Mystery Illustration 44

What is this woman's domestic sin? Unable to make coffee? Wears curlers to bed? Bad breath?

Answer after the jump.

Who We Are
Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Comments

Hopefully this is not the same Lysol that we use on our floors and counter-tops, because, if so, that seems really painful.

Posted by RobK on 05/02/17 at 10:28 AM

@RobK -- It's the same stuff. It needed to be nasty, even when diluted, because it was being used as a contraceptive (the ads never said that because contraceptives were illegal, but that was its primary purpose). Douching with Lysol after intercourse was supposed to kill all the nasty little things inside you.

Posted by Phideaux on 05/02/17 at 11:36 AM

Oh, Phideaux! Say it's not true! That sounds like the Saturday Night Live bit about Shimmer Floor Wax / Dessert Topping.

Posted by KDP on 05/02/17 at 12:40 PM

@KDP -- Where do you think they got the idea for that bit?

And I stand corrected: I mistakenly said it was the same stuff. According to this article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/ Lysol back then was worse than it is today!

Posted by Phideaux on 05/02/17 at 03:51 PM

Lysol's original use was as a surgical disinfectant. Using it on your house was an idea that came up later.

When I saw the first picture, before the jump, my immediate reaction was "Please don't let this be about douching with lysol. Please don't let this be about douching with lysol. Fuck. It's gonna be about douching with lysol, isn't it?"

Posted by Ross on 05/02/17 at 04:28 PM

NSFW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YJmUZXGxD0

Posted by BMN on 05/02/17 at 06:51 PM

Yikes! It had cresol in it. Then they kept pushing it after they replaced the cresol with hydroxydiphenyl, little different. A scary indictment of our system: advertising, capitalism. Shall we gargle with sulfuric acid if an ad says it helps bad breath? Makes me thankful for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Also makes we consider turning (back) into a hippie.

Posted by Virtual on 05/02/17 at 08:36 PM

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.