ÿþ<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <title>MOLT / Critique of the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health</title> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Batang; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:¼ÕÐ; mso-font-charset:129; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 151388160 16 0 524288 0;} @font-face {font-family:"MS Mincho"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"-ÿ3ÿ fg"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; panose-1:3 15 7 2 3 3 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:script; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Century Gothic"; panose-1:2 11 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@Batang"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-font-alt:Tahoma; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129023 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:16792199 151977984 16 0 4129023 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@MS Mincho"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext;} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; color:windowtext; mso-font-kerning:0pt; font-weight:normal;} h2 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold;} h5 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:5; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:#CC99FF; font-weight:bold;} p.MsoBodyTextIndent, li.MsoBodyTextIndent, div.MsoBodyTextIndent {margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:64.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:#999999; font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-style:italic;} p.MsoBlockText, li.MsoBlockText, div.MsoBlockText {margin-top:0in; margin-right:.3in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:teal; mso-bidi-font-style:italic;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:black; mso-text-animation:none; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:teal; mso-text-animation:none; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none;} p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext;} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.NormalWeb1, li.NormalWeb1, div.NormalWeb1 {mso-style-name:"Normal \(Web\)1"; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} span.contents {mso-style-name:contents;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:.5in 0in .5in 1.5in; mso-header-margin:0in; mso-footer-margin:0in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor="#969696" lang=EN-US link=black vlink=teal style='tab-interval: .5in'> <div class=Section1> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 bgcolor="#e0e0e0" style='margin-left: 17.6pt;background:#E0E0E0;border-collapse:collapse;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <tr> <td valign=top style='padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:-.95pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: -5.4pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:42.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic";mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;color:red; background:#E6E6E6'><img width=60 height=96 src="http://www.moltx.org/dragon.gif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> </td> <td width=642 style='width:481.4pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p align=center style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:5.75pt;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:4.3pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:60.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang;color:red;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>MOLT</span></b><b><span style='font-size:60.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>CRITIQUE</span></b><b><span style='font-size:60.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;color:red;background:#E6E6E6'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p align=center style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:101.25pt;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:99.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"; color:#CC66FF'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p align=center style='margin-top:1.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>The Museum of the Menovulatory Lifetime</span></b><b><span style='font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; color:#FF3333'><br> </span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#EAEAEA'> sometimes a little lighter, sometimes a little heavier </span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#CC99FF'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p align=center style='margin-top:1.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:green'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=732 bgcolor=purple style='width:549.0pt;margin-left:8.6pt;background:purple;border-collapse:collapse; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in'> <tr style='height:4.0pt'> <td width=732 valign=top style='width:549.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in; height:4.0pt'> </td> </tr> </table> <p align=center style='margin-top:1.0pt;margin-right:47.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:45.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'><span style='font-size:6.