Please post your blog response to the readings on menstruation and menopause here!
26 thoughts on “Week 10 post on menstruation and menopause”
Pearls
In the article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, there are some great points that are brought up. I believe that it is a biological change that causes women to become emotional during their period. I was surprised to read that when women used to complain about pain and cramps that they experienced the doctors ignored it. Also I was surprised to read that it was seen as a failure to get pregnant. In this decade, most of the women that I know are happy when they get their period because they know that they are not pregnant. It is seen more as a gift and women are glad that they get their period each month unless they are actually trying to get pregnant. Research as alluded to the fact that men seem of have a normal reproductive system, but women on the other hand have this elaborate system that changes who they are once a month.
The article Menopause: A biological Perspective by Lynette Leidy Sievert brings up a good argument of why do human females end reproduction so early before they end their own lives? most animals are able to reproduce up until the days before they die. Menopause is something that I do not have a lot of knowledge about, probably because I have not gone through it, and I have not seen many people go through it. From what I have read it does not seem like something that I would want to go through, especially if I wanted to have children. this weeks readings were interesting because I learned about two processes: one that I knew about and one that I did not know that much about.
Liz
The key word that I have found in these three articles is “normal.†What is normal? This word has been a topic discussed several times in class and still I find myself struggling with the idea of one definition for every person that may share a common experience. One of the articles noted that in primitive societies, women most likely did not menstruate each month. This could be due to pregnancy, breast feeding, or other environmental factors. But in our society, women experience up to four hundred menstrual cycles during their lifetime. These two examples seem like polar opposites, but I don’t consider either of these situations more normal than the other.
Normal could also be discussed with regards to PMS. There is often a wide array of symptoms that come with PMS or PMDD. PMS was even considered for placement in the DSM. But, what does this mean for women? Are women abnormal because they may experience a headache or moodiness before they menstruate? I don’t believe that these types of physical and emotional differences make a woman abnormal or normal. Normalcy needs to be considered on an individual basis. What is normal for one person may not be normal for another.
Finkle
The article “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior†mentioned that despite all the information we now have on hormones, menstruation and menopause, people still believe that women are subjected to their hormonal physiology. The article also raised questions about women’s competency in leadership positions and the issue of diminished responsibility attributed to the menstrual cycle. Many of the doctors quoted in the article were from the 1970s, but this issue is still a major bone of contention today. I remember reading, during the democratic primary race on some media site that Hilary Clinton could not possibly make a good president because she is a woman. This was because as a woman, because they menstruate, are hormonally imbalanced and could snap anytime. Never mind the fact that she is in her sixties and probably past her child reproduction stage in life .It is interesting to think of reasons like “the education of young women might cause serious damage to their reproductive systems†and the reality today where some women are postponing having children in order to further their careers. My girlfriends and I had a heated discussion once about PMS and how we despised the fact that any kind of “emotional†outburst in a relationship always being attributed to being on “that time of the month†by the men in our lives. And if we happen to be menstruating, that would explain everything and they would feel validated in ignoring the conversation. Like the article points out, not all women experience the same set of PMS symptoms. In this case, the fact that a woman is menstruating does not imply that her day will be flooded with emotional outbursts. I happen to be fortunate not to experience menstrual cramps or mood changes while my sister on the other hand, sometimes has immobilizing stomach cramps. I think this discourse will be interesting when it includes contraceptives that offer the elimination of periods indefinitely. Since the PMS symptoms are associated with menstruation, is the push or demand for contraceptives that stop or eliminate a woman’s period a way for women to compete with their male colleagues without the “inconvenience†of a monthly period? I wonder!
Lilly
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, was very informational. It is so true that back in the days menstruation was seen as a sickness, a cyclic physical disorder exclusive to women. Since it is connected to blood and bleeding, it has often been associated with the feminine vampire, menstruation being the cause of monstrosity. We all know the fact that menstrual flow is a primary sex feature, or, in simple terms, it is precisely the thing which defines male sex against female. “Women bleed and men don’t” is an irrefutable absolute truth, which seems to be impossible to question.Because it is thought of as a mysterious regular illness, it is immediately categorized as “the abnormal.” Whereas now a days we proudly accept that hormone cycle that we have been taught to ignore/dismiss/cover up/hide actually is the foundation of being; the definition of who we are, our connection to ourself, to other women, to our partners, children, to our life!
Women’s hormone cycles are not just a cyclical pain; they are our integral link to all the other cycles in life. They are so much more than hormones “raging” through our body. Living with the menstrual cycle instead of against it or by denying it gives us the freedom to “be”; to laugh, to cry, to change our mind, our relationship or lifestyle and to know the reason why! I remember when I first got my period. Some friends of mine got it before me, and talked about it like it was a gift. They made those of us who didn’t yet have it feel left out. “Did you get yours yet?” they would ask, like a girl’s period was the next best hot topic to discuss. So when I finally spotted red at the tender age of thirteen I was actually happy and proud of myself. So, I think we should be proud of who we are 🙂
faves06
I found the article Hormonal Hurricane to be completely absurd. To think that women cannot be equal because they menstruate and go through menopause is the worst excuse ever. In some ways, I think women can benefit from having their body going through a cyclic change every month. Women are often more passionate or intense during their period and may be more productive at this stage. I also think that in a job world, it could have a better effect on their work. Some women aren’t affected at all by their cycles. They are productive at all times and deal with their emotional changes so well that no one would ever guess they were menstruating.
