Theater of Time Chapter 28
The Internet meme that “sanitary napkins are also lent to enemies of the family” has recently received sympathy from many women. Because of the common experience of menstruation (menstruation), women become’blood sisters’, even if they are enemies. Menstruation is an unchanging reproductive activity that dominates the body of women of childbearing age, but the social perception surrounding menstruation and sanitary pads was also the history of’female politics’. In the Hankyoreh Archive, we looked at the history of sanitary napkins that have gone through’turbulent years’. Commentary Applause
2018 domestic video advertisement
The first time’menstruation’ is called’menstruation’
Shockingly late’menstrual call’
‘Polarization’ sung by expensive sanitary pads
Companies withdraw product price increase
‘Safety’ is the most pressing demand
In 2018, for the first time in a domestic sanitary napkin video advertisement,’menstruation’ began to be called’menstruation’. Since Yuhan-Kimberly first produced and sold the first disposable sanitary napkin’Cotex’ in Korea in 1971, all sanitary napkin companies have always emphasized the feminist value of “sanitary napkins give women freedom”. It’s absurd. Previously, in advertisements, the use of sanitary pads allowed for vigorous exercise, but menstruation itself was always called’the day’ or’magic’. In 2019, advertisements such as Yuhan-Kimberly and Rael were removed from advertisements such as “blue liquid,” which is called menstrual blood. Instead, a red liquid close to the actual menstrual blood comes out. It’s been nearly 30 years since’blue liquid’ appeared on sanitary pads.
P&G’s Whisper paper advertisement for October 27, 1989. It writes the phrase’if a woman would know this difference’, and from this point on, it compares the absorption power of the sanitary napkin of’blue liquid’ and emphasizes its function. It appealed to consumers with’scientific advertisement’ and increased its market share. (※ Click the image to see it larger.)
Yuhan Kimberly’s white video advertisement in 2019. This was the first time in the history of Yuhan-Kimberly’s 50-year sanitary napkin sales in a video advertisement that directly mentions menstruation such as’The Great Hallmark Menstrual Party’ and’Menstrual Bursts’, and expresses a red liquid that is close to menstrual blood rather than a blue liquid. Photo courtesy of Yuhan-Kimberly.
Cortex was an unrivaled No. 1 product with a 60% market share in Korea until 1989, but the situation changed after P&G’s Whisper entered that year. Whisper rose to the top in 1994 after 5 years. At that time, there was an analysis that P&G’s advertising strategy that compared the process of absorbing blue liquid into sanitary napkins with other products was effective. Yuhan-Kimberly, feeling a sense of crisis, launched a new product’White’ in October 1995. Just in time, TV advertisements for sanitary napkins began to be accepted again. Thanks to marketing that emphasizes’cleanliness’ with a general college student model, it regained the top market share in 1999. Sanitary napkin broadcast advertisements were available until the 1970s, but due to some public opinion that “it is unfamiliar to family members” and “it is a decadent advertisement,” it was discontinued in accordance with the voluntary regulations of the Korean Broadcasting Association.
An advertisement for P&G’s sanitary napkin’Whisper’, which appeared on January 14, 1998, featuring actor Abstract Mi as a model. Sanitary napkin products haven’t even appeared, and they emphasize the’wings’ of sanitary napkins in the shape of a hand.
2012 Yuhan-Kimberly’s white video advertisement capture screen. He advertises that he can wear a dress on the day before his first date. Photo courtesy of Yuhan-Kimberly.
Since 1995, girls who have been running around with long straight hair in sanitary napkin advertisements wearing white dresses (!) are gradually disappearing. This is because the comfort of sanitary napkin companies that tried to draw menstruation not as it is but “clear and clean” was read as “physiological hate”, which goes against the trend of “positing one’s body” (body positive) of the recent generation. Looking at the photos and advertisement images of the Hankyoreh Archive, there has been a long history of struggling women’s’menstrual rights’ until an advertisement close to the menstruation of women in reality appeared. Korean women use more than 10,000 sanitary pads for about 40 years. The average number is over 250 per year (female environmental solidarity). For this reason, the government sees sanitary napkins as a daily necessity and has been exempting 10% of VAT since 2004. However, if you look at the bottom line,’tax exemption for sanitary napkins’ was also a result of the women’s movement. In 2002-2003, the Korean Women’s Association argued that “the tax on sanitary napkins, which is a necessity for 13 million women, should be exempted”, and the National Assembly also responded by submitting a bill to exempt sanitary napkin tax regardless of the opposition party. Looking at the article on August 4, 2003, the logic of the Ministry of Finance and Economy (currently the Ministry of Strategy and Finance) opposing it is embarrassing and interesting. “According to the claims of women’s groups, we should not pay VAT on items such as underwear, cosmetics, and razors.” However, the’determination logic’ of the Ministry of Finance and Economy officials who classified sanitary napkins and cosmetics as necessities on the same line could not break the’trend of the times’.
