From "Offensive" Vaginal Odors to Coronavirus!....Journey of Lysol

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