If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or menopause and
are interested in showing it on thesepages
(it's free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine
(Italian edition) featured several of the
above artists in an article about
this museum and menstruation in 2003. The
newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna
magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine
Dishy (Turkey) showed some of the artists
in 2005 in articles about this museum.
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The Art of Menstruation at
the Museum of Menstruation and Women's
Health
Magic and
Medicine in Menstruation,
booklet from Schering Corp.,
U.S.A., 1934
covers 1
& 2, p. 3 New Guinea
menstrual hut carving
An American pharmaceutical
company produced this booklet for
either doctors or their patients -
or maybe both. The drug it
promoted, Progynon, the "follicle
hormone," apparently is estrogen,
and it's interesting to read the
suggested uses for it in that
early era of hormone discoveries.
Scientists are today still
studying the mysteries of hormone
influence and fluctuation.
The warm-up act however is a
loose and smug - that's the usual
treatment - recounting of
menstrual beliefs and customs
throughout the world, past and
present. I'll bet you a man wrote
it; we guys can smell testosterone
in ink. I cannot vouch for the
accuracy of many of the
re-tellings or for the original
stories, but it may encourage you
to investigate the sources. I put
the enlarged footnote references
on a separate page (in some browsers
it's possible to hold down your
mouse button over the link references until a choice
window appears; if so, select
"open in a separate window" in
order to have your references
ready, if you are that sort of
reader).
Unfortunately the booklet
doesn't say where the engravings
come from.
The booklet identifies the first engraving,
below and enlarged, as a
carving
above the entrance to a "house
of seclusion," probably a menstrual hut,
in New Guinea. Is it a woman
with her legs spread, her vagina
releasing a large drop of blood?
Compare Judy Chicago's "Red Flag." See more booklets from companies.
NEXT
ARTIST: Art of Menopause
by Coni
Minneci
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The inside
front cover and page 3
lie beneath the
enlargement
of the cover drawing,
below.
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NEXT artist: Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci
See more booklets from companies.
Next
artist: Art of Menopause
by Coni
Minneci
See all the
artists in the links in
the left-hand column.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or
menopause and are interested in
showing it on these pages (it's
free!), contact MUM
© 1999 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
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