Also, women were blessed with the power of reproduction. Their bodies are so strong that we were given a uterus to grow and nourish another human beings life. I believe there is more strength in a woman’s body than weaknesses. I think the discourses that have been made around talking about women’s menstrual cycle and menopause has made it to become a negative experience. To bleed once a month is more like a reminder that you have the able to harbor a life rather than some torturous week. Obviously, for some women it is more bothersome but at the core it is a small price to pay in order to reproduce.
I believe that the culture we have grown up in has created this discourse. I loved the idea that was brought up about another culture celebrating puberty by throwing a party. It makes young girls realize the special qualities their body has rather than the US culture that has taught us to always keep it a secret or to not to discuss it. We also cannot stand to not be 100% perfect at all times, which has us pouring money into ways to relieve cramps or bloating or to make our periods shorter or lighter rather than being accepting of our bodily functions.
Smile
The reading that really caught my attention was Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior. This article brought to my attention of how women have been oppressed by our pre and post menopausal stages. During the early 1900s a lot of men would use the idea of menstruation and menopause as an excuse for reason why women were less intelligent then men and how they should do certain jobs or get paid less because of the things that happen naturally to a woman’s body. In some countries I know they view women when they are on their periods as unclean and were ostracized from the community at that moment and unable to go back until their period was over. It is interesting to me to see how menstruation was viewed in the past and in some cultures and how it is continuously viewed in modern day. When I first got my period, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought that I was going to die or something because I didn’t understand why I was bleeding. I called my grandmother to tell her that I was bleeding and that she needs to call 911. I even proceeded to call my mother at work and I remember crying on the phone to her. My grandmother laughed at me took the phone from me and told my mother that I was finally becoming a women and I looked at her like she was crazy. My grandmother began to make me this special tea that I had to drink and then proceeded to pray for me. I was very confused but then my grandmother began to explain to me what was going on in simple terms. After a while I learned what menstruation really was and the effects of it. In the reading it also discusses how before medical officials used to overlook the symptoms women were facing pre and post menopause. Then when they began to realize these symptoms were serious they started to use these symptoms as a means of overall oppressing women for assuming that all women got these symptoms when only about 16-20 percent of women, according to the study done, really do. The main focus of the article tell us how “appointing the male reproductive system as normal, this viewpoint calls abnormal any aspect of the female reproductive life cycle that deviates from the malesâ€. Those medical officials try to show that female’s reproductive system is abnormal and unstable compared to a males reproductive system which is more normal and stable. Where they try to continue to persecute the elements of a women’s reproductive system to be less than what it is. It helped me to understand how the inferiority of women has been displayed in different ways in the past and ways women have tried to overcome these terms in various ways by understanding the elements of your reproductive health and how you can use that as an advantage instead of a disadvantage.
lolo
The medicalization of PMS remains an important issue as the topic involves the intersection of women’s bodies, pharmaceuticals, and capitalism (as PMS (in my opinion) is associated with products and pills at a woman’s disposal). However, I’m not too impressed with the articles on the cultural significance of menstruation. Although I think the historical context of the issue is important, I would be interested in reading a recent ethnography of menstruation in young women today as I think some aspects of it have changed. As someone else previously posted, when I get my period my primary response is not “Oops, I failed at reproduction, yet again,†but “Yay! At least I’m not pregnant.†I know at least a couple women my age who feel the same way. It seems like a lot of research is perpetually focused on the historical context of women’s bodies, without seeing how people think today. I think that women have varied opinions of their menstruation and focusing only on the medical or male perspective doesn’t get the whole picture.
Blush
I was disgusted by the “diseased and abnormal” view of menstruation and menopause that was put forth by the male “researchers” talked about in the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article. It seems that once again women’s lives and biological occurrences are scrutinized, criticized, feared, and ultimately despised. This article emphasized the clearly misogynistic view of women and their natural, vital menstrual cycles. It is so ironic to me that menstruation is viewed in such a negative and taboo way to the point where apparently many “researchers” call women experiencing any kind of PMS symptoms as diseased! It is a common stereotype that women are more “emotional” or “moody” than their male counterparts, but I think using words like “abnormal” and diseased” to describe menstruating women is disgusting and misogynistic. Without our menstrual cycles, human life could not exist!
Probably most disturbing to me were the suggestions of some in the article that menstruation is a public health problem and the insulting and hateful idea that women lose part of their womanhood when they enter menopause. I don’t understand the logic behind either of these ideas since menstruating is a vital part of women’s lives and is essential in order for humans to reproduce. I guess it’s interesting to me that although men of course do not have a menopause, many of them experience erectile disfunction and other age-related problems and they are never viewed as diseased or abnormal in the same way that menopausal women are and they are CERTAINLY not considered only part a man because of these issues in the same way that women are viewed as lesser women after menopause.
