What did European and American
women use for menstruation in the past?
Humor
New: Participate in panel about possible dangers of menstrual products (see three items down)
The approximately 4000 items of this museum will go to Australia's largest museum . . .
if I die before establishing the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health as a permanent public display in the United States (read more of my plans here). I have had coronary angioplasty; I have heart disease related to that which killed all six of my parents and grandparents (some when young), according to the foremost Johns Hopkins lipids specialist. The professor told me I would be a "very sick person" if I were not a vegetarian since I cannot tolerate any of the medication available. Almost two years ago I debated the concept of the museum on American national television ("Moral Court," Fox Network) and MUM board member Miki Walsh (see the board), who was in the audience at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, said I looked like a zombie - it was the insomnia-inducing effect of the cholesterol medication.
And almost two years ago Megan Hicks, curator of medicine at Australia's Powerhouse Museum, the country's largest, in Sydney, visited MUM (see her and read about the visit). She described her creation of an exhibit about the history of contraception that traveled Australia; because of the subject many people had objected to it before it started and predicted its failure. But it was a great success.
The museum would have a good home.
I had time . . .
during a recent vacation to work on the museum, which accounts for the new art and the booklets from Kotex, above in New this week. I took two weeks off from my job, my longest leave in ten years, to also try to complete a large oil painting of the four children of a cousin. I want to establish myself as a painter (see some of my paintings) to give myself the time to get this museum into a public place and on display permanently (at least much of it). It's a lot of work, especially when time is short.
Not only did I paint, but I lent some items to a traveling menstruation exhibit for schools in Belgium, supplied pictures of the former real museum to the weekly Polish magazine Przekroj for an article about MUM, sent pictures of some medical instruments to a New York City museum for possible inclusion in an exhibit this fall, and received an e-mail from an editor of a leading conservative publication (I'm used to middle-to-left publications; see some) who wanted to visit the actual museum (unfortunately she can't; it's been closed for almost four years - see the way it looked). People still call every week to visit the museum.
Participate in panel about possible dangers of menstrual products
Hello, folks,
My name is Gabrielle Roesch and I work at the Environmental Center in Bellingham, Washington, at Western Washington University (U.S.A.) and I am trying to pull together a women's health panel focusing on the toxicity of feminine hygiene products, i.e., tampons, pads, dioxin, bleach, etc., and possible dangers and alternatives. I already have a naturopath physician on the panel but I lack activists and/or educators on the subject.
Please contact me as soon as possible if you are interested in being involved or if you know anyone who might be interested.
Thank you so much,
Gabrielle Roesch
earth@cc.wwu.edu
360-650-6129 or 360-392-3535 (U.S.A.)
New contraceptive ring inside vagina regulates menstruation
A Dutch invention, NuvaRing (its Web site) from NV Organon, just approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, releases a small amount of hormones when inserted monthly into the vagina and performs well, according to a study in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2002;186:389-395).
"Advantages to the ring over oral contraceptive pills include the fact that it provides effective birth control with a lower dose of hormones, and also requires administration only once monthly rather than daily, according to Dr. Ragnheidur I. Bjarnadottir from Landspitalinn vid Hringbraut in Reykjavik, Iceland, and colleagues. Also, they point out, ovulation begins quickly after women stop using the ring," a Reuters news release declared, in part.
Participate in three UCLA studies
Dear Mr. Finley,
My students and I are currently conducting three online studies relating to menstruation. We are seeking volunteer participants, women age 18-50, to take a few moments to complete anonymous surveys. I would greatly appreciate it if the Museum could publicize our efforts.
These studies have been approved by the University of California Los Angeles Office for the Protection of Research Subjects; participation is on a strictly anonymous, strictly voluntary, and unpaid basis.
Participants can access each of the surveys by clicking on the Web links below:
Disgust and the Menstrual Cycle
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/disgust_survey/
Subjective Changes over the Menstrual Cycle
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/cabin_fever/01_info_sheet.asp
An Investigation of Opinions about Incest and the Menstrual Cycle
(for women over 18)
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/menst_cycle
Many thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Dan
Daniel M.T. Fessler
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
390 Haines Hall, Box 951553
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
tel. 310 794-9252
fax 310 206-7833
Email: dfessler@anthro.ucla.ed
Call for papers: MENSTRUATION: BLOOD, BODY, BRAND at Liverpool University, United Kingdom, 24-26 January 2003 (more below)
Tell her how to stop her period for a short time naturally
I am 15 years old, going on 16 soon. I have VERY heavy periods and I miss days of school cause of it. My boyfriend from another state is coming here to visit me in two months and it happens to be the exact week I'm on my period!! I want to find a natural way to stop my period before he comes. My mom and I have decided to make birth control a last resort because you may not have child after it or other serious symptoms..
