That's so crazy. And how different is it from this: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/adaccess/beauty/femhygiene1950s/@Generic__BookTextView/1114 ? Or summer's eve commercials today?

My how far we've come. (Right.)

Wow, it's like they filmed me and my mother and our discussion on feminine douching.

Well, actually it was more both of us like "WHO'D WANT TO DO THAT!!!"

But you know, basically the same.

Guhhhh.

Um . . . generally, when having a conversation about douching with my mother, my head doesn't end up loving on her shoulder. And I should hope that if I ever told my mom that some random guy asked me if I douched, her response would be "DID YOU KICK HIS ASS?"

Reminds me of a conversation I once had with my father:

"Dad, do your balls ever feel dirty?

"Yes, son, that's why I cleanse my genitals with Manengill. Its patented vinegar formula cleanses my sack the way no other ball-cleaner can, to give me that FRESH feeling."

"I love you dad."

"I love you, son."

Kaichester - I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying.

Cara, I think she actually says "I've gotta ask you something real personal," not "A guy asked me something real personal." But I like your version better, especially if it's followed by DID YOU KICK HIS ASS??

Gotta go clean my balls now...

gross.

I'm mostly kidding here, but...

The day I see a men's ad for this (a la Kaichester), I'll know we've achieved equality. A horrible, self-hating equality.

Ok, I'll be the naive idiot. Why exactly is this ad vagina-hating? I've no idea if douching is an appropriate hygiene habit, but I take it you think it's not?

You're right, Nera-- I guess that I have to go clean out my ears.

But I like my version better, too!

It's vagina-hating, Amit, because it portrays vaginas as being innately dirty and something that we need to whisper about. And no, douching is not a good hygiene habit. Though lightly washing the vulva is appropriate, the vagina is self-cleaning and relies on a delicate balance of good bacteria-- douching is not only unnecessary, but it upsets this balance and results in irritation or even infection.

Does douching actually alter the usual vaginal smell all that much? I don't know of anyone else my age who has done it before. It seems that the general consensus of people I've met is that when someone gets all up in someone else's vag, s/he should expect it to smell like vag.

I just realized that there might be a market for male ball-washes. I'm off to my local patent lawyer.

I remember this commercial, and asking my mom what is a douche... :)

soap and water is fine... and if there's a nasty smell, it means there is a problem - yeast infection or something - that needs fixing. Douching only masks any problems, doesn't solve 'em.

This dreadful ad has made me wonder - is it OK to call someone a douchebag (or simply a douche)? I can see the sexist connotations of the term, as douches are intended for women.

But since it has been established that douching is bad for women, I can't see what's wrong with using the "douchebag"/"douche" label on certain individuals (say, the Girls Gone Wild guru).

But are this word's origins enough to keep it out of the savvy feminist's vocabulary?

I just realized that there might be a market for male ball-washes. I'm off to my local patent lawyer.

Hey! I get a 50% cut of that action!

Interesting question, Brunette. I personally do use the term "douche" as an insult . . . but I also definitely think of douches as obnoxious, uncomfortable, unnecessary and a product whose sole existence relies on sappy marketing-- all attributes that I'm trying to ascribe to the person I'm calling a douche (i.e. Mitt Romney). I have wondered, though, if it could (or should) be considered anti-feminist.

The Brunette, here's defending 'douchbag' as an insult from a feminist perspective.

"do you douche?"
"um...no, I don't."
"well maybe you should..."

Sadly, this was the end of my friend's relationship with her mother-in-law.

(btw, the house smelled like dead fish after a mild flood in their bottom floor)

Shira summed up my feelings on the term douchebag excellently the other day on another feministing thread:

"I had this discussion with my SO the other day. The great thing about "Douchebag" is that it sounds sexist, so you hit the douchebag where it hurts (he thinks he's being feminized), but at the same time, it means "patriarchal product that exists to both inculcate shame into women and profit off of that shame while harming women's bodies in the process."

So really, it's very fitting."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I don't get it. If somebody doesn't like the scent of Eau du Vag, why is Vag + Vinegar supposed to be such an improvement?

I prefer "douche nozzle."

Heh. Nozzle.

This is how this conversation went when I was a lass:

"Mom, should I douche?"

"No, because douches were invented by Madison Ave. dickheads who wanted to make money by making women ashamed of their bodies and thinking their genitals were dirty and disgusting. Douches kill helpful bacteria, alter your ph levels, and can cause yeast infections. Wash it with soap and water and eat plenty of yogurt and you'll be fine."

Thanks, Mom!

And I use "douchebag" (along with "douchnozzle", "douchebaggery", and sometimes plain ol' "douche" as an insult all the time, for the reasons already stated.)

On the other end of the spectrum, the smell of ladybits is clearly appreciated by some.

Except somehow, that site fails to be reassuring at all. I can't quite put my finger on why it seems so skeezy, though.

Kaichester - We use soap for that.

