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Menovulography
/ Anna Oravecz / Part II |
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Carrying pails, north of Detroit, 1920s L-toR: Anna Oravec; unidentified |
Moving to boomtown Detroit in the early 1920s, the Oravecz family
left behind a way of life – and the ‘z’ at the end of their last name. The now Anna Oravec, with new ‘bobbed’ hairstyle, found herself
a job in a pill factory – Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals – with enough time off
to spend a day in the country with friends. |
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Picking blueberries, north of Detroit, 1920s L-to-R: Anna Oravec; unidentified friend |
“...oh Susan, she cried you’ve stained your new waist. sweet taste – and the sweet blue running out of my mouth all the way to Darmiscotta...” ~ In the above lines from “Old,” poet Anne Sexton describes
the dream of an 80-year-old woman – that of being much younger, and picking
blueberries with her sister. In the photo to the left, it’s hard to get a sense of the
“sweet blue” Sexton describes in her poem. Harder still, perhaps, is to
understand “sweet blue” as a metaphor for menstruation. What do you think? |
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Imagine that in the 1920s, “Queen of the Blueberry
Festival” was slang for a menstruating woman. Now imagine that Kotex was bought by another company in
1922, and that this company wanted a new name for its sanitary napkin –finally
settling on “Tiara,” a sly reference to “Queen of the Blueberry Festival.”
Thus, Kotex’s small white cross was replaced by a small white tiara. How do you think Anna Oravec
would have responded to the ad at right, if it had been for Tiara, instead of
Kotex? |
Kotex magazine advertisement, 1922, Graphics
only |
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In the 1920s, Kotex was made of Cellucotton. To the
right, a piece of Cellucotton dyed with blueberry juice. Note that blueberry juice is actually dark purple! In the above ad, you were asked to imagine that the
advertised product was Tiara. Now imagine that Tiara boxes are dark purple,
not dark blue. Does dark purple evoke the qualities of “hygienic,” “sanitary” and “medical,” as
effectively as dark blue? Or does it evoke other qualities, when it comes to
menstruation? |
Cellucotton absorbent wadding Dyed with blueberry juice, 2004 |
