Don T Tell, Dear: The Material Culture Of Tampons And Napkins

Submitted By sophiesmith1
Words: 584
Pages: 3

Sophie Smith
KP
American Literature
21 January 2015
Annotated Bibliography
Ginsburg, Rebecca. "'Don't Tell, Dear': The Material Culture of Tampons and Napkins." Journal of Material Culture 1 (1996): 365-75. SAGE Journals Online. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. In a short article taken from Sage Journals Online, Rebecca Ginsburg addresses the social stresses middle-class women endure due to a “male-centered world.” Ginsburg thoughtfully articulates the specific troubles women go through just to hide sanitary napkins and tampons from men. Ginsburg earned her Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley and now serves as an associate professor for education policy and organization and leadership at the College of Education at Illinois. Due to both her previous and recent educational studies, Ginsburg is able to skillfully investigate the social and emotional effects the idea of having to hide sanitary napkins and tampons from the outside world has on both current day women and women in the 1900s. Ginsburg conveys the menstrual etiquette woman are expected to preform in public settings and provides many examples of the methods women use to hide signs of menstruation. Ginsburg’s use of relatable examples of menstrual etiquette adds to her overall claim, that “members of oppressed groups such as woman often have more to hide” (374). Despite her valid use of everyday examples, the redundancy of Ginsburg’s claim takes away from her overall article. However, I still plan on including Ginsburg’s research in my final paper because this step-back does not detract enough from the overall meaning of her article for me to overlook the insightful elements. Ginsburg’s studies will act as a supporting element to my research paper, because she addresses the social norms that come with buying and using tampons, which is also addressed in my add from the late 1930s. In addition, Ginsburg displays how the visual components of packaging affect the social acceptably of the product.

Hoy, Suellen M. Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print. Suellen M. Hoy, a historian now living in Dune Acres, Indiana, researches the overall aspects of cleanliness during the 19th century and the ways these concepts were enforced throughout America. During the 19th century, a time in which thousands of