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German
Amira tampons: Early
brochure (1950s?).
Dutch ad for Amira (August,
1979) showing blue liquid and nudity.
1920s Kotex pad disposal instructions in Spanish
Tampax
Satin Learner's Kit, 2001, in 3 languages: English. Booklet, pads &
tampons
Trousse de l'étudiante French
Estuche de Aprendizaje Spanish
See also Ads for Teens
Booklets menstrual hygiene
companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine - a list of books and articles
about menstruation
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Amira menstrual
tampons, México, 1967
para la higiene interna mensuel de la mujer
Prosan, Fabrica Mexicana de Productos
Sanitarios, S. A.
Buenavista, México
sanitary napkin, tampon, pad, belts, menstruation,
women's health, ads for teenagers,
menstrual period, cycle, panty
Tampons used to be a hard sell in Mexico
and probably still are. On Dec. 8, 2000, The
Wall Street Journal wrote:
While about 70% of women in the U.S.,
Canada and much of Western Europe use
tampons, usage falls to the single digits in a
handful of countries such as Japan and
Spain, and it's not even
measurable in much of the world. Just 2% of women in
Mexico, as throughout most of Latin
America, use tampons.
(Read a report
of using NO menstrual absorption at all in a
Mexican village; scroll down that
page.)
In honor of this museum (it was open in my house at the
time) and all the media
attention I was getting, the women in
the federal government office where I worked
in the late 1990s presented me (in the
office during office hours) a tampon "launcher" mounted
on a plaque complete with engraved brass
plate. A co-worker from Panama, a
man with wife and two grown children, one a
woman in her twenties, had no idea what the
tampon was. We explained it to the
embarrassed middle-aged man.
Repeat that millions of times and you have
a picture of Latin America that Tampax was
trying to change as described in the Journal
article.
Why the low usage?
Probably just what formed the American
resistance to tampons in the 1930s and
later: Catholic
priests' morality worries, fear of losing virginity,
wondering if they would ever find the 'pon
again, and plain conservatism in a
patriarchal society.
I wonder who occupies the company's
building in Buenavista now. I hope not a drug cartel.
I thank Tambrands, the former maker of
Tampax, for the donation!
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Below: The
box measures 5 1/4 x 3 x 1 1/8" (13.3 x 7.6
x 2.9 cm).
The facing side
is identical (but without the Tampax hand's
writing).
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Below: The
two small sides.
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Below: The
long sides are identical.
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© 2010 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
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