Contraceptives, Douches, and Cleaning Products: Lysol Advertisements in the 1930s
From the late 1920s throughout the 1930s Lehn and Fink, Inc, a product supply distributor, released a series of advertisements for their disinfectant under the name of Lysol. These advertisements were specifically marketed as “feminine hygiene products,” in other words douches, to young married women. They capitalized on the insecurities of women, which included “fear of premature aging and loss of sexual attractiveness, the danger of maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as the threat of marital disunity” (Hall), and the fact that women at this time did not have access to proper healthcare and sexual education.
In the late 1920s industry was at an all …show more content…
Each advertisement was specifically designed to profit from these promises and was backed up with an authoritative tone and pseudoscience. The advertisements I will be analysing were released between the years 1932 to 1937 and targeted white Canadian and American women. Advertisements like these were often released in monthly women’s Magazines, like McCall’s Magazine (Tone), that were popular with high to middle class women. The first advertisement shows an annoyed husband draping his jacket over his wife’s shoulders. The words “You always want to leave” are in quotations are printed below the photograph. A description of the incident starts off by illustrating the wife as a “familiar, pathetic figure” and goes on to describe how she became tired and left the party due to the fact that she does not have a “normal foundation of good health”(Hix). The advertisement is implying that if this woman uses Lysol as her douche she will feel younger, more energetic and will be a better partner for her husband because not douching indicates poor health and cleaning habits. In short, the ad is implying that if a husband is angry at his wife, she should question herself to understand how she can fix herself for his benefit. The advertisement tells the women to mail the coupon below to receive a booklet with more “facts written by women physicians” on how to …show more content…
In the picture, a woman hands another woman a booklet with directions on how to apply Lysol. The text below informs women to be wary of misinformation surrounding feminine hygiene and assures customers that Lysol is the standard antiseptic for hospitals and doctors all over the country. In her academic journal Contraceptive consumers: gender and the political economy of birth control in the 1930s, Andrea Tone writes “What was exceptional about contraceptive advertising, however, was that the experts endorsing feminine hygiene were not men. Rather, they were female physicians whose innate understanding of the female condition permitted them to share their birth-control expertise ‘woman to woman’” (Tone). This type of advertisement was to meant build trust between the consumer and the company by passing their claims as scientific fact. However the sad reality of the product was that it was an ineffective and even dangerous contraceptive. Pasulka writes,“doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle...In a 1933 study, nearly half of the 507 women who used douching as a birth control method ended up pregnant.”(Pasulka). The mix of
From the late 1920s throughout the 1930s Lehn and Fink, Inc, a product supply distributor, released a series of advertisements for their disinfectant under the name of Lysol. These advertisements were specifically marketed as “feminine hygiene products,” in other words douches, to young married women. They capitalized on the insecurities of women, which included “fear of premature aging and loss of sexual attractiveness, the danger of maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as the threat of marital disunity” (Hall), and the fact that women at this time did not have access to proper healthcare and sexual education.
In the late 1920s industry was at an all …show more content…
Each advertisement was specifically designed to profit from these promises and was backed up with an authoritative tone and pseudoscience. The advertisements I will be analysing were released between the years 1932 to 1937 and targeted white Canadian and American women. Advertisements like these were often released in monthly women’s Magazines, like McCall’s Magazine (Tone), that were popular with high to middle class women. The first advertisement shows an annoyed husband draping his jacket over his wife’s shoulders. The words “You always want to leave” are in quotations are printed below the photograph. A description of the incident starts off by illustrating the wife as a “familiar, pathetic figure” and goes on to describe how she became tired and left the party due to the fact that she does not have a “normal foundation of good health”(Hix). The advertisement is implying that if this woman uses Lysol as her douche she will feel younger, more energetic and will be a better partner for her husband because not douching indicates poor health and cleaning habits. In short, the ad is implying that if a husband is angry at his wife, she should question herself to understand how she can fix herself for his benefit. The advertisement tells the women to mail the coupon below to receive a booklet with more “facts written by women physicians” on how to …show more content…
In the picture, a woman hands another woman a booklet with directions on how to apply Lysol. The text below informs women to be wary of misinformation surrounding feminine hygiene and assures customers that Lysol is the standard antiseptic for hospitals and doctors all over the country. In her academic journal Contraceptive consumers: gender and the political economy of birth control in the 1930s, Andrea Tone writes “What was exceptional about contraceptive advertising, however, was that the experts endorsing feminine hygiene were not men. Rather, they were female physicians whose innate understanding of the female condition permitted them to share their birth-control expertise ‘woman to woman’” (Tone). This type of advertisement was to meant build trust between the consumer and the company by passing their claims as scientific fact. However the sad reality of the product was that it was an ineffective and even dangerous contraceptive. Pasulka writes,“doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle...In a 1933 study, nearly half of the 507 women who used douching as a birth control method ended up pregnant.”(Pasulka). The mix of