See a Modess True or
False? ad in The American Girl magazine,
January 1947, and actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter"
booklet ad (1955) - Modess
. . . . because ads (many dates)
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Museum of Menstruation and
Women's Health
Modess menstrual
pads
Concealing boxes
Unknown date (1950s?) and magazine,
U.S.A.
Horrors!
Someone might see me with a box of
menstrual pads!
Wrap it up!
The middle-aged son of a pharmacist who
visited the museum when it was in my
house told me how as a boy he helped his
dad wrap boxes of menstrual pads -
Kotex, Modess mostly - in brown paper so
ladies could buy one already concealed.
Believe it or not, this was such a
concern that Kotex even showed
druggists how to stack boxes on the
counter and let women put coins in a box
and just take what they wanted. No
asking a clerk! (Further down the same
page you read of Kotex boxes wrapped in
white paper.) And Modess advertised
"ready-wrapped" boxes already in the 1920s.
Putting too fine a point on this, in a
famous study of Modess, women complained
about the too-conspicuous boxes even in
their own houses! Kotex could be conspicuous
from the get-go.
I dare you to find anything directly
pointing to menstruation in this ad,
typical of this Modess era, especially
in its famous Modess
.... because ads.
"So discreet ...
helps keep your secret so nicely."
(Anne
Frank called menstruation her
"sweet secret." Many women would drop
the "sweet.")
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Below: The
full-page ad from an unknown magazine
in maybe the 1950s.
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Earlier Modess ad
emphasizing concealment
Copyright 2012 Harry Finley
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