Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation

Picked this up because the cover looked like a pop-art masterpiece, but the contents are even more striking than the design. This book is an absolute treasure trove of historical artifacts, specifically the vintage advertisements that showcase just how bizarre the feminine hygiene industry used to be. I spent hours poring over the gorgeous copies of print ads for Tampax and various douches. It’s a fascinating, deeply researched look at how our perceptions of menstruation have been shaped by corporate interests. Some might find the tone a bit casual, but I thought it made the heavy historical data much more digestible. It’s rare to find a book that manages to be both a coffee-table visual treat and a serious piece of cultural commentary. I've already recommended it to several friends who were equally stunned by the ' Lysol' era of feminine care.

Wait, people actually used bleach-based products like Lysol to stay 'fresh' back in the day? This book is absolutely terrifying in the best way possible. I had no idea that for decades, companies were assuring women their douche products were safe with zero testing whatsoever. It is eye-opening to see how the 'fem care' industry was essentially born out of shame and marketing myths. The authors do a fantastic job of blending humor with some pretty grim historical facts. I loved the section on how Kotex pads became available the same year the 19th Amendment passed—talk about a turning point for liberation! Honestly, this should be required reading in health classes. It’s hilarious, shocking, and incredibly empowering all at once. I'll never look at a box of tampons the same way again.

Finally got around to reading this and I’m genuinely shocked it took me this long to learn about 'hysterical paroxysm' and the bizarre medical history of women’s health. For historical authors, this book is an absolute goldmine for understanding what female characters would have actually dealt with each month. The research into the myths surrounding menstruation is deep and truly eye-opening. Despite the slightly irreverent tone, the facts are hard-hitting. It’s an engaging, fast-paced read that successfully turns a 'taboo' subject into a conversation piece. Definitely a must-read for anyone with a uterus.

After hearing several friends rave about this, I bought a copy for my niece's first period and ended up reading the whole thing myself before wrapping it up. It truly is an informative read that pulls back the curtain on the 'taboo' nature of periods. I was particularly floored by the section on ancient myths, like the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder claiming period blood could cause horses to miscarry. It’s wild to see how these ridiculous assertions remained uncontested for over a thousand years just to keep women in their place. The book does a wonderful job of arming the reader with knowledge about their own body. While the authors sometimes try a bit too hard to be funny, the sheer volume of eye-opening facts makes it a must-read for any woman wanting to understand the history of her own anatomy.

The truth is, we spend so much of our lives menstruating that it's wild how little we actually know about what's going into our bodies. This book forced me to confront the idea that my choices—like using tampons for ten years without a second thought—have been heavily influenced by corporate marketing rather than health education. After reading the chapter on how companies have historically kept women in the dark, I’m seriously considering switching to a menstrual cup. The information provided here is vital for anyone who wants to break free from the taboos we've been conditioned to follow. My only minor gripe is that the writing can be a bit scattered and 'phrasey,' but the message is too important to ignore. It’s an essential guide for navigating the intersection of biology, history, and capitalism.

Ever wonder why the history books conveniently leave out the fact that Kotex and the 19th Amendment arrived in the same year? This book brilliantly connects the dots between feminine hygiene and women's political liberation. It’s fascinating to see how self-adhesive pads in the 70s coincided with the women’s movement, proving that our bodily autonomy and our social freedoms are inextricably linked. I also appreciated the brief but important mentions of how menstruation affects women in other cultures, like girls in Sub-Saharan Africa missing school due to a lack of supplies. It puts our own history into a much-needed global context. While the writing leans a bit toward the 'humorous' side, the underlying research into the gaps in our medical knowledge is top-notch. It's an enlightening read that highlights how much work we still have to do to de-stigmatize a natural process.

While I appreciated the deep dive into American consumerism, I couldn't help but feel a bit short-changed by the lack of international perspectives. This book is mainly about how American women's views of menstruation have been warped by a century of misogynistic rhetoric and an industry built on our collective insecurity. The research into how big businesses prioritize sales over health is solid and genuinely concerning. However, I wish there had been more about how the rest of the world views our 'monthlies' rather than focusing almost exclusively on the US market. The writing is engaging enough to hold your attention until the end, but the tone can be a bit 'full-on' at times. It’s a decent starting point for the subject, though I’m still searching for a more global history.

To be fair, the vintage print advertisements scattered through these pages are worth the price of admission alone. They do a magnificent job of expressing the attitudes of the advertising industry through modern times—usually by preying on women's fears of being 'unclean.' However, the book itself is a bit of a mixed bag. The authors have a tendency to be a bit repetitive, and their reliance on certain 'alternative' authorities made me skeptical. I didn't necessarily 'enjoy' the reading experience because the tone felt a little too much like a lecture, but I can't deny that it was informative. It’s a great resource for seeing the visual history of the period industry, even if the writing style doesn't quite live up to the graphics.

Look, the concept here is absolutely vital, but the execution felt like being lectured by a patronizing older sister who thinks she's 'hip' to the youth. The writing style really grated on me. It felt exactly like reading a back-issue of Seventeen magazine—preachy, didactic, and way too cutesy for a book aimed at adults. I found the constant attempts at humor to be more distracting than entertaining, often pulling me right out of the narrative. To be fair, the primary source materials and old advertisements are great to look at, but they don't make up for the 'craptastic' prose. Plus, the authors include Gary Null as a respected authority on alternative medicine. Really? That alone made me question the validity of the rest of their research. It’s a great idea for a book, but the tone is just too juvenile for my taste.

This book is a classic case of great research being absolutely tanked by a writing style that tries way too hard to be edgy and funny. Frankly, the tone was overly intimate and littered with annoying phraseology that made it hard to take the information seriously. Every time the writers wanted to point out something odd, they used the phrase 'funnily enough,' which irked me to no end by the third chapter. There were so many repetitious phrases that I started losing focus on the actual history. While the vintage ads are fantastic and the subject matter is undeniably interesting, I couldn't get past the wretched prose. If you're looking for a serious historical analysis, you might want to look elsewhere, as this feels more like a long-form blog post than a polished book.