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#CC99FF'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <div align=center> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 bgcolor="#d9d9d9" style='margin-left: 18.4pt;background:#D9D9D9;border-collapse:collapse;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <tr style='height:98.1pt'> <td width=703 valign=top style='width:527.1pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:98.1pt'> <p style='margin-top:1.0pt;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: 0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:white'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a href="http://www.moltx.org/faq.html"><span style='color:black'>FAQ</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">   </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>/<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span><a href="http://www.moltx.org/mission.html"><span style='color:black'>MOLTMISSION</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span>/<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span><a href="http://www.moltx.org/x.html"><span style='color:black'>Go to X</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span>/<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span><a href="http://www.moltx.org/moltxibits.html"><span style='color:black'>Go to MOLTXIBITS</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">   </span>/<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </span><a href="mailto:info@moltx.org"><span style='color:black'>Contact Us</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:5.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#CC99FF'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:5.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#CC99FF'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a href="http://www.moltx.org/faq.html"><span style='color:black'>FAQ / Why do we need another museum of this kind?</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:5.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a href="http://www.moltx.org/oldmission.html"><span style='color:black'>Old MOLTMISSION</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:5.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:6.3pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: .5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><a href="http://www.moltx.org/othermissions.html"><span style='color:black'>Examples of Other Museum Mission Statements</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style='margin-top:1.0pt;margin-right:11.25pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left: 21.2pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; color:purple'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:47.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:6.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=732 bgcolor=purple style='width:549.0pt;margin-left:8.6pt;background:purple;border-collapse:collapse; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in'> <tr style='height:4.0pt'> <td width=732 valign=top style='width:549.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in; height:4.0pt'> </td> </tr> </table> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:14.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 bgcolor="#d9d9d9" style='margin-left: 17.6pt;background:#D9D9D9;border-collapse:collapse;border:none;mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <tr> <td width=300 rowspan=2 valign=top style='width:225.0pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p class=NormalWeb1 style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:7.9pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:4.7pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=NormalWeb1 style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:7.9pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:4.7pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=NormalWeb1 style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:7.9pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:4.7pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=NormalWeb1 style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:7.9pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:21.2pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Holomenses and Holocaust: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=NormalWeb1 style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:7.9pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:21.2pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'>A Comparison of the Museum of Menstruation and Women s Health and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:21.2pt'><b><span style='font-size: 7.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:21.2pt'><b><span style='font-family: Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>by Geneva Kachman<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.05in'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style='font-size:4.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width=192 valign=top style='width:2.0in;border-top:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;border-bottom:none;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.05in'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.05in'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.05in'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.05in'> <img width=138 height=192 src="http://www.moltx.org/seattle.jpg" align=left hspace=12><span style='font-size:4.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width=216 valign=top style='width:2.25in;border-top:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;border-bottom:none;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:5.75pt'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:5.75pt'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:5.75pt'><span style='font-size:4.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:5.75pt'> <img width=155 height=192 src="http://www.moltx.org/howesupertampon.gif" align=left hspace=12><span style='font-size:4.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width=192 valign=top style='width:2.0in;border-top:none;border-left:none; border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:12.6pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:12.2pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'>InStyle magazine cover, found in emloyee lunch</span></b><b><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: Batang'> room<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:.3in;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:12.2pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> </td> <td width=216 valign=top style='width:2.25in;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:14.