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)
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepageMUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


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.")

Below: The full-page ad from an unknown magazine in maybe the 1950s.
Earlier Modess ad emphasizing concealment

Copyright 2012 Harry Finley