The idea that women are the “other” in terms of comparison to men is not a new idea, but it is a pervasive one that is still quite a problem. I think instead of carrying out flawed study after flawed study to learn more about “PMS” which can mean several different things to every woman, I think work should be done to destigmatize menstruation and to promote healthy reproductive habits, such as seeing a gynecologist regularly and being able to have open and honest discussions about any of the physical and/or emotional problems that individual women experience with their menstrual cycles. As long as menstruation and menopause are viewed as some kind of flaw or disease, this backwards notion will further delay the struggle for a less sexist society.
the_fallen
So apparently the God given body that women have is looked down upon and justifies for a patriarchal society because women are believed to make irrational decisions based on their hormones, menstruation and menopause. Those irrational decisions affect not only women but their partners and all that surrounds them as well. Whether this ideology is ancient or not, women are believed to not be able to take on responsibilities because they are “dangerous, unpredictable†and hey they might kill you for all you know.
It was interesting and actually sad reading about the views of opponents on higher education for women. They believed that since women can not consume as much food as men do, therefore they are less intelligent for men consume lots of food that nourishes their brain and size and women are nowhere near there. They also believed that higher education should only be for men because women tend to change, their bodies, if they get smart. To them, education is so intense that only men should be allowed to have it. Have you ever wondered why girls are all over boys? Or always running away from home? Well it is because of menstruation that “casts a dark shadow†over women. Guess that means stay away or you will suffer the consequences.
Now, how thoughtful of men, not all of them, to describe the effects of menstruation for women. What’s funny about it is the fact that they do not menstruate but somehow, scientifically, they believe that the “actions†of women can be explained because of the differences between men and women, women menstruate. It is bad enough that women menstruate for days, day and night, and to have someone telling you that your actions are due to the fact that you are a woman and you have your period every month. It is so silly to believe that irrational behaviors and thoughts are more prominent in women and that they do not deserve higher education because somehow, magically maybe, it will affect their reproductive system. I mean, who wants to live with a woman that is not only smart but have distress periods where she becomes dangerous and may kill you in the process. To think that women should not be allowed certain employment positions because they have menstruation or are in menopause is ridiculous and frankly, there is not even a word to describe how I feel.
So women in general are just bad. They lose it whether they have estrogen or not, oh yeah welcome to menopause. So after all that menstruation has brought upon a woman’s life, then comes the nightmare, menopause. At that stage is it believed that a woman becomes a “manâ€; no more sexual desires, facial hair etc… I love the article “hormonal Hurricanes: menstruation…â€.
Mew
Fausto-Sterling’s article brought up a very valid point that I had never considered in relation to the concept of “normal†and the medicalization of menstruation. I have thought about the “normal†menstrual cycle that has been defined by the biomedical world, but I had never that “women are by their very nature diseased†and thus “abnormal†(353). Consider the statistic she gives that between 70 and 90 percent of women say they have recurring premenstrual symptoms or PMS. If the majority of women are thought to have a so-called “abnormal†menstrual-related disorder or discomfort, then how abnormal is it really? Shouldn’t this just be thought of as a normal component to menstruation, and those who don’t experience PMS have the abnormality? Fausto-Sterling further questions the medicalization of PMS, asking what is the normal standard and does this imply that “males [are] the unstated standard of emotional stability†(354)? Though the medicalization of PMS may be beneficial for women, particularly in giving recognition to their menstrual experiences and alleviating those who suffer from severe symptoms, it also pathologizes women’s natural bodies.
Lorber and Moore discuss the arguments made when PMS was being considered to become a defined disorder in the DSM. Many had feared that such a diagnosis would “stigmatize all menstruating women as potentially “crazyâ€â€ (80). It seems that this fear is very much justified today, now that PMS and PMDD are thought of as widespread disorders. I find the negative connotation surrounding menstruation and specifically “PMS†very frustrating in our society. If a woman is moody or snappy, people (especially men) will automatically assume “she’s menstrual,†and therefore she is out of line and not herself. The stereotypical, negative behaviors associated with PMS, “cranky, irritable, angry, violent, out of control,†are in contrast to the “idealized notion of the behavior of a “normal†feminine, heterosexual women†(Lorber and Moore 79). A woman who strongly expresses these negative emotions is immediately dismissed as premenstrual and her expressions are ignored. Personally, I even find myself (and I’m sure many other women do as well) dismissing many of my own strong emotions the week before my period, since I just assume it’s because of PMS and therefore these emotions are exaggerated and not valid. This seems like a reflection of the negative attitudes surrounding menstruation and PMS in our society: PMS must always be considered negative and abnormal. It’s difficult to imagine a world where women and their menstrual experiences were regarded with positivity and weren’t dismissed as being out of control, but it would be a great leap forward in better recognizing and understanding women’s bodies.
