See more Tampax
items: American ad from August 1965
- nudity in an ad: May 1992 (United
Kingdom) - a sign
advertising Tampax during World
War II - the original patent
- an instruction
sheet from the 1930s
See a Modess True or
False? ad in The American
Girl magazine, January 1947, and
actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell
My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . .
because ads (many dates).
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Some
thoughts on "You
want me to put that
... where?"
Tampax ad,
October 1997, Teen
magazine, U.S.A.
With
a helpful etching by
Augustin Hirschvogel
(who??)
And a Danish
cartoon featuring
Trump and Putin
Well, Donald Trump – and
now even proper ladies –
feel permitted to say a
word in public that would
have landed them outside
of mainstream American
society, what, a month
before the 2016 election?
To answer the question
in the ad's title: that
word is – gosh, am
I allowed to use Trump's
word here, a place
sacred to that body
part? Google
kicked this museum out
of its ad program
probably because of
similar although correct
language.
Let
me tell you a story.
You're the first to
hear this.
Around 2000 a
university invited me to
display items from this
museum in a student
feminist event in the
Spring. Some of the
other participants
called me over to a
table to join them in
coloring with crayons a
body part close to the
one we're talking about.
It was illustrated on
sheets of paper.
"Sit
down. We're coloring
vaginas,"
said the hostess as she
handed me a sheet and
crayons.
I stared at a line
drawing of a large
vulva.
My several female
companions, in their
teens and 20s it looked
to me, were talking
among themselves and
coloring.
As a geek with special
social skills, some
would say limited, even
clueless, I hesitated at
this invitation to agree
to a misnomer.
Trying to be polite, I
cleared my throat –
these were actual owners
of that body part, after
all, and they were very
nice to allow me to
color it in their
company – and said what
had to be said.
"That's
not a vagina.
It's a vulva,"
I mansplained,
forcing a smile. It
hurt.
The chattering stopped.
No one looked at me. As
frosty a silence as I've
ever felt paralyzed my
environs.
Embarrassed, I left.
But
sometimes even an
old white man can
splain the truth.
Unfortunately "pussy,"
Trump's word, would have
been closer to the mark
for everyone.
- By
the way, if you
need an
illustration of
what "grabbing
pussy"
is–that's what
the president
said he did more
than once–see
what the German
artist,
mathematician,
cartographer Augustin
Hirschvogel
(16th century)
etched below
the ad.
Anyway, Tampax from the
beginning felt compelled
to teach its potential
consumers why those little
wads of material, "small
wonders," were just
the thing to absorb
menstrual discharge. It
was and is often a tough
sell.
See a letter
a mother wrote to her
daughter's doctor
about tampons and
hymens.
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Below:
The ad measures 8 x 10
3/4" (20.3 x 27.3 cm).
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Below:
About five
hundred years ago German
artist Augustin
Hirschvogel, also a
scientist, mathematician
and cartographer, etched
this satyr
grabbing a woman's,
um, whatever
(Wikipedia), the
president's bragging about
which having been in the
news right before his
inauguration. Remember the
pussy
hats?
Demonstrations? Amazing
what's caught in the Web.
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Below:
Putin
grabs back!
Cartoon by Jens Hage in
the Danish publication
Berlinske (https://www.b.dk/satiren/til-stregen-december-2017#slide-2).
The zero in the date is
a hand.
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See
another Tampax
instructional ad: "No, the tampon can't get lost.
All you can lose is
those diapers."
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And another: "Are they hard
to put in?" - American
ad from August
1965 - nudity in an ad: May 1992 (United
Kingdom) -
a sign
advertising Tampax
during World War II - the original
patent
- an instruction
sheet from the 1930s
© 2016 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or distribute
any of the 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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