See more Kotex nurses. And nurses make money selling tampons!
See the first Kotex ad (scroll down the page a bit).
See the Kotex Quest menstrual pad deodorant.
But read what really causes menstrual odor - you won't like it.
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
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links: 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
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

 

Kotex menstrual pad ad, U.S.A., July, 1925
THE DESIGNER and The Woman's Magazine

How do you adjudge this ad?

Huh?

Was this the last time any advertiser printed adjudge in an ad (read the text under the title)? Would anyone not a lawyer or English major or of their class have known what it meant right off? Or not right off?

Which points again to MONEY. Potential Kotex users reading this magazine had the means for an education or to socialize with those who did. And to understand this word.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word can mean "deemed" and, um, "judged."

"Eight in every ten women in the better walks of life have adopted it [Kotex]" we read in the third paragraph, which helps make the case. "Adjudge" alone would filter out the riffraff.

Do you want to be charming? Have poise? "Immaculacy"? Kotex teaches you how.

As here, many Kotex ads mentioned Cellucotton, the absorbent material that Kotex developed during the First World War.

No laundry was one reason women used disposable pads. Cost was nothing to these ladies.

Read Kotex's explanation of how nurses in a sense created Kotex.

The big but later promoters of women being able to play sports while menstruating were of course tampon companies and right from the beginning of that industry. Kotex and other sanitary napkins of the era were huge, tampons tiny - and invisible.

Below: The ad is black and white and measures about 10 1/2 x 14"
(about 26.7 x 35.6 cm).
 
Below: Profiles of the ladies above and
of a contemporary of probably America's greatest poet, Emily Dickinson; his
sermon on Judas greatly impressed her: Theologian, professor and Congregational minister
Edwards Amasa Park - a super WASP? See more of these WASP profiles,
which populate similar 1920s Kotex ads for the monied.
Below: A customer picks a box of Kotex from the top of a
counter rather than having to utter "Kotex" to a
clerk. Or worse, "sanitary napkin." She paid by putting coins into a
container next to the boxes. This is one step further than
the Silent Purchase coupons that Modess offered.
See another picture of this important transaction.
 Below: A "printer's flower,"
once common
in books and other
printed material. Printers
kept a stock of different ones.
It lies under the "3" at top right of the ad.
Below: Can anyone read this signature in the far left center of the large drawing?
The dark circle at lower right is probably part of the artist's mark like those
J. M. Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley added to their pictures.



Read two early articles about the creation of "cellulose substance" (Cellucotton), 1917 & 1920.
See Kotex nurses. And nurses make money selling tampons!

And a Dutch nurse with PMS.

More Kotex: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday

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