New this week: Lil-lets advertisement:
"How to make a packet of tampons disappear"
(magazine from the United Kingdom, October 1988)
More about asbestos
in tampons
In 1981, Nancy Friedman wrote in Everything You Must Know About Tampons
(Berkley Books, New York), p. 118:
In 1977, Well Being, a "new age" health
and nutrition magazine, published an article advising readers not to use
tampons because they contained anticoagulants, fiberglass, talc and asbestos.
Similar information had already appeared in feminist publications. This
time [the] Tampax [company] quickly responded, calling the magazine's claims
unfounded, and Well Being retracted the article
in a 1978 issue. But the damage had already
been done: Dozens of other publications, including many women's newsletters,
had picked up the information and circulated it.
She adds in a footnote:
Also in 1977, the California Occupational Safety
and Health Administration tested five tampons and found no
evidence of asbestos in any of them.
I had no idea the rumor had been around that
long, predating even the toxic shock crisis of 1980 and the following years.
I refer you again to Dr. Tierno's comment about
companies' adding asbestos to tampons: "absurd," and to the notice of the latest
sighting of this rumor on the Internet.
Letters to your MUM
Dear Harry,
Speaking of "Moral
Court," there was an instant in the past
when I was morally outraged by something which had happened to me, and
wrote "a letter" about it, and a gentleman in Paris, whom I never
met, read the letter via the Internet, and was inspired by it to make me
a whole Web site!! It would be simply lovely if you could have a look at
this letter and the Web site; you might find it very interesting indeed
!! The url is
You'll find the letter in WRITINGS. It's entitled
"THE SPRING OF MY STALIN." It deals with something terrible which
happened to me because of a painting I made and because of my writings...
:(
Beneath that pdf file there is also a short excerpt
from a novel that was inspired by all the madness :p
Hope you had a great thanksgiving!
Nuni
Enthusiastic guy wants to menstruate
Dear Mr. Finley,
I absolutely LOVE the MUM Web site, and I am glad that you once had
a museum. I wish its doors were still open. I hate our society's negative
feelings about menstruation. It is NOT a shameful thing. It is a beautiful
thing. Much like you, I am a male (26) who is totally fascinated with women,
their culture (that is nothing like that of us males), and their whole
reproductive functions. I can honestly say with no embarassment that, even
though I am a man, I would LOVE to menstruate. My girfriend knows this
and has helped me in expressing these emotions. I
wear a pad one week out of every month just like she does, and she and
I enjoy discussing our periods. Keep up the GREAT work. Write back.
[I have never wanted to menstruate. Women's culture is interesting,
however. I grew up with only male siblings with an Army colonel for a father;
he went to West Point, as did my older brother {read more}.
My poor mother, I think, would have appreciated some female companionship,
what with her boys wrestling and playing cops and robbers and dragging
various animals into the house. She tolerated all this very well, however.
[Soon I plan to put more information about my family on the site.]
Pap art exhibit starts 21 September in
Delray Beach, Florida
I am writing to request your participation and assistance in an exciting
and important project regarding women's health issues.
The world-renowned scientist and lover of the arts Dr.
George Papanicolaou, better known as Dr. Pap, inventor of the Pap smear
test, will be the subject of a special exhibition at the Cornell Museum
of Art in Delray Beach, Florida, beginning September 21, 2000. The
gala opening and artist's reception will be held on Thursday evening September
28, 2000. The foremost patient advocate and director of the Center For
Cervical Health in the United States, Carol Ann Armenti, will be the keynote
speaker.
The exhibition will run through November 12, 2000, and will feature
recent works by international artist Olga Stamatiou,
Dr. Papanicolaou's niece. Stamatiou's works will be available for
acquisition and the profits will go toward:
1. The creation of "PAP MOBILES," vehicles that would be
used to provide testing for under-served women in areas, with the highest
incidence of cervical cancer.
2. The creation of a traveling multimedia art exhibition.
3. The production of a documentary film based on the life, work and
scientific legacy of Dr. Papanicolaou and his wife Mary.
4. The Center for Cervical Health.
5. The Papanicolaou Woman's Corp.
Our organization "PAP" - Prevention and Protection - will
have as its goal to raise awareness about women's health issues, including
the importance of having regular Pap smears and the provision of information
on new and existing methods for detecting cervical cancer.
The traveling exhibition, to be viewed in public spaces and museums,
will be a multimedia environment drawing on and inspired by Dr. Pap's love
of the arts and sciences. This environment will include permanent built-in
units that will provide creative spaces for national and local women's
health organizations to inform women on what is available involving health
care.
The September 28th opening reception will also include international
guest artists and feature a wide range of styles and media. A percentage
of their work will benefit the above-mentioned projects.
Olympus Corporation of America will provide working microscopes and
monitors along with technicians on opening night to demonstrate how Pap
smears are read.
Washable-pad company for sale
Gayle Adams, owner of Feminine Options, wants
to sell the company to someone willing to put time and energy into it.
The Food and Drug Administration has already approved its products.
Call Gayle at (715) 455-1652 (Wisconsin, U.S.A.).
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.]
Money and this site
I, Harry Finley, creator of the museum and site and the "I"
of the narrative here, receive no money for any products or services on
this site. Sometimes people donate items to the museum.
All expenses for the site come out of my pocket, where my salary from
my job as a graphic designer is deposited.
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: Lil-lets advertisement:
"How to make a packet of tampons disappear"
(magazine from the United Kingdom, October 1988)
© 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