Arewa
I think I might be the only one who can say, “I understand why people may have looked us women who menstruate in a certain way”. Before I started my period, there was an incident where I witness my older sister’s menstrual blood. She had just finished up in the bathroom and I had to pee really bad, so instead of us flushing the toilet she wanted me to use the bathroom so we would not have to flush twice (A way of saving water). Once I saw her menstrual blood in the toilet, I was completely disgusted and did not want to use the bathroom. I made her flush the toilet before I would even think of peeing in that. I was young at the time and did not understand what it was. She told me as soon as I begin my period she was going to treat me the same way, with disgust. Not saying that disgust is the way we should treat women who menstruate, but back in time, not having any knowledge of what menstruation was, I can see why people would have absurd thoughts , such as thinking we are abnormal. I can only imagine how females felt when seeing blood in their underwear for the first time. They probably thought they were dying. Having your period is known to be unclean. In Islam, women are not allowed to perform the 5 daily prayers or hold the Holy Qu’ran and in some cultures they are not allowed to enter the Mosque. Performing these religious task, Muslims have to be clean and if menstruating is apart of not being clean, they are forbidden to not perform these until they are clean.
While reading the Hormonal Hurricanes article, made me realize how much society tries to find any little thing to make us feel smaller and smaller. The article talks about how women were not seen as equal back in the day because they bled monthly. There was a quote in the article that says, “If you’re a woman you never win” which I agree with because I feel no matter what the case is we are always looked as inferior. I remember during the elections, I overheard someone say “Hillary would not be fit to be a President because she is too emotional. What will the world do when she is on her period? She will probably be too emotional to function?” It sucks that that is how society looks at us as. We can’t even be trusted to hold a leadership role.
Speaking of emotional, I feel like the whole being emotional while having your period is all in the head. Because usually when we have our period, we feel dirty or disgusted and just want to wrap ourselves in bed and come out when its over. The fact that we have to walk around and still function and act as your normal self so no one knows you’re on your period can cause you to feel sad or whatnot. Because you feel icky and as if everyone knows. You’re always self-conscious on whether people can see your pad or if maybe you leaked and may have a stain on your pants. There’s just a lot going on where I feel that we probably make ourselves emotional when that time of the month comes along. A lot of my friend HATE when they get their period. Not to say I am excited about it, but to me it’s just another regular day.
cupcake
I found myself surprised at the articles for this week. Before reading, I never thought of menstruation or menopause as cultural. To me it was always something that just happened. It was normal and everyone (well, all the girls) was going through it too. After reading, it clicked. Of course there’s a culture surrounding menstruation and menopause – there’s a huge culture. In the United States, there is a huge taboo about talking about ‘that time of the month’. I remember needed to use the bathroom when I had my period in seventh grade. I stealthily snuck a pad into my pants and ran to the bathroom. Almost all of my friends were doing the same thing, but we never knew since everyone was too afraid to talk about it!
Something I never though about before was first brought up in “If a Situation is Defined as Realâ€. I thought it was very clever to realize that people market ‘symptoms’ of PMS, menopause, etc. when in reality those ‘symptoms’ are normal life occurrences. Sophie Laws explains: “The ‘symptoms’ of [PMS] which the doctors show most concern over—depression, anxiety, and so on—are mental states which do not ‘fit’ with women’s culturally created notions of ourselves as nice, kind, gentle, etc.â€
I do not consider myself a huge feminist, but sometimes I am disgusted at how all aspects of womanhood are still represented in such a modern, progressive society.
HM
The idea of PMS as a disease and therefore something to be cured never seemed like a problem to me. When I think of PMS I think if it as something most women who menstruate experience every month and as a number of symptoms that women would rather not have. Because of this mindset I spent most of the readings with the question in the back of my mind that how could pms be anything other than a sort of sickness that no one would want? When I looked at the larger arguments presented by the articles as to why PMS and menopause are created and described in medical terms as syndromes with symptoms to alleviate and why these definitions are problematic, I could understand the point the authors were trying to make. Society has largely created definitions of menopause and PMS and attributed them to all women when very few actually experience any of the symptoms. Society has also created a tendency to call the symptoms of pms and menopause bad things, when it is possible to look at the two in different ways and see aspects of them as positive. I wonder though, if the authors’ attempts to individualize and nullify aspects of PMS and menopause take away from our cultural tendency to come together as women in our shared experiences. Without analyzing whether symptoms of PMS and menopause are actually shared experiences of all women and whether the lack of symptoms associated with pms and menopause could create feelings of alienation in women, pms and menopause seem in our culture like something women can share and somewhat bond over. I don’t know if completely removing all of our societal connotations of PMS and menopause is always a good thing when it seems like a number of woman-created discourses and works have resulted from those connotations. Of course, I don’t condone medically problematizing natural events in life just so people can connect with each other. I just wonder if all of the desire of ridding menopause and PMS of all connotations might also be getting rid of a place where women can find some unity.