On August 23, 2002, the Korean Women’s Association opened’The price of sanitary pads, isn’t it too expensive?’ In a street campaign, citizens are signing an agreement to abolish the VAT on sanitary pads. The tax authorities objected, but the opposition parties agreed without disagreement, and the sanitary napkin tax was exempted from 2004. Reporter Seo Kyung-shin took it.
As one of the social network service (SNS) hashtag campaigns for’#Place a sanitary napkin’, a red-painted sanitary napkin and a sign with a phrase urging to reduce the price of expensive sanitary napkins were posted on an alley in Insa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on July 3, 2016. have. Reporter Kim Seong-gwang took it.
Just because sanitary napkins became duty-free didn’t mean everyone was free of price. In the sanitary napkin market, it was not an exaggeration to say that premium competition has grown pie. This is because consumers do not have much information about the product, so there is widespread perception that the more expensive it is, the safer it is. The sanitary napkin manufacturer raised the price once every 2-3 years, and the price of a pack of medium-sized sanitary napkins (36 pieces) reached an average of 6,000 to 9,000 won. Then, in May 2016, when Yuhan-Kimberly, No. 1 in the industry, announced that it would raise the price of sanitary napkins, the phenomenon of’sanitary napkin polarization’ was revealed. In the social network service (SNS), low-income teenagers, such as so-called’insole sanitary pads’, used tissue paper instead of expensive sanitary pads.
On October 14, 2016, at Yuhan-Kimberly’s office building in Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Mi-sung Kim, head of the women’s products marketing division (center), responded to an interview ahead of the launch of a new mid-to-low price sanitary pad to be released in November. “Before media reports, we didn’t really know that some of our society is having difficulty buying sanitary napkins. With this opportunity, as a leading company in the industry, I realized that I did not show active interest in the socially underprivileged.” Reporter Ryu Woo-jong took it.
In response to public opinion, Yuhan-Kimberly withdrew the plan to increase the product price and introduced a mid- to low-priced product that is 30-40% cheaper than the existing sanitary napkin. Yuhan-Kimberly officials said in an interview in October of that year, “It was true that domestic companies did not pay enough attention to the mid- to low-end market. He said, “I felt anew that only when efforts to make affordable general-purpose products were put together, we could become a more complete company and a company that fulfills its social responsibilities.”
On May 28, 2019, members of 25 organizations, including the Seoul Justice Party and the Women’s Environmental Solidarity, held a press conference in front of the main building of the Seoul City Council, Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, saying that the Seoul Metropolitan Government should provide sanitary pads to all female youths to promote youth welfare and women’s right to health. Urged. The awareness of problems with the reality of poor use of sanitary napkins by low-income teenagers led to the’universal sanitary napkin payment’ movement. Reporter Shin So-young filmed.
This led to a movement to cut the price of sanitary napkins. In the article on July 4, 2016, a site where sanitary napkins stained with’blood’ (red paint) were attached to the street walls in Insa-dong, Seoul in the proposal of the’#Place a sanitary napkin’ campaign initiated by the social network service is described. They asked for a price cut in sanitary napkins, along with phrases such as’Pregnancy and childbirth are noble, but menstruation is a shame to hide’. When it comes to sanitary pads, the most pressing demand of female consumers is inevitably safety. The most recent safety controversy began in March 2017 when the Women’s Environmental Solidarity raised the issue. In December of that year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety conducted a thorough investigation of 666 products produced and imported in Korea and concluded that the compounds of sanitary napkins were not harmful to the human body.
