'Aunt Flo' is coming to town

BAK · 2013-08-05T21:47:42+00:00

Period power: Talking to girls about 'Aunt Flo' By Kelly Wallace, CNN updated 2:02 PM EDT, Mon August 5, 2013 This advertisement from a 1943 McCall's magazine offers prizes -- in the form of war bonds -- for women's stories about transitioning to Modess brand sanitary napkins. This 1960s-era Tampax adverstisment reads, "In your thoughts summer joys are never ending. Nothing keeps you out of the swim, away from the merriment, apart from the party, nothing can ... If you use the cool, clean, fresh protection of Tampax." This Fems Feminine Napkins advertisement encourages women to "wear Fems -- and forget!" Masturin has been advertised as an herbal remedy for "female disorders," including "hysteria." It contains iron in addition to other natural supplements. The product is still available today This Tampax advertisement assures readers that girls can begin using internally worn protection with their "very first period," attempting to alleviate concerns still aired today that tampons should not be worn by young women and may affect their virginity. This Tampax advertisement touts the use of internal sanitary protection, proclaiming, "it's the modern way!" This 1950s-era Modess advertisement reveals a new strategy in packaging by the company well-known for its efforts at discretion and modesty. This vintage 1970s-era Modess magazine advertisement encourages the reader to switch from her mother's brand sanitary napkin to Johnson and Johnson's Modess brand. Modess ads ran for decades and through the 1970s. This 1950s-era Modess commercial touts the ability of their product to inspire confidence "invisible under the flimsiest of dresses." Editor's note: Kelly Wallace is CNN's digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. She's a mom of two girls and lives in Manhattan. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter. (CNN) -- A few weeks ago, I was looking for tampons at a drugstore. I couldn't find any, so I approached a store employee. Then something bizarre happened. I lowered my voice, almost to a whisper, and asked, "The aisle for feminine products?" "Feminine products"? The words just came out of the mouth. I'm 46, have had my period for more than 30 years and couldn't say the word "tampon." I laughed at myself and thought about that moment when I saw "the Camp Gyno," the ad that has taken the Internet by storm, with nearly 5 million views on You Tube in one week alone. In it, a tween is the first girl to get her period at camp, what she calls her "red badge of courage," and proudly sets out to teach her pals about this milestone. "For these campers, I'm their Joan of Arc," she says. "It's like I'm Joan, and their vag is the arc." Did she just say "vag" in an ad? "I wasn't setting out with this incredible feminist agenda," said Naama Bloom, the creator of the ad and founder of a company called HelloFlo, which offers women a subscription service for monthly supplies of tampons and pads, and period starter kits for young girls. "I just wanted to talk the way women talked and the way I talk and talk the way I am teaching my daughter to talk," said the mom of two. Tired of running to the drugstore for another "emergency box of tampons" and then walking through her office with a "practically see-through plastic bag," Bloom declared on her website that her goal is to make the experience of a woman's period easier for women and less embarrassing and traumatic for girls."You found a way to make something that for years has been making girls feel shameful and turned it into a celebration," Bloom said, paraphrasing to me one of the countless "thank you" e-mails she has received. Talking to your kids about sex Shannon Bradley-Colleary, host of the hilarious blog the Woman Formerly Known as Beautiful, has watched the ad nearly a dozen times with her girls, ages 9 and 11, neither of whom has gotten her period. "As I was watching this, I just thought what's great about it is that it demystifies and destigmatizes 'Flo' coming to town and that the girl's period is a source of pride and power," she said. The ad is a great contrast to how she felt when she got her first period on a camping trip with her grandparents, Bradley-Colleary said, describing her grandfather as an "old cowboy from Utah." "I literally ... smuggled my pads in, and I desperately hoped he wouldn't notice, because I was embarrassed." Bradley-Colleary has talked to her girls about getting their periods, using the book "Asking About Sex and Growing Up" by Joanna Cole, author of the popular "Magic School Bus" series for kids, as a guide. Study: Boys starting puberty sooner She wants them to know "all the facts," unlike her experience growing up and how she assumed you only get your period once. Blair Koenig started the STFU, Parents blog after reading a few too many status updates about the bathroom habits of her friends' children. Click through for examples of the 10 worst overshares she sees on her site. (Warning: Some links contain strong language.) Hey childless friend? You'll never really understand life until you have a baby