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:12.6pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'>Super Tampon cartoon by Victoria Howe, in Insane Action  zine, 1999<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:14.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Batang'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:47.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>This paper was presented at the June 2001 Society for Menstrual Cycle Research Conference in Connecticut. The information contained in this paper was current as of June 2001. The idea for MOLT: The Museum of the Menovulatory Lifetime grew out of this paper. Although this paper is a bit heavy with the statistics at the start, it gets more interesting as it goes along! <o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:47.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:47.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>For a less idiosyncratic analysis of MUM, please visit <span style='color:#99CC00'><a href="http://www.capitalizingonthecurse.com/"><span style='color:#99CC00'>http://www.capitalizingonthecurse.com/</span></a>, </span><span style='color:black'>to learn more about the recently published book,  Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation, by </span><span class=contents>Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, Ph.D., professor of Communication and Women's Studies at <span style='color:#99CC00'><a href="http://www.ewu.edu" title="Eastern Washington University"><span style='color:#99CC00'>Eastern Washington University</span></a>.</span></span></span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=732 bgcolor=purple style='width:549.0pt;margin-left:8.6pt;background:purple;border-collapse:collapse; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in'> <tr style='height:4.0pt'> <td width=732 valign=top style='width:549.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in; height:4.0pt'> </td> </tr> </table> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), located just off the Washington Mall in Washington DC, opened in 1993. In 1994, and about 12 miles away in New Carrolton, Maryland, the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health (MUM) opened. The two museums, although proximate in physical location and date of opening, have followed two completely different trajectories of creation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>At USHMM, the original commission and advisory board, comprising 48 total members and appointed by President Carter in 1978, gave way to a 100-member Executive Council headed by Elie Wiesel, which in turn spun off various committees: Fundraising, Museum, Design Concept, Content and Building. USHMM's first director was Jeshajahu (Shaike) Weinberg (1998-1994), followed by Dr. Stephen Katz (1994), Dr. Walter Reich (1994-1998), and finally Sara Jane Bloomfield, director from 1999 to present (USHMM email communication).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:65.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>We find a reference to Bloomfield at the MUM website, wherein Harry Finley, &quot;founder and director,&quot; argues for his own qualifications to run a museum, despite having &quot;only a B.A. in an unrelated field (philosophy)&quot;:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:110.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;...I have had the vision to create a small version of the future museum and this Web site, and to make myself the target on the public firing range, where I have been absorbing bullets [sic] since 1994...Consider Sara Jane Bloomfield, the new (1999) director of the &quot;perpetually packed&quot; (Washington Post) U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum...Her highest degree is a B.A. (in English literature). She is not a Holocaust scholar and has no academic background in Holocaust studies, although she has read widely in the field...&quot; (MUM website &quot;Purpose&quot; page)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>At present, Bloomfield directs a museum whose staff numbers &quot;nearly 450, including 125 contractors...; more than 300 volunteers, including 64 Holocaust survivors, donating more than 57,000 hours of service annually; and nearly 50 interns annually, providing over 17,000 hours of service&quot; (USHMM email communication).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>In contrast, at MUM, all museum responsibilities are fulfilled by one individual, Finley, variously described as &quot;founder and director,&quot; &quot;creator of the museum and site,&quot; &quot;...he [who] created, writes and maintains this website,&quot; and most crucially, &quot;...the &quot;I&quot; of the narrative&quot; (MUM website, various pages).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:56.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Although financial, time and health constraints account in large part for the absence of staffing at MUM (Finley works full-time as a graphic designer at the National Defense University, Washington DC, and suffers from heart disease), we must also consider Finley's statement during the taping of a TV show in October 2000. When asked if he &quot;...consults anyone...consults any experts&quot; regarding the museum and website, Finley responded: &quot;There are no experts!&quot; (Moral Court taping October 2000).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:110.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>In terms of visitors, USHMM, housed in a building specifically designed for the purpose, received its 16 millionth visitor in May 2001. In addition, the USHMM website receives over 300,000 visitors per month. Lawrence Swiader, Director of Web Projects, explains &quot;[website] visitation has been ahead of the physical Museum steadily for over a year now...visitation figures ebb and flow along with the school year which makes sense since it is such an important resource for many teachers.&quot;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:65.