Norwegian exhibit about menstruation.
See some booklets roughly contemporary with this one:
Your Personal Guide to Menstruation and Tampon Usage
(complete booklet, U.S.A., 1988, o.b. tampons)
Tampax Satin Learner's Kit, 2001, in 3 languages:
English. Booklet, pads & tampons
Trousse de l'étudiante French
Estuche de Aprendizaje Spanish
Having Your Period (complete
booklet, 1985, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., U.S.A.)
Text and pictures are to the point; there's no product to sell.
Omdat de lijnen van je lichaam veranderen (Dutch;
English: As the lines of your body change), 2007, the Netherlands, Libresse pads & puberty booklet
Always Changing (complete
booklet, Always menstrual pads, 1995, U.S.A.)
More booklets menstrual hygiene
companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent
medicine - a list of books and articles about
menstruation
 
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Hvordan Kroppen Din Forandrer Seg (English:
"How Your Body Changes") Puberty & menstruation
information for girls, 1990, Tampax menstrual tampons, Norway
Complete booklet
I suspect this booklet is a translation of an English-language version,
partly because the market for Tampax in Norway is small - there aren't many
Norwegians - and because other brands compete for their women, too. Investing
in a new booklet just for Norway would cost too much.
Word puzzle
Throughout the booklet you read jente (the
plural is jenter), Norwegian for girl. Some
of you know the Yiddish word yente (or yenta),
which means "A woman of low origins or vulgar manners . . . . A gossipy
woman . . . ." (Leo Rosten in The New Joys of Yiddish, 2001,
p. 420). You pronounce both YEN-ta. They sure
look like relatives, don't they - or the same word? Merriam-Webster online
says the Yiddish version came from the name Yente (in 1923). Rosten writes,
"Yenta, I am told, was a perfectly acceptable name for a woman,
derived from the Italian gentile - until some ungracious yenta
gave it a bad name. . . . It is also suggested that yenta is an ironic
corruption of the French feminine for well-bred, gentille, but I
doubt it."
Still with me? This will all be over in
a second (or so). My Nudansk Ordbog (Politikens Forlag, København,
1969) - a dictionary and etymology of Danish words, which have much in common
with Norwegian (and Swedish) words - writes this about jente: "(fra
norsk jente, svensk jänta; femininumsdannelse til svensk
dial. gant fjas jf. gantes) ung pige; nu kun om norsk forhold."
A clue here is that it's related to a Swedish dialectal word meaning silly (fjas). Silly and the Yiddish word are both
pejorative and both relate to girls (or women).
Let's see, what was I talking about? Oh, well, right, but I still think
there might be a connection. Jews have lived in Scandinavia for centuries
and with their worldwide connections and travels, these word relatives are
not impossible.
As an added spice, you'll read another word for girl: pike
(p. 3, contents, below, last line). In Danish the word is pige,
which does not have the bad connotations that spring to mind in English
when linked with girl (the English pig is Danish gris). "God mad"
doesn't mean you'd better say your prayers, either; it means "good
food."
I know you're busy but just one more diversion
- please!? Leo Rosten, mentioned above, immigrated to America with
his family from Poland and once taught night-school English to other immigrants.
(He finished up with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago). He wrote a
hilarious story about his fictional night-school student in "The Rather
Difficult Case of Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N" and more, later, in books, under
the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross. You can read the short story in Fierce
Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker, 2001.
O.K., back to That Time of the Month!
I (Harry Finley) translated the booklet; see under
each page.
I thank the Norwegian contributor of the booklet!
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Below: Back and front covers (pp. 1&40)
& inside back cover (p.2) and contents (p.3).
Each page measures 4 7/8 x 5" (10 x 12.8 cm).
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Title: How
Your Body Changes
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Contents
Puberty page
4
Girls and boys, outer and inner changes
The menstrual cycle page
17
It happens every month
Menstruation page
20
The naked numbers and facts
In the good old days page
25
Changed attitudes to menstruation
Today's choice page
26
Pads and tampons
Tampax tampons page
28
All you need to know
The future page
38
From young girl to woman
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NEXT | covers (pp.1&40)
inside front cover (p.2) & contents (p.3)
4-7 8-11 12-15 16-19 20-23
24-27 28-31 32-35 36-39 |
Norwegian exhibit about menstruation.
Your Personal Guide to Menstruation and Tampon Usage
(complete booklet, U.S.A., 1988, o.b. tampons
Tampax Satin Learner's Kit, 2001, in 3 languages:
English, French, Spanish
Having Your Period (complete
booklet, 1985, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.)
Omdat de lijnen van je lichaam veranderen (Dutch;
English: As the lines of your body change), 2007, the Netherlands, Libresse pads & puberty booklet - Always Changing
(complete booklet, Always menstrual pads, 1995,
U.S.A.) - OLDER booklets
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© 2008 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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