Marjorie May, three booklets, 1935 main page
See a Kotex ad advertising this booklet.
See Kotex items: First ad (1921;
scroll to bottom of page) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck
catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person
in a menstrual hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's
Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there
are many links here to Kotex items) - Preparing
for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s
booklet in Spanish showing disposal method
- box from about 1969 -
"Are you in the know?" ads
(Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) -
See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
DIRECTORY of all topics (See also the
SEARCH ENGINE, bottom
of page.)
 
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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Growing Up and Liking It
(Part 2)
A Primer of Period Pedagogy, 1868 -
1996
by Lynn Peril
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One volume in the series, "What A Young Girl Should Know,"
was still in print in 1936 having undergone few, if any, revisions from
its original 1898 edition. Its author, Dr. Mary Wood-Allen, set the pace
for menstruation instruction materials for years to come. Written in an
insipid, pseudo-intimate tone, the narrative cozies up to the reader posing
as a long-lost best friend, while the chapters take the form of "Twilight
Talks" between mother and daughter. Little brother's arrival causes
Nina Grant to wonder where babies come from, which leads mother to expound
upon plants, animals and finally humans. Unfortunately, mother tends to
long-windedness, droning on about how before "1810 there were no varieties
of pansies, but by 1835 four hundred varieties had been produced by selection
and cultivation." Nina and the reader perk up during Twilight Talk
XVII, when Mrs. Grant lets it slip that "Certain bodily changes must
take place in order that you may be a woman." She explains that Nina
might experience "a strange weariness, perhaps a headache or a backache"
as she approaches puberty.
But this only means that Nina is "getting to be a woman."
In fact, Mrs. Grant points out that "a little housework is a very good
occupation" for weary, achy adolescent girls, and offers the following
homey remedy for PMS: "Dishwashing is especially beneficial as the
hot water calls the blood to the hands and so helps to relieve the headache
or backache."
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At the critical moment, however, Mrs. Grant drops the buck, cryptically
telling Nina that "there are some physical changes which take place
at puberty of which I will more fully tell you as the time approaches."
But she has many other important things to tell Nina right now. For example,
"the battle of Waterloo was lost because of a badly cooked dinner and
a consequent indigestion. You see it is possible that the fate of a nation
might depend upon a woman's ability to prepare a wholesome meal." Shades
of home economics texts to come! (See Mystery Date #2)
*What A Young Woman Ought to Know* continues the story, albeit without
Mrs. Grant and Nina. And no wonder Dr. Wood-Allen didn't let Mrs. Grant
tell Nina the details of menstruation at her young age! According to Dr.
Wood-Allen, menstruating women shouldn't consider themselves semi-invalids
or be "fussy" about their person, but should nevertheless "remember
that at this time the uterus is heavy and engorged with blood and therefore
susceptible to become congested by cold or undue exertion." Come to
think of it, my womb's feeling a mite stuffy right now.
As in the earlier work, there's a good dose of moralizing, and readers
were warned that a young woman who permitted "caresses and unbecoming
familiarity . . .may be directly responsible for arousing a passion in the
young man that may lead him to go out from her presence and seek the company
of dissolute women, and thus lose his honor and purity." Dr. Wood-Allen
did not, however, advocate that these young men run home and wash dishes,
the better to draw blood away from certain pesky body parts.
Later authors advocated telling younger girls the facts about menstruation.
"The Mother's Book" (New York: The University Society, 1927; St.
VdeP, S.F., $1.00) included a section on What Mothers Should Tell Their
Daughters, in which author Della Thompson Lutes bluntly described the "perils
of ignorance":
I knew a girl whose mother had neglected to tell her anything regarding
the menstrual period. The girl was of a reticent, solitary disposition,
had never been on intimate footing with other girls, and had never heard
any mention of what would happen. She was "kept innocent" with
a vengeance. The menstrual flow came on suddenly and very profusely. The
child was frightened, went into hysterics and then convulsions. It took
her three years to recover, and then she was nervous and excitable as she
had never been before.
I knew another girl who also was "kept innocent." When her
time came she went to her room, bathed in cold water, took cold and died.
Then Ms. Lutes provided a narrative wherein a "Girl of About Ten"
learned all about "The Monthly Sabbath" from her mother. After
explaining about fish, birds, kittens and "seed-babies," mother
takes a step up the evolutionary ladder:
"It's a wonderful story, isn't it dear?"
"Yes, mother. And is it just the same with babies?"
"Just the same - only more wonderful and beautiful . . . The uterus
is filled with tiny blood-vessels which will feed and nourish the baby's
body from the mother's body. But when there is no baby ... there is no
use for this surplus blood, so nature has taken care of it by passing it
out of the body every month, or about twenty-eight days. This is called
the menstrual flow. It begins when a girl is about twelve years old, or
sometimes a year or two later. Before this a girl could not be a mother."
Which, barring the wonderfulness factor, seems somewhat straightforward
and informative. Then, not more than two pages later, all hell breaks loose:
[The mother] has taught her daughter the sacred office of the genital
organs, and that to tamper with them will bring upon her slavery to a habit,
undermining of health and vigour.
She has taught her how to care for herself during the menstrual period;
not to get her feet wet; not to allow the bowels to become constipated;
not to over-exercise; not to read too much [!!! - ed.], nor dance
or play tennis unless she is a very normal girl indeed, which the majority
of our girls are not . . .
