Make your own menstrual cup
See what cups are. I can't vouch for what the writer suggests in this letter, nor for its safety, but maybe it would work safely:
Hello!
How are you?
This is how to make a menstrual cup out of aquarium sealant for less than 5US$:
Create paper-mold
Cover in dish-soap
Fill space in paper-mold with aquaria sealant
Let stand one day
Boil off the paper
Hand-wash between uses
Boil between menses
It is important to only use aquarium sealant. Aquaria silicone is the same as medical-grade silicone - aquarium sealant must be as pure as medical-grade silicone or else it might hurt the fish. Other kinds of silicone might have dangerous impurities or additives.
Here is more information about making homemade medical devices out of aquarium sealant:
http://uncutentertainment.net/tuggersite
Picasso painted a menstruating woman, reports a French painting teacher
Dear Harry Finley,
I have visited your "museum" with a great pleasure. I hope that thousands of women and students enjoy it also.
I'm a painter myself and teach painting at the art academy of Strasbourg, France. A lot of female students are interested in feminism in contemporary art, but do you know that strange painting by Picasso representing a naked woman bleeding?
Nu couché is the title of the painting, painted 9 October 1967, 114 x 146 cm, collection Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou from 17 February - 16 May 1988 in an exhibit entitled "Le dernier Picasso," "The late Picasso."
It's reproduced on page 233 of the catalogue. Maybe you can find an English version of it because the exhibition was shown at the Tate Gallery in London. Catalogue data: ISBN number 2-85850-437-7 Editor n° 592 or ISBN 2-85850-441-5 editor n° 610.
Hope you enjoy this little contribution to the museum. [Many thanks!]
Regards
Daniel Schlier
Vibrating tampons, and supplies in public toilets
Hi, Harry,
I found a site pitching - I kid you not - VIBRATING TAMPONS. Apparently someone had the idea that using a vibrating tampon would help relieve menstrual cramps, and according the trials cited on the Web site, it works. Basically, the product consists of a hollowed-out regular tampon with some sort of battery-operated motor inside. Personally, I would be too worried about exposure to radiation and/or permanently damaging nerves (I'm always a worrier about such things), but the site claims that these tampons are completely safe. They are patented and apparently approved by the FDA. Check it out for yourself at www.vipon.com Maybe they'll send you a free sample for the museum - somehow it seems to me that such an, um, unique item would definitely belong there.
And one more really odd note about the issue of free pads/tampons in public bathrooms, and/or dispensers in public bathrooms. For some reason, it seems that the quality of such pads (i.e. the ones that come in individual boxes for use in dispensers) is universally awful. (Maybe it's to dissuade people from using them, so they have to be refilled less frequently?) Of course, in a real pinch, one would be quite grateful for anything, but I'm not sure why anyone would habitually rely on bathroom vending machines. So, while it's really really nice that some public bathrooms provide sanitary supplies or have vending machines, I can't understand why anyone would complain that not enough bathrooms do - it seems to me that it would be much better to carry one's own supplies.
The "debate" on "Moral Court"
Dear Mr. Finley,
I am a 47-year old woman and was home from work today. I was watching Judge Mathis [on Moral Court, which is in syndication on the Fox television network in the U.S.A. The "debate" was a couple of years ago and was, um, unforgettable.] and saw you and your case presented.
I want to applaud your courage to have a museum like this for the public and was so sorry to go to your Web site to find that you have been in ill health and still looking for somewhere to move your museum. [I have a plan; read it here.]
I hope that you work continues and would like to offer my support wherever it may be needed. [Thanks very much!]
Thank you again.
Hello,
I saw you on television and your site has definitely piqued my interest. As a woman I can say I appreciate your dedication to this part of a woman's life.
Hopefully someday I'll be able to make it out to your wonderful museum. In the meantime I've got your Web site listed as a favorite :)
San Diego, California
He collects antique Lysol bottles
This MUM site shows two ads (from 1928 and 1948) for Lysol used as a douche, which is why the writer e-mailed me
Harry,
I've been to your Web site off an on over the last year or so. My connection is that I collect antique Lysol bottles. Not the ugly U.S. ones for the most part but ones from Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, mostly the ones call "jug poisons." I really don't have much interest in the product Lysol itself except that it is was the liquid contained in the antique bottles I collect. These jugs were produced in hundreds of types, many sizes, colors and producers all over the world. You can see my Web site dedicated to this collection niche of mine at http://jug.poisonbottle.com
My purpose in contacting to you was to let you know of my Web site which may be a good related link for you. It is also to see if you might have come across any foreign ads for Lysol or Lysol type products sold in these jug shaped bottles in the Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand prior to 1930 or so, going back as far as 1889.
