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There Used to be a Museum of Menstruation

And i totally missed out on visiting it!

Finley, 73, and I are in his New Carrollton basement, which from 1994 to 1998 housed the Museum of Menstruation.

...

The collection, which by Finley's count has more than 5,000 individual pieces, is an interesting intersection of history and function and societal expectations. Amassing the collection and running the museum remains for Finley the most important thing he has done, and his efforts have garnered praise and vitriol alike. A story in the New York Times from 1998 called the museum's website "an odd, funny and well-researched site (created by a man) on the history of menstruation as told by women around the world." An anonymous letter writer from Wyoming was less enthralled: "The anger it stirred in our circle is enough to burn you at the stake figuratively speaking," she wrote.

Not really sure why people would be quite so upset about this museum. I think it's pretty awesome. The products advertised to women for "hygiene" are pretty horrifying. Lysol and borax! In the hoo-hah! *shudder*

My favorite is the ad for Pristeen way at the bottom of the page.

Oh, look! A forlorn girl, sitting in a decimated patch of grass. What ever could be the matter? Pristeen knows: "The trickiest deodorant problem a girl has isn't under her pretty little arms," the ad warns, capitalizing on the fear of "feminine odor."

Totally worth risking death with some Lysol to avoid that odor problem. Yup.