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>The situation is different at MUM: Housed in Finley's basement, the physical museum closed to the public (except for an occasional visitor) in 1998. It is MUM's website which receives the overwhelming number of visitors - &quot;four million&quot; so far, according to Finley in October 2000 - although it is not clear if this number refers to total page hits or total user sessions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:65.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:65.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Lastly, the two museums' collections were built in very different ways. At the Holocaust Museum, the focus of the collection shifted &quot;abruptly&quot; from one based on &quot;documents, letters, diaries, original works of art, articles of clothing, photographs and other objects that were crafted in the camps, in ghettos or in hiding...&quot; to &quot;large artifacts,&quot; as Edward T. Linenthal describes:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:83.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;Smith and Appelbaum were convinced that film, photographs, and small artifacts alone could not carry the story line...[They] had to convince Weinberg that large artifacts were crucial to the story...[Weinberg] was willing, recalled Smith, to change the museum's collection process abruptly, giving the design team authority to begin searching for the large artifacts that would dramatically alter the nature of the exhibition&quot; (Edward Linenthal, Preserving Memory, pp. 146-147).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>An example of a &quot;large artifact&quot; would be the open railcar exhibited on the third floor of the Holocaust Museum, &quot;...a railcar of the type used to transport victims to death camps&quot; (Edward Linenthal, p. 158). Confronting visitors as they walk through the railcar is a large &quot;photomural of a selection at Auschwitz-Birkenau&quot; on the wall directly ahead of them. It is instructive to note that &quot;just before shipment,&quot; &quot;the Polish government had painted the [rail]car&quot; (Edward Linenthal, p. 159). Emily Dyer, who directed a museum storage facility in Maryland, had commented: &quot;When [the railcar] arrived, the paint was still wet...They wanted to hide its past, and we wanted to reveal it&quot; (Edward Linenthal, p. 159).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>At MUM, however, the collection process was relatively straightforward, focused on the &quot;small artifacts&quot; of menstrual product advertising and menstrual products themselves:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;[Finley] started the museum in 1995 [sic], an outgrowth of a collection he started years earlier in Europe. While posted in Germany as a graphic designer for the US government, [Finley] researched print ad layouts. Among the thousands he accumulated, he became keenly interested in Kotex and menstrual product ads...As word spread, individuals and even product manufacturers sent [Finley] unique items&quot; (Road Trip America Interview, 1996, Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>A MUM brochure explains that &quot;A particular weight is put on the history and philosophy of menstrual hygiene advertising; the museum owns over 1,000 ads from many countries, as well as patents, booklets, and other printed and visual material&quot; (The Medical Reporter, Interview with Joel R. Cooper, copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>However, there is one &quot;large artifact&quot; the museum has expressed an interest in acquiring, and that is &quot;one actual menstrual hut&quot; - &quot;And let's let people actually sit in [it]!&quot; writes Finley (MUM website). At present this would be ethically problematic, given there are cultures in which menstrual huts are still being used. For example, Beverly Strassmann reports that Dogon women in Mali, West Africa, &quot;extremely dislike&quot; using menstrual huts (Beverly Strassmann, email communication). Further, Strassmann reports that if a Dogon woman marries a man who does not practice the animist religion (which segregates menstruating women into menstrual huts), she will stop using the menstrual hut (Beverly Strassmann, The reproductive ecology of the Dogon of Mali, 1990). One could hardly imagine a holocaust museum allowing visitors to walk through a railcar, if railcars were still being used to transport victims to concentration camps.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Regardless of the sharp divergence of creation trajectories and resultant museums, a deep symmetry exists between MUM and USHMM. To highlight this symmetry, I have coined the term 'holomenses,' defined simply as the total number of menstrual events (Society for Menstrual Cycle Research flyer) to take place on the planet, past, present and future. This allows us to make further comparisons between MUM and USHMM, if we further define Holocaust, for our purposes, as the total number of genocidal events to take place between 1933 and 1945.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>In the USHMM mission statement, we read:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;Jews were the primary victims -- six million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny&quot; (USHMM mission statement).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:1.0in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>In MUM's [Statement of] Purpose, we read no similarly precise definition of menstruation, or menstrual event, let alone any organizing concept like holomenses; merely that the &quot;...menstruation section [of the museum]...&quot; &quot;...is intended to be the world's repository for information about, and &quot;showcase&quot; for menstruation, including as many cultures as possible.