| w o m e n |
| Period Piece by Kate Fink
That's right, I'm the guy -- the guy with a good attitude towards menstruation."
Dave Foley, now star of NBC's NewsRadio, earnestly proclaimed this in a monologue a few years ago as a member of the now-defunct comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. The audience laughed. I laughed, too -- I'd known guys who even had to change the channel when tampon advertisements came on television, lest they catch a horrifying glimpse of absorbent cotton soaking up some unknown blue liquid.
But remarkably, that guy -- the guy with a good attitude towards menstruation -- really exists. His name is Harry Finley. Finley, 55, is the founder and director of the Museum of Menstruation (MUM), located in suburban Maryland.
The museum contains an enormous array of feminine hygiene products, including a few most women probably haven't heard of. Besides the usual tampons and pads (with all sorts of prefixes and suffixes depending on whether we women are "mini-," "maxi-," "scented," or "with wings"), Finley's collection also contains the curious menstrual cups, the historic washable pads with belts, and the antique wonder, the sanitary apron.
The apron, on display in the museum and featured on MUM's extensive web site (http://www.mum.org), contains a washable pad as well as a cloth-covered (not to mention heavy) rubber sheet that drapes over a woman's backside, all the way down past her knees. The model Finley has in his museum is based on an advertisement in a 1914 Sears & Roebuck catalog. For how heavy and bulky those things must have been to wear, I certainly hope the women's clothes went stain-free.
"That's why the woman I shall love will be able to menstruate as fully and freely as she desires. Even if her monthly flow should build in intensity to a raging, rust-colored torrent, an unbridled river of life-giving blood flowing from between her legs, an awesome cataract plunging off the edge of our couch, I wouldn't be fazed." -- Foley
Before he began the museum in the basement of his house in 1994, Finley said he mostly thought of menstruation as "an impediment to sex." He still doesn't like the sight of blood. "I, for one, am glad I don't menstruate," he said. But he became interested in the idea of a museum devoted to the topic while working in Germany for an American magazine. He worked in layout and design, and among the advertisements he studied for ideas were feminine hygiene ads from various countries.
"My initial interest was in how these [products] are marketed ... how [they] reflected cultural feelings in every country," Finley said. An additional impetus for creating the museum was his discovery that no museum yet existed that was dedicated to menstruation. "I thought that this was an important subject, a taboo subject. It is pretty outrageous, but that's part of the fun of it," he said.
What some consider to be most outrageous is that a man would start the museum of menstruation. "One woman once left me a phone message ... she was on the verge of crying -- she said that I was a man, that I didn't know anything about [menstruation], which, on one hand, is true," he said, "On the other hand, a female friend of mine who works at the Smithsonian said [that] ... often, collections in museums are best done by people who are separated from the subject matter."
Others have criticized Finley's lack of experience in the women's health field. Finley, who holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University, believes it is due to this criticism that he has been unable to find a sponsor to make the museum public. Even if it were public, he said, he probably would not be able to remain director. "As a non-profit corporation, I imagine I would be thrown out pretty fast because I don't have the qualifications to run this thing. I am so interested in it and so convinced of its worthiness, I want to stay with it. I wouldn't want to be thrown out," he said.
"Rather, I would ford across that mighty womanly river and fetch herbal tea and Pamprin." -- Foley
Finley has used his role as director to collect and share information regarding women's health and menstruation, and, most recently, to rally support for a Congressional bill that could save women's lives. The Tampon Safety and Research Bill of 1997 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2900.IH:), which Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced in the House of Representatives in November, would provide support for research about the potential dangers of dioxins to women. Dioxins are toxic by-products of paper manufacturing and are found in most major brands of tampons and pads. High levels of dioxins have been linked to cancer in animals in laboratory experiments.
Currently, the government requires that feminine hygiene manufacturers regulate the levels of dioxins in their own products, but companies are not required to share this information with the public. Without a federal standard for companies to follow or ample research to show what levels of dioxins are unsafe, tampon users in particular may be at risk for future health problems. "What makes these toxic residues in tampons even more disturbing is that they come in direct contact with some of the most absorbent tissue in a woman's body," Maloney said during her introduction of the bill to Congress.
"This is to me so extraordinarily important," Finley said of the bill. "I can almost see this thing failing because of male attitudes ... I can see men laughing about this in Congress. But I can't see women laughing because this is a matter of life and death for them." Finley has highlighted the bill on his website and spread the word for people to call their Congressmen to voice their support of the bill. "I didn't even know who my Congressman was before," Finley said. "But I found him on the Web and called. And I've been telling everybody I know to do the same thing."
"And then I'd mop her brow and admire her fecundity. For I have a good attitude ... towards menstruation!" -- Foley
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