See a Polish
ad for Libresse and a Dutch bus-stop ad,
2006 - See a very early Tampax.
Booklets
menstrual hygiene companies made for girls,
women and teachers - patent
medicine - a list
of books and articles about menstruation - videos
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The Museum of Menstruation and Women's
Health
Geen uitweg. (No exit.)
Ad for Always Ultra menstrual pads,
The Netherlands
1997
Viva
magazine
Is that her shadow
the isolated woman is sitting on
- or leaking
menstrual blood,
which
is what the ad below is
about? Leaking
visible menstrual blood would
make most women want
to be on a desert island.
Let's get fussy: if it
were her shadow from the sun at
left then there would be shadow
on the right side of the sand
and her right side would be
shaded.
Listen to your MUM!
This is the only ad I've seen
showing what most women fear.
The Dutch have produced other
ads showing menstrual
blood - and in red, not
the blue
in an earlier Dutch ad -
in pads, just not flowing
unchecked into a woman's
environment.
In Sartre's play No Exit
(Huis Clos) three dead people
are punished by being locked
forever in a room together in
the afterlife. For our
character, menstruation takes
the place of the other two.
But - Yippee! -
Always Ultra will spring her
from this hell!
Sure, OK, since you insist,
take a look at the ad, below: a
more boring
explanation is that Always
Ultra does not allow blood to
exit into her panties. No
exit. Satisfied?
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Margot van Mulken kindly sent me
this ad, one of scores, along with
many photocopies, as part of her
research for her article "De
verpakking
van maandverband: De ontwikkeling van
retoriek in tijdschriftadvertenties"
(The Packaging of of Menstrual Pads:
The Development of Rhetoric in
Magazine Advertising) in Tidschift
voor Genderstudies (Journal of
Gender Studies),
2005-1.
See another
one she sent me, from
1998.
Below:
The page measures 8 1/2 x 10
3/4" (21.6 x 27.3 cm).
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My
translation, below:
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No exit.
ultra thin.
Dri-weave top layer.
ultra absorbing center.
wings for extra protection.
Let's keep this simple. Always
ultra works really well. 1.
Dri-weave pulls the fluid
inside. 2. The ultra absorbing
center absorbs everything
possible. That
produces a clean and dry
feeling. 3. You can also get
it with wings for extra
protection. It's ultra
improbable that the Always
Ultra napkin will leak.
As improbable as that
you'll wind up on a desert
island with the boy of your
dreams.
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� 2014 Harry Finley. It is illegal
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