For the second year in a row, a group at the University of Delaware kindly invited me to show items from the museum on Valentine's, er, Vagina Day, at its VaginaPALOOZA, a celebration including performances of the Vagina Monologues. I was flabbergasted by the singing and acting talent among the participants, who recited a partial performance of the Monologues just for me, since I couldn't stay for the full performance the following evening. It's strong stuff.
At the same time, a reporter with the student newspaper of Syracuse University (New York) interviewed me, and a women's group there invited me to participate in its V-Day, which I had to decline because of the time required to travel.
In the recent past writers for Glamour magazine, New Scientist, Girlfriend, Print and Playgirl and others have contacted me for information about the museum or Web site.
Does your country charge tax for menstrual pads and tampons, etc.? Tell her!
Hi, Harry,
My name is Bella. I am a women's rights activist working with an organisation called the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network based in Harare.
I am writing to find out if you know what the tax policies around sanitary ware are in various parts of the world. For example, are tampons, pads, etc., taxed as luxury items or as essentials?
Although we grow our own cotton in Zimbabwe, a 50 percent import duty is levied on sanitary ware because there is no local manufacturer. This has made the cost of menstruation enormous, to say the least. We are trying to approach our government officials to remove/reduce this tax and would benefit from having knowledge of what other countries have done/happens in other countries.
I would go so far as to suggest that sanitary ware of an approved medical/hygienic standard should be made available free of charge to Zimbabwean women.
Could you please help?
Thanks,
Bella (isabella@zwrcn.org.zw)
She's testing Wild Yam Cream for premenstrual syndrome
I hope this find you and the cats doing well. I wanted to tell you about a product I found on the web. It's a natural progesterone that's really helped me quite a bit. The real test will be next week during PMS! I wondered if you might be interested in it for your site. Perhaps for those of us who are peri-menopausal. The product is called "Wild Yam Cream," and I bought it from a company called Meltdown Intl. The site is: www.all-natural.com Let me know what your thoughts are. And keep up the great work!
Best-
Folklorist looking for "George" in expressions for menstruation
I'm a folklorist at UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles], and came across your site while searching for the expression "George is visiting," which a male friend in Memphis said he heard from two women at work. I suspect that, involving a generic male name as it does, it long predates its association with George Clooney. I'm inclined to think that the reference to visiting is a double entendre, in part a playful reference to the old excuses women used to give for why they couldn't participate in social activities while menstruating.
The only male name I've come across in this context is "Charlie," which a number of your contributors seem to know. "Charlie" is a name often used for sweethearts in folk songs and traditional poetry, but so are "Johnny," "Bobby," and "Billy," and those names don't seem to be used in this way.
Have you read Germaine Greer on menstruation in "The Female Eunuch"? She discusses it in her "Wicked Womb" chapter, pp. 44-47 in my edition, and contributes the following terms:
"Girls are irrepressible though: in one Sydney [Australia] girls' school napkins are affectionately referred to as daisies; Italian girls call their periods il marchese and German girls der rote Konig." [p. 46]
I find this personification of the menstrual period particularly interesting, especially personification of it as an exalted person. [Probably irony. Read the expressions you, the site visitors, have mostly contributed.]
All the best,
Victoria Simmons
An e-mailer corrects the date of a Pinkham postcard on this site
I was cruising your site (very nice it is, too) and spotted your Lydia Pinkham [of vegetable compound fame] postcard of Stanford [here].
Your dating is 1920 - 1935, but if that's true, the image on it is from much earlier. The gate you show was partially destroyed in the great California earthquake of 1906 and never rebuilt.
Here is a photo of the front of the gate after the earthquake:
http://alcatraz.san-francisco.ca.us/Pictures/1906-30.asp
Here is a photo of the backside of the arch after the quake:
http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/USA/1906_04_18_pics.html
The university was faced with a massive rebuilding task and rather than replace it, converted it to two towers. Here, you can see today the side towers: http://www.stanford.edu/
Croatian woman comes to terms with this Web site
Dear Mr. Finley,
It's "a Croatian woman in Germany" again. [She contributed a trove of knowledge last month.] I'd just like to thank you for adding my letters to your magnificent Web site. And I think I owe you an explanation how I got to your site.
I'd read about the site a year or so ago and the first thought I had was that it must have been made by some frantic virago-emancipated-men-hating woman of a kind that I completely can't tolerate (I'm young, I still haven't given up on men and I feel very bad when - those who don't deserve it - are being attacked by the above-mentioned personae). So, in order to avoid seeing men being wronged, accused and kicked off, I didn't even want to check the Web site.