If anyone has any advice on a natural way to stop my period please e-mail me!!!! sugar_n_spice2u@hotmail.com
Thank you so much!!
More Letters to your MUM
Funny stuff from the world of menstruation
A friend sent me a link to your site and it's great. I can't wait for next week's meeting of my Women's Concerns group. They'll love it. I have some additions for you.
A quote that one of my friends likes:
"When I'm out for blood, I never let sex get in the way."
"That's funny, for me it's the other way around."
An expression one of my friends uses:
"There's a war in Virginia."
(It took me awhile to get that one. I stared at her for a couple minutes until she laughed at me and explained it!)
I am a college student in the Midwest and my two roommates and I have noticed that our cycles have adjusted themselves so that we have our periods at the same time. Usually I go first followed by Mari and every time she starts to notice me grabbing pads every time that I go to the bathroom she yells at me and says "Tell your uterus to stop bleeding! Mine will get jealous and want to bleed too!" [Read about menstrual synchrony.]
I have a friend who is an aspiring actress. One of her first big roles was as a pregnant woman, and her favorite line was "I have a magnificent uterus!!" She was a sophomore in high school. I think I would have been mortified to have to say that in front of people, but she did very well.
Great site!
[Read older funny stuff in humor.]
Encouragement from Spain
Hello, Mr. Finley,
A few days ago I discovered your MUM Web page on the Internet and I was very surprised at first. I found it rare and extremely interesting and a real joy to find so many people well and in peace with their bodies. In this society and world in which the worship of death and anti-natural stuff is "our daily bread" to find such a praise of life and love of the human body is really refreshing.
I hope you all continue working on it.
Kind regards from Spain
[See a book published in Spain recently that deals with menstruation and discusses this museum.]
Menstrual cramps a cultural construct?
To whom it may concern,
I am looking for information on the possibility that menstrual cramps may be a cultural construct, or, the possibility that women in some cultures may not suffer from dysmenorrhea due to diet. Have you heard of this, and, if so, do you have any information on the subject?
[E-mail me if you can help her.]
Thank you,
Revealed! The connection between menstruation and cats
Since you seem to be into feminine products and cats [cat topic directory], I thought I would relate to you a bit of my childhood. Somewhere along the line, it was discovered that a brand-new tampon [tampon directory] soaked in water and let dry turned into a mouse-shaped ball of soft fuzzy loops. This became the cat's favorite toy.
When company came over and the cat was carrying it in its mouth, they mostly failed to recognize what it was originally. [Mostly?]
[Contributed by a male]
Jesus and menstruation: any connection?
Dear Harry,
I have not looked at your sight in depth so forgive me if the topic is covered somewhere within it.
Are you aware of any information that connects the wound in Christ's side "from which flowed blood and water" with menstruation? Of course there is only one other wound (symbolically speaking) from which flows blood and water, the vulva. [Read more about menstruation and religion.]
Many years ago while reading a book about dream symbolism, with a psychoanalytic approach, I came across the observation that dream references to one part of the body may be transferences, symbolically referring to another. This observation works for mythological references as well as dreams. For instance, Dionysus was snatched from the womb of his mother by Zeus, who stitched him into his thigh and incubated him there. Plainly it was not Zeus but his penis that is referred to here. Pythagoras was reputed to have a "golden" thigh, meaning who knows what! When Jacob wrestled with the angel it crippled him by shrinking the sinew in his thigh. Lameness is another rich seam of symbolism and may refer to an asexual status in the case of men.
In much Christian iconography the nature of Christ's wound seems quite suggestive to me, but I can find only one other reference to this matter on the web: http://www.postfun.com/pfp/features/98/jun/wound.html
Of course, Jesus, if he ever existed, may have been a castrate, not unknown amongst religious zealots throughout history. Dionysus, whom scholars recognise as a source of some of Jesus' mythology, was effeminate, and called the "lord of the vulva."
Any leads or observations gratefully accepted.
Best wishes,
[E-mail me with suggestions and I'll send them to the writer.]
Kotex protected men, too, in early World War II
This e-mailer earlier contributed information about sports and menstrual material; he runs the Web site Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences, linked below. Kotex started national advertising in the United States in 1921 (see its first ad). People have told me that emergency medical crews sometimes use menstrual pads as bandages; two of the earliest makers of menstrual pads in America, Johnson & Johnson and Kimberly-Clark, first made bandages, and today's bandage brand Curads used to also include rolls of disposable menstrual pads in its offering (see an ad for Curads menstrual pads, and read why women liked it).
