And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special
for you! - the American fax tampon,
from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
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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Menstruation and giving money to PBS
Last spring [1998], as a classical music fan, I pledged support to my
local public broadcasting radio station. And I did it in the name of the
Museum of Menstruation.
The man taking my call said, "Museum of ...?", waiting for me
to repeat the phrase. This happens often.
I said he had heard me correctly. "The word is menstruation."
"Andrew, you're blushing!" said a woman close to the man on the
phone. The drive volunteer confirmed this to me.
We talked a minute about the museum and its contents and he wished me luck,
which was nice of him. He even said he would visit some time, which I doubt.
Probably 95% of the museum's visitors are intelligent, liberal women, and
I get the impression most men come as bodyguards. They look as if they feel
out of place.
Among his questions was - it always comes around to this - Why open a museum
devoted to menstruation?
It's been suggested that it's my dating service. Any visitor to the museum
would laugh at that.
Or that I hate women. Or that I'm a homosexual. Please.
The answer is because it's not there, to twist around the reply of mountain
climbers. Like mountains, menstruation makes many people uneasy. Often you
get over both by facing them - climbing mountains, learning about menstruation.
Menstruation didn't become a mountain for me until I started collecting
page layouts and ads for ideas as the art director for a small magazine
in Germany 15 years ago (I'm an artist). Ripping my way through hundreds
of magazines from England to Japan, I noticed that ads for tampons and pads
differed tremendously from one country to the next. This piqued me - I majored
in pique and resolution, philosophy, at Johns Hopkins, where rooming next
door to pre-med students obviously rubbed off - and when I returned to the
Pentagon - yes, I work for the feds - after 13 years in Europe I offered
the use of my ads to Glamour, Ms., and similar publications.
At the same time I called up the Kotex and Tampax public affairs people,
asking them if they had historical displays of their products, or if they
knew of a museum of menstruation anywhere. I was getting interested in the
whole culture of menstruation and the marketing of its products.
Pause. "Museum of ...?" But unlike the PBS volunteer they didn't
seem embarrassed, just, well, miffed somehow. Had I said something wrong?
So, of course, I had to open my own. It's been a roller coaster experience,
which I will write about sometime.
The museum may be unique, but temporary displays of menstrual history are
not - at least in Europe. Besides the current one in a town
museum in Norway, the city museum of Frankfurt, Germany, incorporated
a selection of German menstrual products history into an exhibition of the
history of underwear in the late 1980's. Yes, I said city and town museums.
Imagine that in the United Sates.
But no matter where the museum is, it can change lives. It has changed mine.
And the changes are for the better.
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© 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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