The First Woman To Put Her Face On Packaging Got Trolled Like Crazy

[HuckleB]

"You ought to feel solemn... that your face pervades the mind of the nation like a nightmare," wrote one early hater.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-first-woman-to-put-her-face-on-packaging-got-trolled-like-crazy

"As every single person on the Internet knows, women who dare to enter the public eye are regularly pilloried. Message boards are rife with misogyny. Trolls lurk under every tweet. "Don't read the comments" has become a necessary mantra.

But as 19th century apothecary Lydia E. Pinkham might attest, none of this is particularly modern. In the late 1800s, Pinkham's face became among the most recognizable in the world—and this brought consequences. Until she came along, the only woman whose image showed up regularly in public was Queen Victoria.

When Pinkham first put herself on a bottle of her bestselling Vegetable Concoction, men sent her hate mail, harping on her haircut and her "cast-iron smile." Journalists mixed her up with other famous women. College choirs made fun of her in song. All because she dared to put her portrait on a label.


Before becoming a well-known medicine maven, Pinkham had led a relatively quiet life. She was a schoolteacher, mother, and dedicated abolitionist in her hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts. She got into preparing medicines at the age of 56, through knack and necessity: the economy was tanking, her family needed money, and she happened to have a great recipe for a much-needed drug.

..."

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Alas, things have not changed much.

[villager]

1. Allow me to savor your post about... herb medicine! ;-)

Yes, offered as Monday morn humor, btw....

cheers....

[HuckleB]

2. Well, then.

I figured someone would...

[imaginary girl]

10. it's about thyme!

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Ironic subject matter for you, as Pinkham sold snake oil that was 40 proof Alcohol based

and thus really popular all though the years of Prohibition.....She was subject of folks songs about drinking, as her product was in fact the drink.

Around the same time Madame CJ Walker became the first woman millionaire and the fist African American millionaire in the US selling honest cosmetics which were marketed with her name and image.

Of the two, CJ Walker is the one with the really good story and also the one who was not pushing quakery....

[HuckleB]

4. Quackery was widespread at the time, so I ignored that concern.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. And yet her quakery was a big part of what she got mocked for, and that is the subject of your

OP. She was criticized for selling alcohol under the guise of a stern visage, not for simply having such a visage. Her image was used to promote the product as 'medicine' when it was nothing but liquor. So claiming she got 'trolled' for being a woman is not really honest, she was doing things you yourself usually find to be highly objectionable. She deserved to be ridiculed.

The folk song 'The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham' aka 'Lily the Pink' is pretty well know, a cleaned up version hit #1 in the UK in 1968

[HuckleB]

6. And, if she had been a man, you think it would have been the same?

[procon]

11. You're trying to put modern day mores on a 19th century woman.

The song you posted is satire written almost 100 years after Lydia Pinkham died, and is far removed from the original lyrics touting its "curative" properties, especially to women. She marketed to women whose complaints were generally ignored, and they made her a wealthy woman in an era when women had little opportunity to become an entrepreneur or successful business tycoon.

Keep in mind that in the 1800s there was no prohibition or stigma on the use of alcohol, and patent medicines were popular alternatives to the questionable training of doctors and lack of medical knowledge of that era. You can ridicule the common practices of centuries past, but you can't compare the accepted social attitudes and limited knowledge of the past using the same yardstick that we apply to modern culture, science and medical practices.

[procon]

7. Men feel threatened by strong, successful women.

That fact hasn't changed in thousands of years. Think about it; for every small success we achieve, the same authoritarian, patriarchal society that belittled a successful woman in the 1800s, is still actively fighting against our equality.

[Marr]

9. lmao, a perfect example for you to cite.

Some snake oil scam artist framing her critics as sexist, pretending to be some sort of martyr when her only real cause is her own self-aggrandizement and enrichment.

[procon]

12. Isn't that a perfect description of a successful entrepreneur?

Men are often recognized for their business acumen by being lauded for their savvy marketing schemes and profitable salesmanship that make them rich and powerful. You're trying very hard to find fault when a woman accomplishes the same goal, so maybe that is a good way of describing sexism too.

You're also trying to frame a woman who lived in the 19th century in terms of what's acceptable in our 21 century culture, and today's approbations against "snakeoil" and "scam artist" were not even in the vernacular of the day. This woman created a unique innovation by using newspapers advertisements in a period where women did not run businesses or appear as a public marketing icon. She depicted a changing social tableaux in which women could play a much larger role in traditional society.

[Marr]

13. No, that's called a con artist. But really--

You're defending snakeoil salesmen now? I mean, I know you do, but... openly?

[procon]

14. Playing at loggerheads, you have the clear advantage. nt