Mufasa
After reading Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Faustro-Sterling I see how the menstruation cycle was viewed in a different way. Before menstruation was viewed as something bad and abnormal. People thought of it as a disease since they did not know much about it. Doctors from the late 1800s also argued that young women might cause serious damage to their reproductive systems if they pursued higher education. Physicians also said that women unable to bear children might be due to reaching a education level of a young man. This only goes to show how people viewed women. I also feel it was an excuse to suppress women from a higher education. Because of the menstrual cycles women were categorized as abnormal. A lot has changed since then, most people now are happy to accept their menstrual cycle. It is not secret anymore or hidden, it is embraced as a girl becoming a woman in most cultures.
I remember when I first got my period I was confused because I was only 11 and did not learn what a menstrual cycle was till I was 12 in school. My mom was very helpful and made me feel comfortable with everything. Even my doctor taught me about what was going on so I would feel not feel “abnormal.†At the time I was too afraid to admit I had gotten my period in only 6th grade. I did keep it a secret because I felt the other girls in my grade had not gotten there period yet. This did make me feel different from the rest, like I was more mature or older in a way. When the topic got brought up in health class and girls began to open up about it I felt very relieved that I was not the only one going through it at the time. Looking back, I am very happy to learn how open the topic is compared to back when my mother was a girl and had to discover everything on her own.
Nemo
The Fausto-Sterling article was a breath of fresh air. It was good to read about the fallacies of menstruation and menopause. Both are still regarded as problems to be dealt with, they have been medicalized beyond recognition. All women who have experienced menstruation have experienced a change in hormonal cycling at adolescence and it does take some of us a little longer to adjust to the changes than other but the adjustment isn’t a medical condition. The same follows for menopause, another adjustment in life and not a disease or medical condition caused by a lack of estrogen. Dr Madeline Goodman’s study results don’t really surprise me; I interviewed over 100 women on menstruation and menopause, and found that their experiences and attitudes were not what you typically read about, the hot flushes for those women who had experienced menopause in particular were noticeably fewer than I expected. What stood out to me the most talking to these women was their surprise in how they experienced menopause, those who hadn’t reached menopause were a little nervous about it on the whole, although some couldn’t wait to be done with their periods. The hardest thing for some of the menopausal women I talked to to deal with was what they described as emotional swings. Some of them described the feeling as being very sad and negative others thought they were going crazy. Most of these women agreed that if they had known more about menopause, and talked to other women about it they wouldn’t have felt so bad.
Boston
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior quoted various people that thought that hormones made women crazy and that men were superior. Although I know that women do have cycles in which their hormones can affect how they feel I do not believe that it is to the extreme extent that you can blame crimes on the hormones. I will agree that there are certain times that women feel very vulnerable and upset due to their hormones but this certainly does not trigger the average woman to commit a crime. It is also mentioned that people wouldn’t trust women incharge of important things (like being president) because they would make radical decisions due to their hormones. This statement couldn’t be more inaccurate. We were very close to having a female president in this past election which shows that it is not a popular belief. I think that women make less radical decisions than males do because they are less likely to be “power hungry” and they typically make decisions very carefully before acting. Also in this paper is a claim that women are less fit than men are to go for higher education and that our bodies and minds cant handle it. To some extent I do believe that I put myself under way more stress than my male friends but I do not believe that makes them more equip to go to school. Females can be equally as smart as males. As far as menopause goes, I am not an expert but the idea that a woman is no longer a fully functioning woman is a poor statement. Just because a woman’s appearance may change and she is no longer able to give birth does not make her less of a woman. Overall this article sites quotes that make being a woman sound horrible and gives the impression that men are far superior which I strongly disagree with.
Woo
There exists a social push for women to have children between certain ages and not at other ages. It is the relationship between the social and the biological that I find interesting. Are the related?
Menarche, ones fist period, signifies that one is able to reproduce whereas menopause signifies the end of reproductive ability. This is a biological boundary. However, social boundaries also exist that determine at what ages reproduction is acceptable. For example, a 13 year old is often able to become pregnant however, in the US this is seen as wrong.
I would say that the social boundaries are founded in the biological boundaries however they are also influenced by social realities. For example, my mother always told me (ever since I got my first period) that it is ok to want to have sex etc. because even as few as a 100 years ago a girl my age would be married and have children. She used this to explain that my sexuality was normal but that since society did not work this way anymore I had to be careful.
Socially, teenage girls are considered children in today’s world and they are expected to be in school etc. They are not expected to be mothers (nor am I saying they should be.) Likewise, there is a strong social push for older women, who have not reached menopause, to NOT have children. Further medical data has added to this social push. The data I am speaking of is that which surround the risk for an \unhealthy\ pregnancy that increases with age. For example, the risk of having a baby with Downs syndrome increases substantially once a women is over a certain age.