I have many U.S. ads for Lysol depicting the ugly bottles I don't collect going back as far as 1913. But I have yet to come across any foreign ads for this or similar products from that era.
I am also very interested in locating other related images such as a good image of the founders of Lysol, Schulke & Mayr, who invented Lysol in 1889 (See http://jug.poisonbottle.com/history.htm). I do have this one very small and poor image that I would like to improve upon.
Let me know if I can be of any help to you or provide any more information. You most likely have no interest in collection jug poisons that mostly contained the product Lysol and I have no interest in menstruation, but we may still be of help to one another.
Stan Hallett
National Women's Health Resource Center, Inc.
Hello:
Please consider placing a link to the National Women's Health Resource Center, Inc.'s Healthywomen.org on your site.
Healthywomen.org is the one-stop shop for women's health information on the web. This site includes content, frequently asked questions and consumer tips on fitness, nutrition and disease prevention, as well as health care issues ranging from teen health to pregnancy to post-menopausal concerns. With Healthywomen.org, women no longer have to worry about sorting fact from fiction in the fast-paced world of women's healthcare.
Thank you,
Deborah Diamant
Web Specialist
National Women's Health Resource Center, Inc. (NWHRC)
120 Albany Street, Suite 820
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
www.Healthywomen.org
POW! WAM! "Women Against Menopause"
It is absolutely THRILLING to find a series so close to my heart! It must be kismet! Last fall, 2001, I becamed enthralled with an idea. I truly believed that throughout history, those who have taken the initiative to move ahead along a rather messy and too-long ignored topic needed to be honored.
What kindled this idea was what I observed along an aisle, an EXTENDED aisle, of "feminine" products in a drug store. At first I was amused at the sizes and shapes, wings and wingless, etc. But the clincher was the sanitary napkin (??) made for thongs. I chuckled. But a week later, again admiring the merchandise, a new POW - Pad-Of-the-Week - emerged as a "light pad." It was BLACK. Enough was enough. As I was looking for a worthy cause to herald, it dawned on me, and so did the potential for income.
I created a newsletter for an organization, "WAM" - Women Against Menopause. Letters were sent out asking women to volunteer for our first gala event: WAMPAD (commonly known as Women Against Menopause Period Appreciation Day).
It was unfortunate that our first empowering event had to be canceled. My mother, who had been assigned to collect the responses from the mail, sort of forgot. After the arrival of the first letter of response, which had a couple of different handwritings on it, she called the state troopers after convincing herself it contained anthrax. The troopers assured her the letter would be investigated. Also, unfortunately, the woman who actually volunteered and sent the letter in used her real address and name. Explaining it to the police I am glad I missed.
So all my plans have been on hold. The monthly gifts that were in the planning stages were witch's broom tampons, bat-winged pads, cornucopias, fall-colored leaf patterns saying a prayer of thanks, candy-cane-red-and-white striped tampons with the little twist at the end, formal wear for New Year's with a little sequined string hanging out; Washington's Birthday cherries, valentines (come up with your own idea), leprechauns, green shamrock shapes, and just think of the Ides of March!
And April Fool's Day!
Call for papers: MENSTRUATION: BLOOD, BODY, BRAND
THE INSTITUTE FOR FEMINIST THEORY AND RESEARCH
WWW.IFTR.ORG.UK
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY, United Kingdom, 24-26 January 2003
An under-explored territory for the scholar of the body-in-history, the menstrual has remained one of the last taboos of both cultural and academic discourse. A recurrent motif in specifying the body marked female, menstruation has nevertheless remained on the periphery of the feminist second wave. This interdisciplinary conference will bring together various previously disparate critical approaches to construct an evolution of menstruation. It will examine and revisit visual, literary, medical, legal, autobiographical and historical texts.
Keynote Speakers
Julie-Marie Strange
Marie Mulvey-RobertsProposed Papers/Panels
- Visual Culture and Menstrual (in)Visibility
- Menstrual Technologies
- The "Speaking" Body
- Revising the History of Menstrual "Disorder"
- Theorising the Menstruating Subject
- Female Bodies and "Emission"
- Enlightenment's Menstruator
- Taboo and Totem
- Menopause and Ageing Femininity
- Psychoanalysis and Hysteria
- Race/Blood
- PMS
- Advertising Menstruality
- Maternity vs. Menstruation?
- Vampiric/Gothic Menstruation
- Menarche and the Invention of the Teenager
- Periodicity and Images of the Natural
- Dioxin and TSS
- Gaps in the Civilising Process
- Class and Menstruality
- Feminist Waves and Menstrual Evolution
- Menstruation, Statute and Work
- The Wisdom of the Wound?
