Read a Personal Products booklet for older girls from about this time,
The Periodic Cycle (1938). See similar
booklets on this site.
See a Kotex ad advertising a Marjorie May
booklet.
See many more similar booklets.
See ads for menarche-education booklets:
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1932),
Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey), Personal
Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b.
tampons (lower ad, 1981)
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
Read the full text of the 1935 Canadian edition
of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, probably identical to the American edition.
More ads for teens (see also introductory
page for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1949, U.S.A.)Are you in
the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom
(1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
See early tampons and a list of tampon on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
 
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Ethnic Jokes in The American Girl Magazine, June 1936
This has nothing to do with women's health - physical, at least - but
is so extraordinary, and it reminds us of another era in America, when drinking
fountains had "whites only" signs.
Girls, probably Girl Scouts - the Girl Scouts of America publishes this
magazine - sent in the jokes below, including the three using supposed speech
patterns of the ethnic groups in question. All three stories ("Hibernian,"
"The Funniest Joke . . . " and "The Reason," the latter
from the May issue) illustrate alleged traits of American minorities: the
combativeness of the Irish, laziness of the blacks
and stupidity of the Swedes.
I suspect jokes about Jews had stopped
receiving support from mainstream magazines by this time.
"Nice" girls sent these in and THE Girl Scout magazine published
them. How times have changed! I wonder when blacks first became Scouts.
And there must have already been Swedes and Irish girls as members. How
did they feel about such stories?
How many Girl Scouts today or anyone else know what Hibernian
means? Do you?
Why do these jokes feature males (except
for Aunt Ella)? Do they challenge a society much more male oriented than
today's America? Or maybe girls were traditionally not featured in humorous
stories.
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Above: from
the May 1936
The American Girl
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Above: from the June 1936 The
American Girl
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© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work
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author.
Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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