Lastly, I wanted to ask a question. The \Menopause: A Biocultural Perspective\ speaks about menopause being a transition and menarche as being a rather sudden event. I remember when I first got my period and it then skipped for an entire year. After then it was not regular for years. This suggests to me that not only is menopause a transitional effect but also is menarche. In other words have there been studies which show the ability to conceive right after one’s first period? Is menarche really not a transitional state just as menopause is?
pinkis123
I think that menstruation and menopause are very interesting topics that can sometimes be controversial. I enjoyed reading the article entitled Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior, by Anne Fausto-Sterling. Menopause especially (more so than menstruation) is a topic that I am not too knowledgeable, mostly because I obviously have not experienced it personally yet, I have not even witnessed my mother experience yet, and I have never really learned about it in any sort of detail. Menstruation is a much more common topic. Of course they are both biological processes that are inevitable and sometimes uncontrollable, and the PMS part of menstruation is definitely attributed to biology. When a woman is “moody†during her time of the month, it is not necessarily her fault. It’s just the hormones in the body acting out. I do not understand how some women, even some that I am friends with, try to stop their period or want to take medicine or birth control to stop it at any costs. Personally, I prefer to get my period every month. I like to know when it is coming as a great way to feel relieved that I am not pregnant. If I never had this way of “making sure,†then I would be freaking out a lot more, even with the use of birth control. Cramps are also a big factor in knowing my period is coming and knowing that I am not pregnant. Unfortunately, however, cramps are not a minor problem. They can be quite serious and medicine is definitely needed, so it bothered me some when the reading discussed how doctors in the past overlooked such cramps and pains. Overall, menstruation can be burdensome and painful, but also convenient and helpful. Personally, I feel that although women have to endure all of the biological processes that men do not (menstruation and menopause), at least women can have the joy of being pregnant.
Daisy
The article, ‘Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause and Female Behavior’ by Anne Fausto-Sterling was very hard to read. I could not believe that people believed that women should not be able to hold positions of power, attend higher education or work in a corporate setting. Just because women are blessed with the opportunity to provide new generations by creating and nurturing another human being does not take away from the fact that they can do anything that they chose and are not equal to males. The article stated that women, when they start menstruating loose part of their womanhood which made no sense to me because when a girl starts her period it is the beginning of a time in her life where creating new life is possible. I thought that the researchers in this article took us back to a time where women were thought of as dysfunctional and menstruation as a disease, when in reality it should be celebrated and praised. People should be educated about women’s bodies and there should not be such a stigma surrounding the period. PMS should not be thought of something that would make a woman inferior, it is part of a normal process that can make them more passionate or emotional, which should not be thought of as something bad. I think that women through menstruation, which has translated in the way they explain it to their kids. The example used in class of a mom getting her period and thinking she was dieing because her mother did not explain anything to her, which in turn made her more aware and explained it thoroughly to her own daughter. This creates a good cycle of knowledge and open relationships among women.
Hot Chocolate
In the article “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, women were portrayed as abnormal by nature and inherently diseased because of symptoms caused by menstruation and menopause. I was very offended by how women were viewed by nine-teeth century scientists. Women were not viewed as humans, but instead “a pair of ovaries with a human being attached,” with estrogen being responsible for “that strange mystical phenomenon, the feminine state of mind.” Due to their emotionally erratic behavior caused by their monthly cycles, they were seen as irresponsible, dangerous, and even violent. If these actions were blamed on women going through menstruation and menopause, then what excuse do men have for being dangerous, violent and irresponsible? Female opponents argued that men were smarter than women because of their brain size and because men can consume more food than women. How ridiculous does that sound! Aristotle and Napoleon were short and Newton and Shakespeare were thin. As for women “being too sick and unfit for hard work” due to natural processes our bodies endure is absurd. Even through the bloating, cramps, mood swings, crying, and body aches, women still come out on top and do the best they can in order to prove that they are just as smart, hardworking, and determined as men.
We now live in a society where men and women are considered equal and the same job opportunities that are available to men are also open to women. We live in a nation that is progressing day to day and continuously working on research and treatments for natural processes like menstruation and menopause. It is important to learn more about how these cycles work, how they effect the body, and how they can be controlled. It is also important to not view them as something “abnormal” or “disgusting” because they are natural behaviors of the body.
When I first got my period, I was nervous at first, but felt very relieved because I knew it was something I needed in order to grow from a young girl to a young woman. I cherish it to this day because I know my body is functioning the way it should be and it makes me happy to know that it’s something that all women share. With this, we have to power of reproducing, something men can never have. We have the gift of giving life to beautiful children and nurturing them with our own bodies. Even though cramps suck, being bloated prevents me from wearing my favorite jeans, mood changes make my friends run away, I am happy with what I was given and have no regrets with my body!
