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
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
LIST OF ALL TOPICS |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and awesome ancient art of menstruation) |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad, towel, napkin directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

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!

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).
 
 Title: How Your Body Changes
 
 
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

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
 

© 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