Read 1930s criticism of Zonite and Lysol.
See also Australian
douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.)
(date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.)
- Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual
pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections),
1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.)
- Myzone menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia)
- Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) -
Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany)
- Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Zero-Gel
Vaginal Cream magazine ad (U.S.A., 1932) -
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci
Capo Rome) - the odor page
 
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Ads for douches, menstrual pain remedies and "intimate" deodorants
Women have probably always squirted fluids into their vaginas - "douched"
in English, but the word usually means a full-body shower in other languages.
Your basic adult vagina is a 6-7 inch (28-31 cm) tube with huge amounts
of bacteria (mostly good and necessary) and connects to the inside of a
woman's body. It's warm and can create odor that the world's cultures value
in different ways. Besides reducing odor, douching can wash out and/or kill
sperm, sometimes preventing babies. But read
why women should normally not douche.
Pain associated with menstruation is a controversial topic but we read
about it at least as far back as the Greek physician Hippocrates, who noticed
that women's peculiar pain usually stopped when the bleeding started. He
felt that taking blood from men (and women) - bleeding - might stop their nonmenstrual pain and illness, a practice
that continued at least through the 19th century.
Start your tour with Zonite, below.
See an American douche set, Mon Docteur
(My Doctor in French), with instructions and booklets, from about 1929.
And see an American douche syringe from probably
1960-70 and read what a woman once famous in "feminine hygiene"
wrote about douching.
Visit the odor page.
Zonite douche liquid advertisement
Zonite was an American douche liquid produced
for decades. It probably at least irritated many women, besides destroying
normal bacteria - and sperm - in the vagina, just as many douche products
did, ironically creating the conditions for disease rather than eliminating
them.
Zonite is Dakin's solution (sodium hypochlorite), essentially weak bleach
(see comments here). Chlorinated drinking water
using sodium hypochlorite started in the United States in 1908 in Jersey
City, New Jersey, and within the next couple of decades had helped (with
filtration) to almost eliminate cholera and typhoid fever in America.
Compare the later Australian menstrual pain pill Myzone,
which also "zones" off the woman's body from the rest of the world.
Read 1930s criticism of douching with
Zonite and Lysol.
The ad is from September 1928.
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NEXT: Zero-Gel Vaginal Cream magazine ad (U.S.A.,
1932) - See more Zonite
ads.
© 2005 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work
on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
See also Australian
douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.)
(date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.)
- Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual
pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections),
1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.)
- Myzone menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia)
- Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) -
Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany)
- Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci
Capo Rome) - the odor page
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