Why'd you need a scented pad? Women died from Lysol poisoning and burns as well, didn't they? Absolutely.

People always ask me in the time I've been talking about menstruation, like half things changed. And I've asked things have changed, but on the other hand, things haven't changed at all. So now there's research being done that duching is not good for you, but scented products are available on the marketplace. So I've seen ads from the 1800s using the word shame and smell and fear and I've seen current ads using the same words. So people might talk about menstruation a little bit more, but people are also slamming it against the wall in a way as well because that's what sells. That's what sells when people are scared and are looking for a solution. And so nobody's letting go of

that. It's just not as obvious. So when you look at these old Lysol adverts, selling them to be used as duching agents and to clean yourself and as an aid to contraception, and they are brutal, as you were saying, it is women crying because their husbands have left them because of their, quote, unquote, odor. Or when I should probably say, because I did write about this for a book and I actually got in contact with Lysol, who were very, very nice to random people phoning them up to ask about this. And they did say categorically that that was part of their history, but they were quite keen to say, we don't do that, please. There's nothing to do with us. So we'll just say that as well as that the current Lysol people would really prefer. You just don't do that, please. That's lovely of them. It is, isn't it? They just got back and they were just kind of like, yeah, that it did happen. We wish it didn't. Please don't do that. Which I guess, you know, what else can you do? But the language isn't as horrific as being used in those adverts, but when you look at adverts for, quote, unquote, feminine hygiene products for products that are there only for intimate care, for delicate care, like there are whole lines of cleaning products set up just for the vagina and the vulva. And they're very careful with how they word it, but just the fact that they exist is slightly

troubling because it's pushing this weird message, isn't it? It's really baby wipes and they've repackaged them and repurposed them to clean your vagina, which doesn't need to be cleaned. But again, somebody found a way of repackaging something and selling that message. So yeah, so in some ways, language has changed a little bit and people are more open about it, but then there's like a whole entire new line like, okay, don't do, but you can get this wipe that you can put in your like little packet in your pocketbook just for those days. And it's the same exact message. It's a very hard topic to really change the trajectory on because as a society, as a globe, a global marketplace, we've been conditioned for such a long time to have this belief system that isn't based on fact, but it's based on your generation upon generation upon generation of believe in this stuff. I remember when I was writing this book and I had two kids and we went to Florida and I got my period the day we went down there and I said, oh, I can't go swimming. I have my period. And my daughter said, you know, that's ridiculous. And she said, of course you can go swimming when you have your period mom. You're writing this book. And I had to stop and think, oh my gosh, she's right. But I had spent an entire lifetime being told, don't go in a pool. So the message is as I got from my mother and my grandmother in the book I got when I was in fifth grade, like you when you're menstruating, you shouldn't go in water. Like you shouldn't be near a cold temperature. You wouldn't want to be like all these negative messages and I go, oh my God, she's right. Like here I am, the grown up and the mom and my daughter is saying to me, that's just some crazy cultural mindset, but it's not reality. And so we all went to the store together and we bought tampons that didn't say menstruation on them. And then I went swimming. But that changed how I was in the world. But you know, I was writing a book about menstruation. Most women don't have that experience. Their mother said or the grandmother said or their coworkers like, oh my God, you can't do that. So those things are still so heavily ingrained in us. It's going to be very hard as a society, you know, as women in the world to let those things go.