In the controversy over the risk of sanitary napkin risk, members of civil society organizations such as Women’s Environmental Solidarity, Participation Solidarity, Green Alliance, and Korean Women’s Friendship Association held a press conference calling for the identification of all harmful ingredients of sanitary napkins and epidemiological investigations in front of the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul. He put on a sanitary napkin and performed a’Die in’ action play, lying on the floor as if dead. Reporter Kim Seong-gwang took it.
The noisy controversy over sanitary napkin risks has ended, but is it only because female consumers are subjectively sensitive? There is a history of distrust among domestic consumers when it comes to sanitary napkin safety. On December 21, 1988, when the Hankyoreh newspaper was published, an article was published stating that “formaldehyde, which is a harmful ingredient in disposable sanitary napkins, is twice Japan’s regulation.” At that time, Professor Nam Sang-Woo (Family Education Department) of Chung-Ang University surveyed 18 disposable sanitary napkins on the market, and found that the two products had a content that was twice as high as the Japanese formaldehyde regulation (75 μg or less per gram of sample). At that time, there were no related standards in Korea.
December 21, 1988 <한겨레> On the paper, an article was published, “double the Japanese regulation of formaldehyde, which is a harmful ingredient in disposable sanitary napkins.” It was when there were no related standards in Korea. As an initial study on the safety of sanitary napkins on the market <한겨레>Reported only. (※ Click the image to see it larger.)
After that, even after the standards were established, in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration announced that six sanitary napkin products on the market had violated formaldehyde standards. Since sanitary napkins were designated as quasi-drugs in 1971, no’collection test’ was conducted until then. Since then, women and environmental groups have requested to disclose the entire composition of the sanitary napkin, but companies at the time rejected it as’confidential’, and the National Assembly and the government said it was aesthetic. Eventually, after the sanitary napkin shock in 2017, the legislation was passed, and the labeling system for all sanitary napkins was implemented only in October 2019.
On September 8, 1999 (photo was registered on the 8th), students of Korea University are practicing a performance that will be presented ahead of the first menstrual festival. Titled’God has no daughter’, this performance expresses the figure of a woman suffering from menstruation with dynamic movements. Reporter Lee Jong-geun took it.
On August 18, 2002, a man wearing a sanitary pad with a feeling of menstruation hangs on a clothesline at the menstruation festival street publicity exhibition held in Sinchon, Seoul. The menstruation festival was held in 1999 by the union of four university students,’Bultuck’, and was held until 2007. Reporter Kim A-ri filmed it.
The menstruation festival has returned after 10 years. A participant who participated in the ‘2018 Menstruation Festival’ held at Haja Center in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on May 26, 2018 hosted by the Women’s Environmental Solidarity, etc., is freely writing on a sanitary pad with a pen. If the unconventional performance 10 years ago still feels unfamiliar, is there a long way to go? HuffPost Korea editor Kwak Sang-ah took the picture.
When can I stop exercising and politics with the sanitary pads of women’s’companions of love and hatred’? The answer is found in the passage of the classic quoted in the article of the 1st Menstrual Festival held in 1999. “What if a man has menstruation? It will surely be enviable and proud, masculine. Men will brag about how long and how much they do. Congress will create the National Menstrual Impurity Research Fund, doctors will study more about menstrual cramps than heart attacks, and the federal government will give out sanitary pads for free” (Gloria Steinum, 1983).
▶ Reporter Park Soo-ji, the commentator of Episode 28, joined the company in 2013 and is currently in charge of the distribution industry at the Ministry of Industry, following the fields of health and welfare, women, incidents, and finance. Recently, we are paying attention to the rapidly changing distribution industry and changes in consumer perceptions.
▶ Fact Story is a professional/real story web novel, webtoon, and reportage non-fiction agency. We pursue true stories that extend beyond journalism.
<한겨레>In response to the 10,000th order, we present’The Theater of Time-The Hankyoreh Archive Project’. It is a work to recreate important events and people into contemporary history content by utilizing archives of 33 years of photos, articles, and paper images. A commentator who is familiar with the subject selects photos and articles related to the Hankyoreh and explains it to readers. B-cut photos that have never been introduced are also discovered and disclosed. Reports, web novels with professional material, planning and production in collaboration with the Hankyoreh. Season 3, episodes 25~36, is mainly made up of corporate and entrepreneurial stories. Weekly serialization.