But then, just some weeks ago, I found a link to one of the pages from some historical costumes Web site. I'd read a whole article on women, menstruating and undergarments before I realized I was exactly on the Web site that I didn't want to visit. Then I thought, well, it seems OK, maybe that frantic emancipated feminist is not that bad after all. And then I found it was made by a man. OK, I was sitting, so it helped me much in avoiding some major injuries. But after a while, I thought, well, that's a real God's justice after all.
Again, I'd like to thank you for this beautiful Web site. I'm checking it regularly but I still don't seem to reach the end. Many luck in your ongoing work and efforts!
Oh, yes, I've got a cream-white Maine coon cat; her name is Mona (short from Desdemona). She's nearly 10 years old and momentarily she lies on what is supposed to be a nearly finished Italian-quattrocento dress, but I think she's going to turn it into a winter coat. [The writer knows of yer MUM's fondness for cats.]
Regards,
Women's Wisdom: Health and Well-Being for Menstruation, Fertility, and Menopause
Hello MUM!
I am an herbalist specializing in menstrual health and teach wonderful workshops on helping women re-create their approach to menstruation and menopause
My site is www.livingawareness.com Women's Health workshops
I teach an extraordinary workshop called:
Women's Wisdom: Health and Well-Being for Menstruation, Fertility, and Menopause
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Kami McBride
Teaching Herbal Medicine and Women's Health since 1988
P.O. Box 5381
Vacaville, CA 95696
(707) 446-1290
http://www.livingawareness.com/
Red Spot Web site
http://onewoman.com/redspot/
This site is all about periods, but cannot replace your doctor's advice. The Red Spot is a gathering place for the knowledge and experience that women gain about their periods over time, not a medical resource. I am not a doctor and do not give out medical advice, nor do I guarantee the effectiveness of any home remedies found in these pages.
See Health & Family Resource Web site
Hi, there,
I just wanted to let you know, it's about time someone put this information out there. I found your site very interesting and most helpful for all women and girls.
I wish I could have had access to this information when I was younger and for my daughters.
I have a Health & Family Resource Web site. I hope you don't mind, but, I placed your link on the Women's Health page. http://noeasytask.com/women.htm
I think many will benefit from your site.
If you have objections of any kind, please let me know.
Thank you,
Vickie
"The warm shock of menstrual blood"
I have been collecting literature on menses, and found the following marvelous quote, which you might appreciate for the museum.
Gift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers.Das, Kamala. "The Looking Glass." Only the Soul Knows How to Sing. Kerala, India: DC Books, (c) 1996, p. 55.
"Thank you, thank you!!!"
I'm currently working on my certificate of Women's Studies at the University of Cincinnati and decided to do a project on the history of "feminine" hygiene products. I was having a hell of a time finding information and then - I found your amazing Web site. This site is so comprehensive it blows my mind. I truly appreciate all the effort that has gone into creating this museum.
On a side note: I was trying to get a hold of the video mentioned in your Art of Menstruation section: Underwraps [now called Menstruation: Breaking the Silence - read about it]. I wasn't able to contact the manufacturers by phone or e-mail. Do you know how I can get a copy of this documentary???
[Order from Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126Canadians can buy the film through the National Film Board of Canada.]
Thank you, thank you!!!
He reviewed this site
Mr. Finley,
I've been visiting your Web site for nearly two years now. I don't remember how I found it, or even my first impressions, but I do know that I came to appreciate the information contained in your virtual museum very much. Thank you very much for putting so much hard work and time into mum.org.
I recently wrote an online review of the online museum, and thought you might like to see it. The Web address is
http://www.epinions.com/content_2401804420
Thanks again,
Don't eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor
The Bush Administration is planning to propose, in next year's budget, to eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. This decision signals the Administration's intent to dismantle the only federal agency specifically mandated to represent the needs of women in the paid work force.
Established in 1920, the Women's Bureau plays a critical function in helping women become aware of their legal rights in the workplace and guiding them to appropriate enforcement agencies for help. The Regional Offices take the lead on the issues that working women care about the most - training for higher paying jobs and non-traditional employment, enforcing laws against pay discrimination, and helping businesses create successful child-care and other family-friendly policies, to name only a few initiatives.
The Regional Offices have achieved real results for wage-earning women for eighty-one years, especially for those who have low incomes or language barriers. The one-on-one assistance provided at the Regional Offices cannot be replaced by a Web site or an electronic voice mail system maintained in Washington.
You can take action on this issue today! Go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/home/ to write to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and tell her you care about keeping the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau in operation. You can also let E. Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director of the Office of Management and Budget, know how you feel about this. You can write a letter of your own or use one we've prepared for you.
If you find this information useful, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive Email Action Alerts from the National Women's Law Center at www.nwlc.org/email.
Thank you!
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.