Creeeepyyyy. I don't know anyone who douches... certainly not anyone my age. In fact, all I have ever heard about douching is that it's unhealthy and unnecessary. Last year, during my first year of college, one the strangest things to me was going into one of the little campus convenience stores and seeing Messengil douches on a shelf along with tampons, pads, dishwashing liquid, and trash bags. Every time I walked by that shelf, I thought, "Why do they even SELL that stuff?" Now I know: because some women actually think that they need to use it. Ugh.

Am I the only one who thought that felt incestual?

My mom's the most important person in the world to me, and we talk about all kinds of things, but... maybe it's just me, but we don't normally cuddle on a beach talking about our genitals.

Wait wait wait, if it's just vinegar and water, couldn't you theoretically mix up your own batch? Assuming this wasn't a terrible idea in the first place (although it's a damn site better than the DILUTED LYSOL they were hawking in the pre-liberation days) of course.

I believe my own douching discussion with my mother went something like this...
MOM: So when I was little, in a Summer's Eve commercial the girl comes home and the mom has her douche sitting right on the chess table and the mother starts talking to her about her douche. With it sitting right there. On the chess table.
ME: Uhhh...what's a douche?

OMG. First of all, you all Seriously.Crack.My.Shit.Up. For real. Second, soooo creepy. That is all.

Thanks guys, now I'm glued to YouTube watching Douche commercials. I particularly "enjoyed" these two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7v7uBA6LW8&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG55k6HisCs&NR=1

"Holding out on your mother?"

By the way, I think douche-anything is a wonderful feminist insult. Anything that makes douches seen negative to the general public is a public service. If someone starts referring to people as "tampon applicators" or something, then I will get annoyed.

By the way, if you're not disturbed enough already by the things that women were shamed into squirting up there, I saw an ad in an old Ladies Home Journal or something like that with an ad for LYSOL that suggested you use it for that purpose. (Heavily diluted, of course, but still.)
LYSOL - because your vagina really should be as clean and fresh as your immaculate kitchen!

Hilarious. Oh, the memories. where's our "not so fresh feeling"?

I think a quote from The Vagina Monologues pretty much sums this up:
"Don't believe him when he tells you it smells like rose petals when IT'S SUPPOSED TO SMELL LIKE PUSSY."

(The following comment contains horrifically explicit language. Reader discretion is mandatory. Seriously, if you actually read this, the cops will arrest you. Welcome to the FCC's vision of the innertoobs.)

This post and the linked post about why douchebag is a good insult that feminists can use has made me realize that an excellent method of using previously sexist insult that is also arguably stupid because it's not really much of an insult (cockgobbler, for example) is to replace the sexist part of the term with either shit, douche, or both.

(I in fact have created a character who really likes sex and so refuses to use "fuck" as a derogatory expletive, so this is not unprecedented thinking for me.)

For example, cockgobbler could be either shitgobbler or douchegobbler. Cumbucket could be shitbucket or douchebucket. (Some might take cumbucket to be offensive and purely insulting, but I do know some people--men and women both--who are into that kind of thing.)

Cockwhore is excellent because it can be replaced with both to create a wholly new insult: shitdouche. (If you thought the concept of douching was gross before...)

The possibilities, while somewhat repetitive, are endless!

......

Just BTW, soap and water people - you're much better off just using water. Yech, soap is nasty - most booklets that come with thrush medication point out that you should wash thoroughly, daily, with water only. :)

Yeah--water's all I've ever used to clean my vagina. If the labia feels dry, I'll use water-based lotion, but no soap, no douche.

I'm a soap and water lady. Or just water if I'm feeling lazy. But if just plain water is the best, I can be lazy every day! Actually, it will be the best for that very reason.

Oh, my God, that has always been one of my favorite commercials. The waves rushing in was an especially nice touch.

For the last time: vag is like most ovens: IT'S SELF-CLEANING.

Oh, my God, that has always been one of my favorite commercials. The waves rushing in was an especially nice touch.

For the last time: vag is like most ovens: IT'S SELF-CLEANING.

it's like a turning point of childhood-asking your mother about douches. My mom just told me it was a waste of money and just use soap. Of course, I think the waste of money mattered more to her than keeping the vag clean.

Could we have some clarification of terminology please?

For all you people that say you 'use soap and water' to clean your girlie bits, are you saying you actually put soap *inside*(!) your vagina? Or do you just mean you use it to wash the vulva(the external part of the genitals).

I've accidentally gotten soap inside my vagina before and it stings, not to mention it's probably not good for the bacteria/ph levels either. I couldn't imagine using anything other than water!

Despite my intuition that people are actually referring to using soap for external washing, the fact that it keeps coming up in a post related to douching(which is internal) is kind of confusing.

I get all nice and clean inside by making a habit of masturbating every time I shower. Fun and effective!

My mom and I had a conversation about douching when I was a young teen. I asked whether or not it was something I needed to do. My mother's response was "The vagina is a self-cleaning device. Honey, if ever there's time that you think you need to because of odor or something, you don't need a douche - you need a doctor."

Growing up my parents were doctors, so my mom knew better than to douche. But as a nurse, every once and I while my patients ask me if they sould. It always makes me laugh inside thinking of people squirting vinager up their whoo-whoos. BTW, I love the website with the vag scented parfume!

Ewww- so bascially douching is like spraying windex up your vaj. Nice.