uncommon in Malaysia due to cultural taboos and the *&@#*! things being priced about RM1 apiece). (Continued; from a 23-year-old Malaysian woman biologist)


New Words and expressions about menstruation: Zambia (whole new category)


NOTICE: "THERE WILL BE NO MORE . . . (continued)



The Art of Menstruation: sculpture by Roz Bonnet


Would you stop menstruating if you could? She would:
"I see it as a curse, a harsh reminder from my body and my brain that if and when I start having sex (yes, I am still a virgin, and plan to remain that way for as long as I possibly can), I'd better be careful to make sure I'm adequately prepared against pregnancy . . . ." (continued)



"Kotex Panti," 1970s


She defends the menstrual cup:

"Hi! I'm writing in response to the posting of a letter on your site.

"The lack of logic of the person who sent the letter about menstrual cups being dangerous astounds me! I never respond to web postings, but I feel so strongly about this (and I do not work for a menstrual cup company!!). How could cups possibly be any worse than tampons? How could ANYTHING be worse than tampons?? Chemical, bleached, fibrous material that absorbs blood and rots for hours... sounds wonderful to me. The cup holds the blood for a time without interacting with it to make it something harmful or poisonous. And obviously, don't leave it in long enough for the blood to completely congeal and go bad... use some common sense! Wash it well and often, don't be lazy and abuse the gift of the menstrual cup. Because it can be a wonderful thing! Think about our landfills and what they would be like if even one of of ten women used a cup instead of nasty and wasteful tampons and pads. And think about the insides of women, free of foreign and harsh chemicals and remnants. I'd like to see the references which the writer claims to back her opinion up with.

'The point is: anything can be dangerous if abused or used incorrectly. But in this case, tampons and pads are MUCH more likely to cause harm than the menstrual cup.

"Thanks for letting me blow off some steam." [Read some history of menstrual cups here and some older e-mail from you about using cups.]



Two funny Kotex menstrual pad ads for 1950s teens



Do I have to use my finger? Ads, Germany & U.S.A.


She likes MUM and directs you to a famous movie

Dear Mr. Finley,

As a former women's studies major, present nursing student, and aspiring nurse midwife I admire you. Your Web site is so thorough, unbiased, and INTERESTING. I find myself looking at it over and over again. No one has addressed the history of menstruation as you have. I hope that someday you will be able to open your museum. I think managing a museum like that would be incredible and I only dream that I could someday do something like that!

I have found a link that features the entire Disney film you have mentioned. I do not know if you have seen all of it before. Either way, please know that you have all of my support as you continue on your exciting journey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amVJpkJo-xw&mode=related&search=

Thank you for your contribution to the study of the female experience.

****

[Read 10 years of letters (some nutty) to this Web site, comments about Diva, Mooncup, etc., plus short articles.]

An addition to expressions for menstruation:

"Love the site!!

"When I was in high school (upstate New York, 1970s) and we had swimming in gym class, if you had your period you just had to respond 'I'm Regular' when they took attendance and you'd be excused from going in the water. Some girls were 'Regular' three out of four weeks!! [signed] ****" Read more Words and expressions about menstruation

 

CONTINUED


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