&quot;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Indeed, one can find a confusing array of statements about menstruation at the museum and website. For example:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;The [museum] tour starts at a display of art, text, and a partly filled plastic cup glued onto matte board. &quot;What is Menstruation?&quot; This explains the rough physiology; here is a cup showing roughly the average amount of blood lost by a woman during menstruation&quot; (Road Trip America Interview, 1996).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>And then:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;...menstruation has little to do with medicine, being largely a cultural subject...It's as if a museum of hair styles should be in a medical school; both hair and menstruation have physical origins, but both are largely nonmedical topics&quot; (MUM website, &quot;Purpose&quot; page).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:1.0in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>And then:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:83.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;[Finley] find[s] the subject interesting because of its greath breadth and depth, touching medicine, anthropology, sociology, history and even art...It also has relevance to women's health of today&quot; (MUM website, &quot;Frequently Asked Questions&quot; page).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:1.0in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>The closest the [Statement of] Purpose gets to an organizing concept is in the fourth paragraph:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;The museum as a whole will show the historical development of the relationship between medicine and women [sic] for as many of the cultures of the world as possible, in addition to a history of menstruation.&quot;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>I would suggest that by borrowing some of the meanings of the term Holocaust for holomenses, we can begin to clarify what we mean by phrases like &quot;relationship between medicine and women,&quot; &quot;history of menstruation,&quot; and &quot;as many cultures of the world as possible.&quot; Four of these meanings would be: Spatiotemporal spread; taboo; suffering; and transformation. I will discuss each briefly in turn.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>1. Spatiotemporal spread. The Holocaust occured in 22 countries over a 13-year period, and consisted of millions of genocidal events (Simon Wiesenthal Multimedia Learning Center website), i.e., &quot;murder, destruction, decimation, grievous oppression and death&quot; (USHMM Mission Statement). Holomenses, by comparison, has even greater spatiotemporal spread, dating back perhaps as far as &quot;...the divergence of modern humans 250,000-300,000 years ago&quot; (Elsimar Coutinho, Is Menstruation Obsolete?, p. 64). It is also important to point out that although the Holocaust has definite begin and end dates (January 30, 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, to May 8, 1945, V-E Day, the end of the war in Europe) (Simon Wiesenthal Multimedia Learning Center website), holomenses has neither a definite begin nor end date.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>2. Taboo. Relatively little attention (mass media or otherwise) is currently paid to the Holocaust taboo, which existed after World War II and on into the early 1960s, both in Israel as well as the rest of the world. There were many reasons for this taboo: Shame on the part of survivors; others not believing stories when they were told; the desire in Israel to direct energies into nation-building; and so on (Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>It was with the 1961 Eichmann trial in Jerusalem that the taboo broke, as trial testimony was broadcast in Israel and throughout the rest of the world:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:83.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'> The [Eichmann] trial created a climate of opinions in which the Holocaust - which had been relatively little discussed in Israeli society - became the central topic of conversation. After 1961 the Holocaust ceased to be taboo, and instead assumed an increasingly central - if contested - position in Israeli society and politics&quot; (Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Israel's 1967 victory in the Six-Day war was also a taboo-breaking event. The historian Deborah Lipstadt &quot;...point[ed] to the importance of the 'redemptive victories of the Jewish state' in shattering 'the silence of the previous decades' over the Holocaust within American Jewry. Like Neusner, she suggests that 'now that the Holocaust was &quot;history&quot; and not &quot;probability,&quot; it could be confronted'&quot; (Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p. 10).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Things are bit more complicated when it comes to the notion of a holomenses taboo. The first difficulty lies with the between-culture and within-culture variation in menstrual practice and menstrual discourse. The word taboo is rendered almost meaningless if it is used to describe not only the rationale for menstruating women being segregated to menstrual huts in Mali, West Africa, but also the Director of Resident Life at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, refusing to allow female students to hang posters containing the word &quot;menstruation&quot; in residence halls (Jennifer Kinser, email communication).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>In the first instance, as long as a woman is married to a man who practices animism (thereby tending an altar which would be defiled by the presence of a menstruating woman), the woman is obligated to use a menstrual hut. In the second instance, however, the Director of Residence Life ended up apologizing to the female students, who had construed the Director's actions as an infringement of their right to free speech (Jennier Kinser, email communication). This right to free speech has two aspects to it: First as members of a university community, and secondly, as citizens of the United States. It is therefore important that taboo be defined narrowly rather than widely, so as not to obscure culture-specific legal and political realities.