Once Lysol was recommended for both the women and the
kitchen floors!
"...Lysol, which shares germicidal properties with
carbolic acid, was a highly recommended treatment for "offensive"
vaginal odors. This initiated a vicious cycle, so to speak: a self-conscious,
but often healthy, woman would douche with Lysol and kill off normal flora (and
scald her tissues), which would pave the way for bacterial/yeast infections,
which WOULD cause an offensive odor, which would compel her to douche more
often. Because an abnormal body odor in a normally clean person indicates an
underlying problem, women who actually did have a raging infection only made
matters worse with this frequent purging..."
(from 'Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation' by Elissa
Stein and Susan Kim, 2009)
Q: What was common to a woman working in a kitchen and the
kitchen floor?
A: Both were disinfected with Lysol, a household cleaner!
Artist: Darrin Bell, April 24 2020