Harry,
Just so you can't say that I don't take you interesting places, try http://www.pierce-evans.org/basictraining.htm. It's about training at Fort Hood, Texas, during the early days of WWII: "Two of the most popular items in the Post Exchange (PX) were Chapstick (to protect against the merciless Texas sun) and Kotex. The latter was pinned inside fatigue jackets to protect delicate shoulders against the bruising kick of those Enfield rifles during the long days on the rifle range firing line."
Joe
http://ejmas.com
Three useful books about menstruation
Hi, Mr. Finley,
I want to thank you first of all for your fantastically well-researched site.
I am currently researching the negative socio-cultural construction of menstruation and have come across some resources you do not have on your site.
First of all, Emily Martin wrote an amazing anthropological analysis: The Woman in the Body, and Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography has some insightful analyses of menstruation as does Inga Muscio's book Cunt: a Declaration of Independence.
Thanks again for your site. I have made sure to cite MUM every time i have referenced it in my paper.
Another reason to attend Johns Hopkins: free pads!
Hello,
Your site is great and really interesting! Below are some things I think you might be interested in:
I was browsing the Web and found some pages you might find interesting (and/or relevant to your site).
http://anzu.sakura.ne.jp/~nap/ is a Japanese woman's "museum" of pads. It contains many pictures of Japanese sanitary products, including some in "Hello Kitty" packaging (!). The site is written partly in English, partly in Japanese.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milkyway-Kaigan/1005/ is another Japanese page on menstruation. There's no English on the page, so I went to AltaVista's online translator program and typed in the URL. The program, Babelfish, then provides a translated (albeit poorly) version of the Web page. The translation was quite amusing, though frequently unintelligible.
Also, I happen to be a student at Johns Hopkins University. As an alumnus, I thought you might be interested in this:
Many of the bathrooms (especially those in older buildings) contain ancient sanitary napkin dispensers, (similar to some of the old Modess ones you have pictures of on your site), but none of them are operational. Most of the dispensers are open (unlocked) and are filled with "single-serving" boxes of modern Stayfree classic pads. Several bathrooms without dispensers contain stacks of boxes of pads as well. I was rather surprised to see the pads since I've never seen free pads in bathrooms anywhere else. I suppose the university just supplies the pads as a courtesy. It's strange, though, since due to the nature of a college campus (everyone living close by) it seems like having free pads available wouldn't be a great necessity. I'm somewhat curious to find out how this came about (who made the decision to supply free pads) though it will probably always remain a mystery.
Placentas and Herman
I found your Web site linked from, of all places, a message board discussion on recipes using human placentas. Not that I lean in that gastronomical direction, but someone told me about the placenta discussion and soon I found my mouse pointed at MUM.
I've spent the better part of three evenings exploring the website and reading with great interest all you have to offer. My husband thinks I've gone off my rocker to be so fascinated by something I learnt about twenty years ago in health class and have been personally experiencing for nearly that long but the history and changing attitudes about it are what I find so compelling.
I have only one tidbit to add: my nickname for it is "Herman." I don't exactly know HOW I picked Herman but I use him as a means of disguising the topic of discussion. (What would be really intriguing is to further explore WHY I insist on using a euphemism.) When my husband and I were trying to conceive, I could call him at any time and tell him "Herman is here," or "I got a call from Herman," and he'd know we weren't successful that month. I think Herman was just a generic obscure name and neither of knew anyone who was actually named Herman so there you have it.
I love the Web site and do hope you find a permanent site for your museum soon. I'd love to visit next time I'm in D.C. [But it's been closed for almost four years - see the former museum. I'm looking for a public place for it and the thousands of items.]
Sincerely,
******** *****
Tucson, AZ
How effective are diaphragms for menstruation?
Hi!
First, a thank-you for your site. What fantastic information! The fact that you're a man is amazing to me. The fact that my boyfriend found your site fascinating and informative was another eye opener. I guess there's at least two of you! ;) Keep up the great work!
I have my own story and some questions for your readers, but would like to contribute anonymously:
I've always had problems finding the right menstrual product. I'm extremely small inside and also have damage from being raped as a child. Tampons were too dry and scratchy. O.b's [tampons] were better, because their small size (at least going in) took away some of the difficulty. Still, I had problems with their health dangers, leaking, cost and environmental impact.