Well, you get the idea.
According to Harry Finley at the Museum of Menstruation, a disposable
menstrual pad was available as far back as 1896 [Hartmann's?, here].
Few publications would advertise Lister's Towels, however, and they soon
disappeared from the market. It wasn't until 1921 that Kotex marketed the
first widely successful sanitary napkin, after World War I nurses discovered
that bandages made from wood pulp made a menstrual pad that was both absorbent
and cheap enough to be disposable [ad here].
Prior to this, women used strips of fabric toweling which they washed and
re-used (see note 3). Think about that. Now
let's pause a moment to thank those inventive nurses of the Great War!
At any rate, Kotex wasted little time in
producing several booklets aimed at young girls and their mothers. During
the mid-1930s, Marjorie May Learns About Life and its companion booklet,
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (both by
Mary Pauline Callender) were available by mail from the International Cellucotton
Products Company of Chicago, Illinois. MMLAL explained the facts of life,
not of menstruation; the information revealed to Marjorie
May on her Twelfth Birthday was imparted in much the same chatty manner.
Using the same tried and true narrative technique as its predecessors,
MMLAL allowed readers to eavesdrop as Marjorie May and her mother ask Mrs.
Sherman and her baby "in for a cup of tea [and] sunshine cake."
Soon Mrs. Sherman and child depart, gorged on goodies, and the subject of
"where do babies come from" arises.
While the booklet more or less answered that question, MMLAL served
most importantly as an advertisement for Kotex products. "When I was
a girl," narrator/author Callender intones, "it was no wonder
that menstruation days were annoying. We didn't have Kotex then, and we
didn't have the narrow, invisible Kotex Belts." Of course, while Kotex
was a great step forward in convenience, then as now there was little to
differentiate one feminine hygiene product from another. They all basically
performed the same function in the same way. Thus manufacturers had to find
other ways to instill brand loyalty in consumers. One result of this need
was the drive to "get 'em while they're young," via specialized
advertising that masqueraded as "information" which every girl
needed to know.
By the 1940s, Kotex was advertising its free booklet, As One Girl
to Another [here], in teen magazines such as
Miss America and Calling All Girls. "To A Lady In the Dark," began
one 1944 ad, "Why be in the dark about the do's and don'ts of 'difficult
days'?" Of course, all the reader had to do was clip and send the accompanying
coupon for a copy of a "fact-crammed handbook" which provided
the low down on "bathing, dancing, swimming, sports at certain times
of the month." More importantly, it promised to set the reader "right
on social contacts; mental attitude." And if that wasn't enough, the
ad told girls that using Kotex "improves your poise." Alas, just
how the sanitary napkins went about doing this was never adequately explained.
The connection between "poise" and hygiene was also made in
another series of Kotex ads. Each featured several quiz-type questions and
an accompanying illustration. Oddly enough, whatever the question, Kotex
brand sanitary napkins somehow figured in the answer. Table-seating etiquette
decreed that ladies be seated across from one another. Thank goodness they
didn't have to worry about "tell-tale outlines . . . thanks to those
special *flat pressed ends*." "Jilted janes" could "fight
off 'calender' blues, too, with the self-assurance" Kotex brought.
Kotex's competitor, Modess, also advertised a booklet aimed at pubescent
girls during the 40s. A series of ads boldly asked "True or False?"
and featured a period-related statement for readers to ponder. The answer
was provided, and the reader's attention drawn to a coupon at the bottom
of the page, by which she could receive a copy of Growing Up and Liking
It [complete booklet, 1944]. Like Kotex's
booklet, GUALI promised "fascinating tips on beauty, poise and health,"
in addition to information on menstruation. While the booklet itself may
have provided more than re-hashed old wives' tales, at least one ad suggested
that "most of us find [roller-skating] too strenuous for the first
few days of the period."
Girls who weren't out roller-skating could read a special article in
the October 1948 issue of Calling All Girls. "What Girls Want to Know"
was written by a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Marynia F. Farnham, co-author
of Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (a work whose thesis, by the way, was
that "contemporary women ... are psychologically disordered").
Not surprisingly, considering the way in which periods and "poise"
were intertwined in the menstrual literature, the article appeared in Calling
All Girls' "Teen Beauty Issue." "Menstruation," according
to Dr. Farnham, ". . . is not the bane of your existence, the 'curse'
as some girls call it, but a singular blessing." After discussing the
mechanics of the menstrual cycle, as well other physical changes accompanying
adolescence, Dr. Farnham concluded that "the basic event which indicates
the deep and important changes in the body - your menses - remain as a regular
part of your life for as long as you are young enough to have children.
It is the key to the crowning achievement of your marriage." (Click here for the final part)
See more covers of Growing Up and Liking
It booklets.
NOTES:
3. In fact, Lizzie Borden told police she
had gone down to the basement the night after her parents' murder to put
used menstrual clothes to soak in a bucket of cold water. This evidence
was considered to be of such a delicate nature that both prosecution and
defense agreed not to discuss it during the ensuing trial.
Mystery Date costs
$1.50 each for the five so far. Order from
Lynn Peril, P.O. Box 641592, San Francisco,
CA 94164-1592
Her e-mail is
peril at sirius.com
and this is the Mystery
Date Web site.
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