TEASE
I found the article, “Menopause: a biocultural perspectiveâ€, to be very informative. The one thing that I found quite interesting is that estrogen has the effect of reducing bone loss but also increases the risk of breast cancer. After going through menopause, your estrogen levels lower dramatically and by this, increases bone loss. Many women take different forms of estrogen, like the pill and the patch, to prevent this. However, if you take birth control pills for so many years, what are the effects in the long run? This is definitely something that I will keep in mind for the future
Also in this article, a survey was given to forty-year old women and was asked when they would prefer to go through menopause. Majority of them said that thirty years of periods is enough. I was surprised to hear that women wish they could enter their menopausal stage at an earlier age. Sure, we all go through a week of hell every month but that’s nature’s way of telling us that we’re healthy and not pregnant. It’s a journey through womanhood that every women needs to appreciate. Going through menopause is like celebrating that you’re getting old and I’m sure that’s the last thing that many of us would want to celebrate.
Jazzy06
I was very interested in reading Moore and Lorber’s “Gender and the Social Construction of Illness†because I felt it most accurately described a modern woman’s feelings about menstruation and menopause. As we discussed in class, teens and young women so often complain about their periods, and use the birth control pill as a means of escaping their ‘monthly visitor.’ Women see the image of menopause as one which symbolizes their age, and use that as something to complain about, as well.
In Judaism, it is traditional for women to be ‘cleansed’ after they finish their periods each month by taking a ritual bath in what is called a mikveh before being seen as pure again. During biblical times, women who had their period were sent to sleep in a place separate from their husbands and families for the duration of their cycle. While this may been seen as derogatory, it dates back to the years of the earliest Rabbis, who developed rules for keeping food kosher within the homes. During the time a woman has her period, she is seen as ‘un-kosher’ and is technically not allowed to touch her husband, therefore needing to go to the mikveh. Husbands and wives who observe this often feel that those days set aside each month allow them to rely on their other means of communication and emotional bonding, rather than being physically intimate. When the woman’s period is over and she goes to the mikveh, she is able to come home again to her husband, and celebrate their ability to procreate once again.
Historically, menstruation has been viewed by others as ‘women’s maladies,’ and has been blamed for making women crazy, emotional, and neurotic. It seems as though the fact that the rest of society has, for so long, viewed the menstrual cycle as disgusting, abnormal, and medically mysterious, has led modern-day women to feel the same way. However, I believe that it is possible for women to view their menstruation as a blessing, as it is the primary way for them to be aware of the fact that they are able to procreate. A woman’s period can also be a time for her to become in touch with her body, and learn about her cycle, as well as what comes along with her monthly period.
ILoveBueno
“If a Situation is Defined as Real” discusses the medicalization of PMS, menstruation and menopause. I have trouble seeing these in any other way. I hate getting my period. I hate PMS. To me the symptoms are a nuisance that prevent me from going about my every day life without having to constantly stop and change my tampon or pop Advil to deal with cramps that make me want to stay in bed. If anything I’m glad for these because I’m so busy that I sometimes don’t have time for exercise (which does alleviate the symptoms) and I don’t know if I trust herbal remedies.
As I was reading I started to think about how Western society is designed around a “man’s” schedule meaning that everything is about production and we need to “deal” with our periods in an efficient way so we can keep on working. This formation doesn’t just give women a second class status, it also hurts older people who can’t produce as much and as efficiently as when they were new to the working world. If women had time to be a little less productive when they had their period then maybe the symptoms would be less debilitating? Maybe I wouldn’t have to pop Advil and could try to make myself better by relaxing and using a hot pack if I wasn’t always rushing around. Maybe if I wasn’t always rushing around the symptoms wouldn’t be a nuisance but merely something uncomfortable. Maybe the symptoms wouldn’t even exist because stress just increases the pain and discomfort.
I also looked at menstruation and PMS from an evolutionary standpoint. Women used to (and still in some other cultures) have many babies so they don’t have as many menstrual cycles as women in Western cultures. This is because they are always breast feeding or pregnant during their fertile years. Evolutionarily women weren’t as mobilized as they are now to do one hundred things at once. Now it is inconvenient to have many children and so we have less and have our periods more. I wonder if the menstrual cycle would be the same if societies historically (meaning from the dawn of time) were the way that they are now. Really our bodies are designed to have babies so how do we reconcile that historical purpose with the other jobs that we have now.
That is where the biomedical model comes in. In order to participate and be full members of society and not be looked down upon as being weak we try to just deal with our periods and get rid of the symptoms so we can keep working at the pace that is expected of us.
I think women deserve a special, not lesser status in society because we do so much. We have babies and menstruate and also do the same things that men do. I don’t think we should be looked down upon because we need time to perform a function that helps to create the next generation of people. Looking at it from a public health perspective I think that everyone could be more productive and happier if we had more sick days (the first day of menstruation should definitely count as a sick day at least for me) then people could have more time to think of health not just as getting better and dealing with problems but as a way to improve your overall well-being.
