TV newscasts regularly run feature stories announcing new health products on the market, no matter how seemingly risque. Penile implants, abortion pills, new materials for breast enlargements, diet drugs, you name it. Anything goes and rightly so, since many people find out about the world from television. An explanation over
the topic of a periodBut there's still one issue that sends grown TV executives to cower in the corner. There's only one topic that makes news directors, assignment editors and even health broadcast reporters run and hide.
It's called the "curse," a euphemism for the menstrual period that visits healthy females of child-bearing age, every 28 days or so. Ahh, such an innocuous term for one of the most noxious times of the month.
In olden days, gals wrestled with sanitary naps and elastic belts. Then came tampons and stick-on pads. Now there is a supposed breakthrough in hygiene called the feminine protection cup, marketed under the brand name "Instead." But most American women aren't yet aware of this recently government-approved product.
And why not? Because, according to the April (1997) issue of the American Journalism Review, TV news directors and assignment editors throughout the nation are playing censor. Worried that the subject of a woman's period might be offensive to viewers, most are refusing to report on this item.
This was hard to believe. Shouldn't an innovation that might help make a menstruating woman's life more bearable warrant some time and attention on a newscast?
Dying to know, I called Wally Zimmermann, the irrepressibly blunt news director for KITV4. "They should buy an ad," Wally groused before hanging up.
Undaunted, I dialed up Mary Zanakis, health reporter for FOX2. Surely, being a woman, she would be more amenable to mentioning this gizmo on the air.
Here's something I don't say very often: I was wrong.
Despite receiving a free sample of "Instead" and literature from its public relations firm, Mary said she didn't think it was her place "to make viewers feel uncomfortable in their own homes." Males would be embarrassed by the subject, which would therefore make the females watching with them embarrassed too, she believed.
But Mary, I pleaded, think of all the wahine in Hawaii who might want to try something like this. Why let the possibility of grossing out a few squeamish people block such an interesting message to the masses? Mary simply repeated her answer, although she was thoughtful enough to drop off the sample of "Instead" at my office later that day.
IT came in a very nice lavender box with delicate handwriting. Inside were greetings from the product's inventor, Audrey Contente ("Tampons and pads let me down time and time again. It took me 10 years, but I invented what I believe is a totally unique form of feminine protection"), and instructions on how to use the non-toxic, hypo-allergenic protection cup, which looks like a giant condom and supposedly has twice the wearing time of a tampon.
Therefore, fellow sisters, here's some free publicity for a health product that may never be seen on the 6 o'clock news. Apparently, broadcasters are deathly afraid that remote controls will click like crazy if anything having to do with a menstrual period is even mentioned on the air.
After all, which gender is famous for hogging the zapper?
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.