I also tried unbleached cotton and organic cotton tampons, but cost, leaking and discomfort were still problems. I tried pads and liners, only to have them travel around and ruin my clothes and dignity, no matter how they were secured. I tried Glad Rags [here], which are reusable organic cotton pads, but they still moved about and were difficult to explain when someone glanced inside my dresser drawer.
I tried a menstrual sponge [here], but my heavy flow caused it to squirt blood onto my thighs when I walked.
I finally discovered The Keeper [menstrual cup, here] and thought my prayers were answered. However, even using their smaller size, it took me three months of stretching myself out to be able to insert the cup without serious pain. And I, too, had to cut off most of the "tail" to remain comfortable.
I still use The Keeper, as it has become the best of what I've tried so far, but I still have problems with the size. I also notice that it tends to leak a bit when I'm lying down and that, in the process of standing up, there are serious leakage problems.
It still causes some occasional pain and discomfort and has stretched me out inside to the point where I need to do Kegel exercises to stay sexually fit.
By the way, for those who worry about emptying The Keeper in public restrooms: Take it out before you do anything else, swish it and your fingers in the clean toilet water, reinsert it, then get on with whatever else you have to do. [Read more experiences with menstrual cups.]
As for the Instead [menstrual cup, here] product, it looks ridiculously huge to me, making me not even want to try it. I wish someone made a wide range of sizes for reusable menstrual cups, but . . . .
So, my question is, how effective are diaphragms when used as menstrual cups? I see it mentioned here that they are sometimes used this way, but no one has commented on their effectiveness.
Thanks in advance for replies! [E-mail me and I'll put the responses on this site.]
Women's wisdom and menstrual health
Hello, MUM,
Thank you for you AWESOME Web site.
I teach a course called Women's Wisdom in which we totally reframe our menstrual experience. Information for this work is on my Web site at
www.livingawareness.com Women's Wisdom Workshops: Health and Well-Being for Menstruation
I think this would be a great addition to your Web site links
Thank You!
Kami McBride
Teaching Herbal Medicine and Women's Health since 1988
P.O. Box 5381
Vacaville, CA 95696
(707) 446-1290
Call for papers: MENSTRUATION: BLOOD, BODY, BRAND
THE INSTITUTE FOR FEMINIST THEORY AND RESEARCH
WWW.IFTR.ORG.UK
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY, United Kingdom, 24-26 January 2003
An under-explored territory for the scholar of the body-in-history, the menstrual has remained one of the last taboos of both cultural and academic discourse. A recurrent motif in specifying the body marked female, menstruation has nevertheless remained on the periphery of the feminist second wave. This interdisciplinary conference will bring together various previously disparate critical approaches to construct an evolution of menstruation. It will examine and revisit visual, literary, medical, legal, autobiographical and historical texts.
Keynote Speakers
Julie-Marie Strange
Marie Mulvey-Roberts
Proposed Papers/Panels
- Visual Culture and Menstrual (in)Visibility
- Menstrual Technologies
- The "Speaking" Body
- Revising the History of Menstrual "Disorder"
- Theorising the Menstruating Subject
- Female Bodies and "Emission"
- Enlightenment's Menstruator
- Taboo and Totem
- Menopause and Ageing Femininity
- Psychoanalysis and Hysteria
- Race/Blood
- PMS
- Advertising Menstruality
- Maternity vs. Menstruation?
- Vampiric/Gothic Menstruation
- Menarche and the Invention of the Teenager
- Periodicity and Images of the Natural
- Dioxin and TSS
- Gaps in the Civilising Process
- Class and Menstruality
- Feminist Waves and Menstrual Evolution
- Menstruation, Statute and Work
- The Wisdom of the Wound?
- Representations of the Bleeding Body
[The MUM director was invited to talk about this museum either in person or by video tape.]
300-Word Abstract Deadline 31st August 2002
Abstracts by Post or by Email Attachment to
Andrew Shail
School of English
Queens Building
The Queen's Drive
University of Exeter
Exeter EX4 4QH
UK
Phone: (01392) 264265
Fax: (01392) 264361
Email: a.e.shail@ex.ac.uk
Canadian TV film about menstruation Under Wraps now called Menstruation: Breaking the Silence and for sale
Read more about it - it includes this museum (when it was in my house) and many interesting people associated publically with menstruation. Individual Americans can buy the video by contacting
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 purchase it through the National Film Board of Canada.
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." (publisher's site)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
I earlier 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.
What did European and American
women use for menstruation in the past?
Humor