- Representations of the Bleeding Body[The MUM director was invited to talk about this museum either in person or by video tape.]
300-Word Abstract Deadline 31st August 2002
Abstracts by Post or by Email Attachment to
Andrew Shail
School of English
Queens Building
The Queen's Drive
University of Exeter
Exeter EX4 4QH
UK
Phone: (01392) 264265
Fax: (01392) 264361
Email: a.e.shail@ex.ac.uk
Participate in three UCLA studies
Dear Mr. Finley,
My students and I are currently conducting three online studies relating to menstruation. We are seeking volunteer participants, women age 18-50, to take a few moments to complete anonymous surveys. I would greatly appreciate it if the Museum could publicize our efforts.
These studies have been approved by the University of California Los Angeles Office for the Protection of Research Subjects; participation is on a strictly anonymous, strictly voluntary, and unpaid basis.
Participants can access each of the surveys by clicking on the Web links below:
Disgust and the Menstrual Cycle
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/disgust_survey/
Subjective Changes over the Menstrual Cycle
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/cabin_fever/01_info_sheet.asp
An Investigation of Opinions about Incest and the Menstrual Cycle
(for women over 18)
http://hillinfo.orl.ucla.edu/menst_cycle
Many thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Dan
Daniel M.T. Fessler
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
390 Haines Hall, Box 951553
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
tel. 310 794-9252
fax 310 206-7833
Email: dfessler@anthro.ucla.ed
Canadian TV film about menstruation Under Wraps now called Menstruation: Breaking the Silence and for sale
Read more about it - it includes this museum (when it was in my house) and many interesting people associated publically with menstruation. Individual Americans can buy the video by contacting
Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126Canadians purchase it through the National Film Board of Canada.
Did your mother slap you when you had your first period?
If so, Lana Thompson wants to hear from you.
The approximately 4000 items of this museum will go to Australia's largest museum . . .
if I die before establishing the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health as a permanent public display in the United States (read more of my plans here). I have had coronary angioplasty; I have heart disease related to that which killed all six of my parents and grandparents (some when young), according to the foremost Johns Hopkins lipids specialist. The professor told me I would be a "very sick person" if I were not a vegetarian since I cannot tolerate any of the medications available. Almost two years ago I debated the concept of the museum on American national television ("Moral Court," Fox Network) and MUM board member Miki Walsh (see the board), who was in the audience at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, said I looked like a zombie - it was the insomnia-inducing effect of the cholesterol medication.
And almost two years ago Megan Hicks, curator of medicine at Australia's Powerhouse Museum, the country's largest, in Sydney, visited MUM (see her and read about the visit). She described her creation of an exhibit about the history of contraception that traveled Australia; because of the subject many people had objected to it before it started and predicted its failure. But it was a great success!
The museum would have a good home.
I'm trying to establish myself as a painter (see some of my paintings) in order to retire from my present job to give myself the time to get this museum into a public place and on display permanently (at least much of it); it's impossible to do now because of the time my present job requires.
An Australian e-mailed me about this:
Wow, the response to the museum, if it were set up in Australia, would be so varied. You'd have some people rejoicing about it and others totally opposing it (we have some yobbos here who think menstruation is "dirty" and all that other rubbish). I reckon it would be great to have it here. Imagine all the school projects! It might make a lot of younger women happier about menstruating, too. I'd go check it out (and take my boyfriend too) :)
Hey, are you related to Karen Finley, the performance artist?? [Not that I know of, and she hasn't claimed me!]
Don't eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor
The Bush Administration is planning to propose, in next year's budget, to eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. This decision signals the Administration's intent to dismantle the only federal agency specifically mandated to represent the needs of women in the paid work force.
Established in 1920, the Women's Bureau plays a critical function in helping women become aware of their legal rights in the workplace and guiding them to appropriate enforcement agencies for help. The Regional Offices take the lead on the issues that working women care about the most - training for higher paying jobs and non-traditional employment, enforcing laws against pay discrimination, and helping businesses create successful child-care and other family-friendly policies, to name only a few initiatives.
The Regional Offices have achieved real results for wage-earning women for eighty-one years, especially for those who have low incomes or language barriers. The one-on-one assistance provided at the Regional Offices cannot be replaced by a Web site or an electronic voice mail system maintained in Washington.
You can take action on this issue today! Go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/home/ to write to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and tell her you care about keeping the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau in operation. You can also let E. Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director of the Office of Management and Budget, know how you feel about this. You can write a letter of your own or use one we've prepared for you.
If you find this information useful, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive Email Action Alerts from the National Women's Law Center at www.nwlc.org/email.
Thank you!
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (publisher's site)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
I earlier mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.