of your own. Why are all of these girls in the rest stop bathroom talking when I told them not to? Can't they see my baby is sleeping? Christmas letter too impersonal for you? Meet the mom who announced the moment her daughter "became a woman" in her Facebook status. You get paid to landscape, right? Don't you know you're supposed to ask all the neighbors for their children's nap times before you mow? It's great that you are a doctor and all, but you'll really feel like you've accomplished something once you become a mommy. Bodily fluids. On STFU, Parents, there's never a shortage of bodily fluids. There are also solids -- both in words and in (yuck!) pictures. Up-close and personal photos and stories of your friend's birthing process? At your cervix, uh, service. Little baby? I'm gonna let you finish, but my baby is the smartest, cutest, most athletic baby of ALL TIME. Oh, you gave your kid a few toys for his birthday? That's cute. I gave mine a flat-screen TV and a root beer float for breakfast, and movies and video games because I am the best dad of all time. 10 worst STFU, Parents moments "I said to my mother, 'I'm bleeding again." And she said, 'Oh, OK, get your stuff.' And I said, 'But why? It was only supposed to happen one time.' And she started laughing. 'I'm sorry, honey, but it happens once a month.' " Rebekah, who wanted to use only her first name to shield her daughter from any embarrassment by taking about her periods, started the conversation when her daughter was 8 because she comes from a "long line of early bloomers." "I also came from a long line of people who didn't talk about any of those things whatsoever," said Rebekah, who got her period at 10. "When I had my daughter, I very much wanted to be sure that I didn't do the same thing to her. I wanted her to be completely prepared for it to happen even, to the point where she said to me, 'Will you please stop? You are freaking me out.' " Study: More U.S. girls starting puberty early Rebekah heard through the mom grapevine that the American Girl book "The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls" was a good resource. So she gave that book to her daughter and had a number of talks with her before and after she got her period, also at age 10. "It amazes me how many people I have had this conversation with who haven't even started the conversation with their daughters," she said. "I mean, it's mind-boggling, because I look at their daughters, and I'm thinking, 'You are going to start your period.' " Rachel Vail, author of a number of books for young teens including her latest, "Kiss Me Again," wrote an essay in an anthology about first periods called "My Little Red Book." Her story was about "waiting and waiting" for it, she said. "And all of my friends had it, and I kept not growing, and I had no boobs," she remembers feeling at the time. The mom of two boys says that based on what she hears from her young readers, people are a bit more comfortable nowadays talking about the subject. "It's a little bit less of a taboo than it used to be, but as the mother of boys, I talk about it with them because I think mothers of boys used to not talk (about it), and I think still moms of boys don't talk about it with their kids a lot," she said, remembering something a boy once asked her in high school. "'So if a boy started bleeding for a week, he'd be dead. Why don't you people die?' " Vail said. Boys -- like girls -- hitting puberty earlier As I was working on this story, I wondered why we, as grown women, don't really talk about our periods all that much either, other than to announce that "our friend" has arrived or to lament about PMS symptoms and the early signs of menopause. For instance, have you ever asked your friends whether they use alternatives to tampons and pads, like cups and sponges -- products I didn't even know existed, I admit, before writing this story? Theresa Albert, a 48-year-old food and health writer, said she learned there was life beyond tampons and pads only a year or two ago from a friend who was planning a weekend away. "She's like, 'I am going to have to pick up some soft cups, because I can use them and keep the flow from making the hotel messy.' And I was like, 'What's a soft cup?' " Stay in touch! Don't miss out on the conversation we're having at CNN Living. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest stories and tell us what's influencing your life. The subject just doesn't come up that much, says Vail, because we, as women, have moved on to other concerns. "As women, we feel like, 'All right, so I got tampons, and I'm good." But just because women think we've got it all figured out doesn't mean our girls do -- and hopefully, we can share with them the range of period-related options. And, who knows? Maybe ads like "Camp Gyno" will mean more of our girls won't be embarrassed to have "the talk." Follow Kelly Wallace on Twitter and like CNN Living on Facebook.

Thread starter BAK
Start date Aug 6, 2013

BAK

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'Aunt Flo' is coming to town

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