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Further, I would suggest that menstrual behavior (i.e., practices and discourse) is merely a subcategory of sexual behavior, at least when it comes to the notion of consent. Ideally (and legally), sexual behavior is consensual; when consent is not given, because someone is too young and/or physically and/or mentally incapable of giving it, or someone capable of giving consent withholds it, this is considered rape or sexual abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>As well, sexual discourse, at least in the United States workplace since the early 1970s, is understood to be consensual; when it is not, at least in the workplace, this is considered sexual harassment. As menstruation is one outcome of having achieved sexual maturity, and is thus a signifier of sexual maturity, it seems reasonable to argue that menstrual behavior does involve this notion of consent, regardless of how &quot;menopositive&quot; (Jackie Brookman, Hot Flash Cards) a culture may be. Again, taboo needs to be defined narrowly rather than widely, so that the notion of consent not be obscured.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>3. Suffering. In borrowing this meaning of the term Holocaust for holomenses, I am not in any way equating menstrual suffering with that of the Holocaust. As Edward T. Linenthal points out, regarding &quot;equating AIDS with the Holocaust&quot;:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:92.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;Regarding AIDS, [Muller] underscored what he perceived as the &quot;crucial differences between the inaction and hostility of American society and politics toward people with AIDS and the intentional sytematic Nazi killing machine. From a gay European perspective, [Muller] find[s] it startling that anyone would be interested in comparing the two. By doing so it diminishes the power of each event&quot; (Dr. Klaus Muller, University of Amsterdam, interviewed by Edward T. Linenthal, Preserving Memory, p. 188).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>With that caveat, I believe it is still important to articulate the scope of menstrual suffering, because in doing so, we will discover to what degree our museum ought to be commemorative and confrontational, rather than merely informative and entertaining. In the category of menstrual suffering, do we include, for example, the deaths of women as a result of illegal abortions, and the murder of abortion providers in the United States?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Currently at the MUM website, &quot;Abortion&quot; is the first item listed in the museum website directory. However, the abortion exhibit consists solely of an excerpt from a text written in 1882, entitled &quot;The Sexual System and Its Derangements.&quot; Further, a site search for &quot;abortion&quot; turns up 30 matches, fully 18 of which refer to this 1882 excerpt. In the short description which accompanies these 18 matches, the word &quot;abortion&quot; is second in a list which reads as follows: &quot;sterility, abortion, nymphomania, leucorrhea (&quot;the whites&quot;), sex (gender).&quot; And although abortion does appear in an article on contraception, this article addresses it from a religious standpoint, rather than a political one.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>Or as another example, vaginal intercourse is presently the primary means of AIDS transmission in Africa (Evening News broadcast). As the political battle to make AIDS drugs available in sufficient quantities and cheaply enough for African countries begins, what responsibility does a museum of menstruation have to be &quot;commemorative and confrontational&quot; on this issue? Is the transmission of AIDS via vaginal intercourse a &quot;menstrual event,&quot; an example of &quot;menstrual suffering?&quot;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>A further benefit to articulating menstrual suffering is that it will lead to a museum more attractive to an elected official. Presently Finley is seeking an elected official to sit on the MUM board of directors, to help the MUM gain nonprofit status. However, it is doubtful a candidate (either prolife or prochoice) would view the abortion exhibit, as it is currently constructed, as anything but a liability in a political campaign. By creating an abortion exhibit that is commemorative and confrontational (although not necessarily explicitly prochoice), and a museum in its entirety with those qualities, a politician with a keen interest in women's health issues might view it as an asset to a political campaign, and be eager to come on board.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>4. Transformation. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the Holocaust to express within a permanent exhibition:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:101.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:1.0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&quot;We knew early on,&quot; said Appelbaum, &quot;that one of the extraordinary parts of the event was that Europe was in flux and the victims were in flux because the perpetrators were moving rapidly throughout the countries. We realized that if we followed those people under all that pressure as they moved from their normal lives into ghettos, out of ghettos onto trains, from trains to camps, within the pathways of the camps, until finally to the end...if visitors could take that same journey, they would understand the story because they will have experienced the story&quot; (Edward T. Linenthal, p. 170).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:29.25pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"'>We can thus conceptualize the history of the Holocaust as one of &quot;tragic transformation&quot; - Citizen transformed into noncitizen; noncitizen into ghetto r