Lysol Disinfectant

[corridor7f.livejournal.com]

Comments

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

This is intriguing because I've read that lysol was promoted in this discreet manner as a method of dealing with unwanted pregnancies...

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

Yup. There were actually a lot of birth control devices advertised in this fashion.

[wonderwonder.livejournal.com]

could you post some examples? i would love to see more.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

Edited to fix tag (again).

Alas, no. I'm a historian and I study women's history, but usually historians write books with very few images.

Here's what you want to look out for, though.

Any advertisement that says its product will help regulate a woman's menstrual cycle is an abortifacient or a contraceptive. Products that advertise cleanliness are for contraceptives - especially those sold as douches. However, since advertisers couldn't come outright and say what they were for, they'd often write copy like the copy below. I've bolded the words that were double-talk for pregnancy, birth control, and contraceptive/abortive advice.

" 'She looks old enough to be his mother!' A catty remark - but this time, it's true and actually she is five years younger than her husband. And the pity of it it is that, in this enlightened age, so often a woman has only herself to blame if she fails to stay young with her husband - and with her woman friends. Today science has applied itself to those delicate problems of feminine hygiene upon which so much of a woman's good health and youthfulness and charm depend. Today there need be no misconception of the true facts. The makers of 'Lysol' Disinfectant offer you a booklet called 'The Scientific Side of Health and Youth" which gives the correct information and simple rules which every woman should have for constant reference. It is sound professional advice, written for women by a woman physician. It is free. Simply send in the coupon below. The booklet will reach you in a plain envelope. In the meantime, don't take needless chances. Buy a bottle of "Lysol" disinfectant today at your drugstore. Complete directions come with every bottle. "Lysol" Disinfectant is sold at retail only in the brown bottle packed in the yellow carton." [bold emphasis mine, italics theirs]

In the 1930s FDR got through regulation that said that drug and cosmetic information had to be accurate - truth in advertising. Before that, Listerine was a mouthwash, a dandruff cure, an after-shave tonic, a cure for colds and sore throats, an astringent, and a deodorant.

There's a good book out there that has some ad copy from the 1920s to 1940s. It's called Advertising the American Dream by Roland Marchand. You can probably find a copy in your library.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

There is one exception - if the ad is advertising cleanliness and it's obviously make up or beauty soap (in bars) it's not for contraception. But if it's a disinfectant, it's contraceptive.

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

Yup - notice how in the ad's fine print it says, "... active in the presence of organic matter (such as mucus, serum, etc.)" LOL, they can't come out and say "semen," but you know that's what's suggested here.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

That is really interesting. This is why I like this comm so much. I learn stuff.

[evilfoo.livejournal.com]

You're right. Thank goodness that there are alternatives to scalding ourselves with bleach, now.

[paintmeamovie.livejournal.com]

EEEEEnteresting!

[suchakiller.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, it's a mirage.
I'm tellin' y'all it's SABOTAGE

'stache Ken?

[miss-october.livejournal.com]

OMG, your icon! hahaha!

we needed the visual!! :)

[misstia]

[evilfoo.livejournal.com]

The winner is you!

[commodoremarie.livejournal.com]

OH NOES! My husband can't love me because of my tunafishy vag! Not because he's an asshole and cheating on me with his skanky secretary. It must be mah coooch!

I love these old Lysol ads. They make me sad, but also amused.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Well I'm wondering if that's it, or whether it's actually fear of unwanted pregnancy. Hey, with Lysol(TM), unwanted foetal matter is washed away!

[miserablefaith.livejournal.com]

It cleanses thoroughly.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Including *mucus*. I am wondering if the true subtext of this story is:

"When we were first married sex was just amazing but now we are not ready to have a baby my husband is turned off by having to wear a rubber/doing withdrawal/terror of me getting pregnant. But thanks to Lysol, we now safely have lots of sex and I just douche it all away afterwards!"

[air-and-angels.livejournal.com]

That is a FASCINATING NOTION.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

*nods* Until I'd been apprised of the whole abortifacient/anticonception thiing, I just assumed ads like this were an excessive response to Unfeminine Odours...

[wonderwonder.livejournal.com]

can you cite some critical articles that explore this? i want to hear more about this subtextual reading!

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Not critical, but here are some links:
http://www.mum.org/Lysol48.htm (check out the letter from the elderly lady!)

http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/douche_with_lysol_for_feminine_hygiene

[dazedpuckbunny.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know more about this! Any links? *perks*

[koneko-wish.livejournal.com]

Add me to that list! I'm now far too fascinated for my own good, and would like to read more. O___O

[dachsie-mom.livejournal.com]

Lynn Peril's Pink Think has quite a few pages devoted to the Lysol ads and ads for similar products (one that was supposedly a douche, a mouthwash, and a liquid for use in enemas !) and how they were disguised contraceptive ads.

http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Think-Becoming-Uneasy-Lessons/dp/0393323544

The whole book is well worth reading : Very entertaining, very informative.
And it's available used for .89 cents!

[albear.livejournal.com]

Spray your kooch!

[drowned-worldd.livejournal.com]

It you and you big ol' dirty vajayjay's fault he doesn't love you!

?

[daniela-lynx.livejournal.com]

*CROSSES LEGS FOREVER*

[farklebarkle.livejournal.com]

My marriage was saved...because MY VAGINA DOESN'T SMELL ANYMORE.

[miss-october.livejournal.com]

"Why did you and George get a divorce?"

"Um..."

[miss-october.livejournal.com]

Ever notice the lack of ads for men's smelly crotches?

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I am 90 percent sure this is actually a contraceptive ad.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

It is a contraceptive ad.

[whoseline_wlsc]

I couldn't imagine using Lysol there.
Or most other parts of my body, for that matter.

[afranjes.livejournal.com]

Ouch. This made me cringe.

[leoprincess.livejournal.com]

I'm hella surprised that they mentioned 'vaginal tissues' in a 1940s ad, when douche ads in 2010 skirt around mentioning that area by name. Wow.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

I would also like to point out how one could get a booklet on 'feminine hygiene' sent in a plain wrapper so the neighbours don't know your secret..

[crabofdoom.livejournal.com]

Yes, a perfectly discreet plain wrapper that instead announces to the neighbors "LOOK! PORN!".

[cool-ikova.livejournal.com]

killing picture ))))

[kimerastorm.livejournal.com]

You would be amazed at some of the things that were doctor reccomended for personal hygine. I would have to ask my aunt about the contraceptive properties though.. that sounds about as correct as douching with a bottle of coca-cola.

[chuckloris.livejournal.com]

Gah, this makes me cringle. Lysol? Jesus. Burned vagina, anyone? Also, I didn't know about the birth control thing. Interesting...

[parkerbenchley.livejournal.com]

Well, at least it's not the pine scented Lysol douche ad. For folks who want to smell like they play stoop tag in a hedgerow nursery.

[je-reviens.livejournal.com]

the Lysol ads for "hygiene" always crack me up. They used to push Lysol douche as a contraceptive method even though it doesn't work!