See the American "Sylvia" comic strip episode about
this museum and some cartoon-style ads for
menstrual products, here, here and here.
And see my own
comic strip about
the future of this museum.
See early tampons
and a list of tampon
on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
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"Now,
what's the matter, are we
going to pee?"
"I'm
not ready, nurse."
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"PEE!
NOW!"
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"The
whole ward peed in their
beds!"
"I'm
terribly indisposed. [I'm
having my period]"
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"Single," comic strip, the Netherlands, 31
October 2005,
by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit
"Single," which appears in some
publications in the Netherlands,
including the national newspaper
Algemeen Dagblad, deals with the lives
of three single nurses. Two men create
the strip.
Above, Nurse Nienke has menstrual
period problems not only in this
episode but in several others, in one
case causing the traffic on a main
highway to be rerouted via a broadcast
through car radios - she got not only her
own lane but her own side of the
highway!
The Dutchman who sent me the strip
wrote, "As in your country [America]
menstruation is mostly not openly
discussed and is also rare in daily
mainstream strips!!"
The contributor, who has generously
sent scans of many ads and other items
from Europe and America (like here)
dealing with menstruation, wrote that
"Ik ben ongesteld" - "I'm indisposed"
- is the common way for a woman to say
she's menstruating - similar to the
German expression. See more at Words and
expressions
about
menstruation. And the Dutch, like
the Germans, call nurses "sister,"
("zuster," above, and see a German "Schwester") which is how
Americans address Catholic nuns. But
nurses and nuns and hospitals all
have roots in Christianity.
And how about
the English word as title? Many
countries use bits of English in
advertising and elsewhere, for
example Germany (the Germans call
it "Denglish," combining Deutsch and English, Deutsch meaning
German in German) and Japan ("Engrish," since
the Japanese don't have an L sound
in their language and usually can't
pronounce it). English speakers of
course use their words too, like verboten and tsunami.
The "Single"
Web site is at http://www.s1ngle.nl. Note the number 1
instead of an i. Otherwise you get a
dating site - um, OK, but do you
write Dutch?
If anyone
knows of other comic strips anywhere
dealing with menstruation please write
me! Can
you imagine an American strip in a
national publication dealing with,
um, er, peeing?
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See the American "Sylvia" comic strip episode about
this museum and
some cartoon-style ads for menstrual products,
here, here and here. And a German comic
strip about menstrual
synchrony.
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