I thank my friend Larry Bryant for mentioning Reich-Ranicki's menstrual musings to me, which led to my Heidelberg German-American friends Reni and Harry Davis kindly giving me the German edition last week, a bestseller in Germany. Larry was the only person to openly support my starting this museum (and later the first to suggest I start this Web site), and pooh-poohed my fears that the police might shut the museum down. And I wasn't the only one who worried they would! |
As a young man in World War II, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, later the leading literary critic in Germany, worked for a while with his wife as a censor of mail in the Polish army. Among the suspicious passages in female Polish soldiers' letters they had to decipher were "My [American] Indian isn't coming" and "I'm very upset because there is no sign of the Chinese." It dawned on them that the women were discussing their missed menstrual periods. [See Words and expressions for menstruation.] The critic writes in the chapter "Der erste Schuß, der lezte Schuß" in his recent autobiography Mein Leben ("My Life," although I believe the English edition bears the title "The Author by Himself"):
Germans watched until recently the literary star discussing books on his own national television program and comedians parody his movements and voice and opinions. (Can you name one critic in America, and if so, can you imitate his or her gestures?)When I lived in Germany I read his weekly column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (probably the best German newspaper), which, like his books of criticism, he wrote simply, convincingly and directly. Germany, smaller than Montana, publishes many more books than America every year and has the world's largest publisher. (Tiny England, amazingly, publishes more books than any other place. Most of these statistics come from the Dartmouth College German Department Web site.)Don't you think he's right about the "institution" of menstruation, that maybe at least part of its bad reputation comes from the secrecy that surrounds it? |
This museum, when it was in my house - yes, down there in the basement; see it - appears for a few minutes in the video, together with museum visitors and me.
But you'll see and hear a score of people also involved publicly with menstruation, such as artist Judy Chicago, who donated her Red Flag to this museum; MUM board member and menstrual products safety expert Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr.; writer Judy Blume reads from her famous Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret; and a woman who lost parts of her body to toxic shock caused by tampons. Read more about the film.
Under Wraps, the Canadian TV video about menstruation, available at a new address and with a new name
Hi,
My name is Barb and I work with Great North in Edmonton, Alberta. I just wanted to update you on the distribution of "Under Wraps."
For U.S. purchase it is now being distributed under the title: "Menstruation: Breaking the Silence" by:
Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126The Canadian purchase through the National Film Board of Canada remains the same.
Kindest regards,
Barb
Tell her about your first period!Hello there,
I trust this finds you well.
A colleague (Katrina Allen, Creator of Du Jour Sanitary products, in Australia) and myself are in the process of researching the potential of writing a book based on menstruation stories; the humourous, and/or not so humourous real life stories. Like the first encounter, how did you/your mother handle it, did you celebrate, that type of thing. We believe that if we can have the Vagina Monologues, then why not celebrate the story of the period! [Readers possibly know that others have published or otherwise collected the stories, for example, Canadians Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough: Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1997; Sumach Press, 2001)].
Therefore, I was wondering, as part of the museum, do you collect such stories? [No, just if someone would stop menstruating.] And if so, would you be open to sharing them (names not included)? Or maybe you could think about helping us to collect them?
I look forward to your feedback.
Cheers,
Denise Hall
www.denisehall.r-o-l.net
Managing Director
aCE Resources
phone (Australia): 0500 500 820
www.aceresources.com.au
Menstrual washable pad designs for rural India
Dear Harry,
Greetings. As promised I am writing again. My reusable sanitary napkin is on the Web, it is there on my site. Go to the home page and click on communication concepts and processes. Once there, you go to menstruation. In fact please look at the other designs I have developed for communicating for Reproductive Health to Rural young people. Since we are both communication designers I would especially appreciate your comments both negative and positive. I look forward to your response.
Lakshmi.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lakshmi Murthy
215, Pancharatna Complex
Bedla Road
Udaipur 313004
Phone: 0294 - 451107
www.vikalpdesign.com
[See another design for washable pads in India.]
Patterns from Canada for washable pads
Hi Harry,
I was pleased to see how extensive your Web site has become! I hope all is going well with you. We haven't been in touch for a few years!
We stopped manufacturing our Women's Choice pads a couple of years ago but are now offering sewing patterns for our well-tested Women's Choice pads (so women can make their own!). We have a Web site that describes our pad patterns:
http://members.shaw.ca/wcpadpattern
and our e-mail is:
wcpadpattern@shaw.ca
My warm regards,
Lynn (Burrows)
Canada (250) 722-7013
[See 19th century German patterns for pads to make at home, and early 20th century Japanese patterns.]
Colonials: write her if you're interested in women's or men's medical history and power relationships
Hi, there,
I'm a research assistant at Derby University, England. I'm really interested in power relationships, in particular, those that have been formed within the realm of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive technology.
I'm producing a paper at the moment about women and spirituality - and the ovary. Do you have anyone interested in medical (women's/men's) history over there?
Please let me know of anyone who would be interested in discussions from this little island.
E-mail c.mclaughlin@derby.ac.uk
Look forward to a reply.
Clare Mclaughlin
Mum deodorant: still around?
I'm trying to find out if they or you no longer make Mum's Deodorant??? I haven't been able to find it for a long time. This might sound funny but I used it for hemorrhoids, I have used it for years and it is the only stuff that seems to work. Two days at the max and your hemorrhoids are gone.Please let me know where I can get Mum's deodorant.
Thank you,
[I've seen it on grocer's shelves within the past few years. See a version from the early 20th century.]
Do men synchronize with their wives' menstruation?
Hi,
I have a question about menstrual synchrony [read the famous study about this]. Has anyone studied whether a husband falls into some kind of synchrony with his wife during menstruation? Specifically, I'm curious if there is any interaction or influence of the menstruating woman on her husband's behavior, based on the chemistry and physiological changes at work, that coincides with his wife's behavior cycle during this period.
Thank you if you have the time or resources to reply.
Best,
[Can anyone answer this?]
A book from Dr. Pierce's medical empire
Hello,
I was very interested to find your Web site when I did a search for the author of a book I own. I was shocked that anyone knew about "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser" [see selections]. I've enjoyed reading it.
Good luck with the museum.
Rags in underpants
After skimming the letters to you and looking over your information I didn't see any personal references to early 20th century information.
I remember a visit to my grandmother in the early sixties and I was new to the "monthly visit." I had to soak blood-stained panties. My grandmother explained to me that that was the norm for her when she was young and they used "rags" to line the underwear, which they soaked to remove the blood so they could be used again. She was born about 1896.
[See some classy rags from 19th century Italy and an ad for menstrual suspenders a few years before her grandmother would have started menstruating. And here's a general discussion of what I think women may have used for menstruation before the 20th century in Europe and America.]
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (Later this month more information will appear on the publisher's site, in Spanish.)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
Two weeks ago I mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
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.
