Celebrate Menstrual Monday

May 4, 2009

brought to you by MOLT: The Museum of the Menovulatory Lifetime

"sometimes a little lighter, sometimes a little heavier"

www.moltx.org info@moltx.org

(Check out the Menstrual Monday 2005 poster here)

They've never menstruated a day in their lives what do they know about life in a red-collar town?

Menstrual Monday falls, er, spills the Monday before Mother's Day, because menstruation comes before motherhood...and usually long after it, too.  Menstrual Monday has a 4-fold purpose: * Create a sense of fun around menstruation * Encourage women to take charge of their menstrual and reproductive health * Create greater visibility of menstruation in film, print, music and other media * Enhance honesty about menstruation in our relationships

Detroit CEOs:  Alan Mulally (Ford), Robert Nardelli  (Chrysler), Rick Wagoner (GM), testifying before Congress

Though it's a little known fact that the FREE MENSTRUAL MONDAY PARTY FAVORS & DECORATIONS are manufactured in the Detroit area, it's pretty obvious that Detroit, and especially the Detroit automakers, have been dumped on pretty good lately.  Sportswriter Mitch Albom recently responded to this ramped-up bashing with an essay in Sports Illustrated, "The Courage of Detroit." After blasting the criticism dished out by senators, banks and Californians, Albom notes:

"Heck, during the [Detroit] Lions annual Thanksgiving game, CBS's Shannon Sharpe actually wore a bag on his head."

This Menstrual Monday, let's put the bag [as in Dragon Bag] on the table instead, invite friends over, and celebrate red-collar Detroit Motor City Motown MOLT-town.

There are two new items this year - a fun red collar and the broken tampon triptych (triptych is just a fancy word for a three-panel piece of art - in this instance, made of recycled cardboard, and linking together the1980 toxic shock outbreak, debit card "overdraft protection," and the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. You'll never think of the Washington Monument in the same way again!)

When requesting your FREE DRAGON BAG, please specify whether you'd like the red collar OR the broken tampon triptych - and include your MAILING address, thanks! Email your request to info@moltx.org.

Want to help MOLT out? Please visit our exhibits, Toxic Protection/Confidence Shock and/or Menovulography:  Anna Oravec – then email with your comments.  Write a whole 5-page paper about one of the MOLTxibits (or any single web page within), and receive a free copy of Traveling Menstrual Show, the poetry collection that started it all.

If You're Looking At	Blue Collar Is	Whereas Red Collar Is
Gateway Bridge, I-94 to Detroit	Painted blue like Detroit Lions football jerseys, with football shapes incorporated into bridge. Other than that, people aren't really sure what it's supposed to represent - and question the amount of money spent.	Painted blue to resemble lapis lazuli stone and modeled after an Egyptian Wedjat, or Healing Eye of Horus. Healing – something the Detroit area, as well as any number of menstruating women, are in need of!
World's Largest Tire, off I-94	You'll see this just past Detroit Metro Airport. Unfortunately, the site of the old Uniroyal factory, near the entrance to the Belle Isle Bridge, has yet to be redeveloped – a 3-year extension was granted to clean up the site, before construction can even begin.	You'll find this MOLTwheel in your Dragon Bag – it's pretty small, but it's also pretty soft and flies like a Frisbee!  Easy to manufacture - just requires one simple "fixture" to make. Diversify that economy, Detroit!
"Outsmart Mother Nature"  Tampax Ad	Soccer player kicking a bow-tied gift box – does this mean Tampax doesn't like the Dragon Bag? Found in William Beaumont Hospital ER waiting room (in Seventeen magazine) after mom broke hip. MOLT tries not to take things personally, but...	Outsmart Parent Corporation, with Detroit engineering know-how: Analyze "vintage" toxic shock oubreak of 1980 from perspective of faulty product design, rather than vague "women's health issue" – leads to call for an endowed chair in bioengineering for women, as well as a meticulously researched museum exhibit on tampon-related toxic shock syndrome – you'd be surprised where such an approach will lead – straight to the Washington Monument!
Spirit of Detroit, Downtown	Depending on the season, the Spirit of Detroit dons a Red Wings hockey jersey, a Pistons basketball jersey or a Tigers baseball jersey.  Granted, there are plenty of strong and flexible men in the Detroit area, capable of sitting in a semi-yoga pose – but lots of other kinds of people too.	Menstruation + Ovulation + Biography = Menovulography (MO-ography for short) 'The years from puberty to menopause, told as a story with pictures.' Check out the MO-ography of Anna Oravec, a Slovak-American woman born in 1912, at the MOLT website. I wonder how her story would compare to that of a professional female athlete born in 1980?