See more Tampax items: American
ad from August 1965 - nudity in an ad: May 1992 (United Kingdom) - a sign
advertising Tampax during World War II - the original patent
- an instruction sheet from the 1930s
See a Modess True or False? ad in The American
Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley
in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
 
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"Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?"
(Tampax ad, 1990, U.S.A.)
Right from the beginning, in 1936, the Tampax tampon producers worried
about the reluctance of unmarried women - at that date most unmarried women
were thought to be virgins - to use tampons, which, of course, penetrated
the vagina, possibly opening the hymen wider than was decent. Did that make
them no longer a virgin? Were they fallen women? No
company wanted to be responsible for the mass deflowering of American women!
Religious authorities and doctors chimed in with similar concerns.
In 1945, the Dickinson Report gave a boost
to the tampon industry, which by then had expanded to many companies besides
Tampax. (See more early tampons from the U.S.A.)
The ad below is one of the latest to discuss this concern, which I'm
sure is still on the minds of many girls, especially in America
and Latin countries, where unmarried women still prefer menstrual
pads.
The ad dates from February 1990, magazine unknown.
See a letter a mother wrote to her daughter's
doctor about tampons and hymens.
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Very large file - I want you to be able
to read the ad - and long download time!
See a second ad in this series, "Are they
hard to put in?" - American ad from August
1965 - nudity in an ad: May 1992 (United
Kingdom) -
a sign advertising Tampax
during World War II - the original patent
- an instruction sheet from the 1930s
© 1998 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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