sashi29
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, brought to mind the recognized medical condition Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). PMDD is characterized by severe emotional and physical problems linked closely to a women’s menstrual cycle. PMDD is diagnosed when premenstrual syndrome (PMS), a condition many menstruating women experience, occurs with greater severity. What is interesting to me is that both PMDD and PMS share symptoms in common that include depression, anxiety, tension, irritability and moodiness. However, PMDD symptoms are more problematic. The treatment for PMDD prescribed by physicians, is Sarafem- pink prozac. I find it concerning that symptoms that may be a normal part of a women’s typical monthly cycle, could be medicalized and treated with serious psychotropic medication that have a variety of side effects. I am confused by this intervention, on one hand I agree that it is important to define disease and treatment so they can be legitimized, while on the other, I disagree with pathologizing a normal biological process. PMS and menopause are connecting for women and I agree this is important, but meaningful connection and support can occur throughout a women’s life and be a matter of empowerment and do not have to be about pathology and illness. What would it be like if we had a support group for celebrating women’s bodies? My wish would be that women who experience any symptoms within the range of the PMS symptom spectrum would feel they could benefit from a support network.
b.green
The topic that I liked most in this weeks readings was the concept that womens bodies are naturally flawed. I thought that this was an interesting analysis of western medicine and fit in nicely with a feminist critique on how our society views menstruation and menopause. I liked how the articles addressed the idea PMS and how it’s usually thought of as a disease that all woman suffer from. The articles argued that if all women experience it (to different degrees) than it wouldn’t make sense to call it a disease because it is part of a natural cycle. I liked how the article by Lorber and Moore discussed the idea that PMS is a used as a scapegoat to some extent because it allows women to blame their feelings of anger, emotion, and irritability on something. I liked how they argues that this is a reflection on our society that requires women to act feminine at all times by controlling their feelings and that any loss of control has to be attributed to something. The article also argued that most of the symptoms of PMS are suffered by not only by women but also by men, which seems to point to the direction that people experience a range of emotions and they shouldn’t be medicated to stop these emotions.
Phoenix
After reading the article titled, “If a Situation Is Defined a Real: Premenstrual Syndrome and Menopause”, it really made me think back to our discussion during last class about how periods are viewed in American culture. In class, some students mentioned that their periods were seen as a coming of age milestone. The fact that they were becoming a woman was to be celebrated and rejoiced. I remember one student saying that her grandmother cried when she found out that her granddaughter had received her period. Since there is always the possibility for complications to occur, the fact that her granddaughter had received her period meant that things were going according to plan. However, for many people, including myself — periods have been viewed as a nuisance. It’s that time of month where we have to spend extra money on pads, tampons, pantiliners, midol, etc… etc… It’s also that time of month where we get mood swings or don’t “feel like ourselves” and for some people, the symptoms that are experienced during this time of month is really debilitating and gets in the way with their daily lives. Speaking from personal experience, when I was in middle school/high school, my cramps used to get so bad that I would black out. There was one incidence in my spanish class where I tried to go to the nurse’s office, but I blacked out from the pain after my teacher had handed me a hallway pass and I hit my head on the edge of his computer table. Then during my freshman year in college, I had my period every 1.5 weeks to 2 weeks which was such a pain because I couldn’t function or do everything that I wanted to do since I was always trying to control my period.
In the article, it mentions several times that women’s periods and menopauses portray women in a negative light at times because it makes them seem “unstable” and “unreliable” because they are not seen as being themselves during their periods. This is why there is a stereotype saying that women are not considered to be good leaders. However, in class and in the article it was interesting that women do not usually view periods as empowering because it marks a time when we exude the meaning of what being a woman is. Basically, the article is asking why we feel like we should have to be ashamed of what makes us a woman. Instead, we should embrace it and be proud. Although I do agree, I also think it’s really difficult to have that mindset when the culture around you thinks a certain way.
In the article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, there are some great points that are brought up. I believe that it is a biological change that causes women to become emotional during their period. I was surprised to read that when women used to complain about pain and cramps that they experienced the doctors ignored it. Also I was surprised to read that it was seen as a failure to get pregnant. In this decade, most of the women that I know are happy when they get their period because they know that they are not pregnant. It is seen more as a gift and women are glad that they get their period each month unless they are actually trying to get pregnant. Research as alluded to the fact that men seem of have a normal reproductive system, but women on the other hand have this elaborate system that changes who they are once a month.
The article Menopause: A biological Perspective by Lynette Leidy Sievert brings up a good argument of why do human females end reproduction so early before they end their own lives? most animals are able to reproduce up until the days before they die. Menopause is something that I do not have a lot of knowledge about, probably because I have not gone through it, and I have not seen many people go through it. From what I have read it does not seem like something that I would want to go through, especially if I wanted to have children. this weeks readings were interesting because I learned about two processes: one that I knew about and one that I did not know that much about.
The key word that I have found in these three articles is “normal.†What is normal? This word has been a topic discussed several times in class and still I find myself struggling with the idea of one definition for every person that may share a common experience. One of the articles noted that in primitive societies, women most likely did not menstruate each month. This could be due to pregnancy, breast feeding, or other environmental factors. But in our society, women experience up to four hundred menstrual cycles during their lifetime. These two examples seem like polar opposites, but I don’t consider either of these situations more normal than the other.
Normal could also be discussed with regards to PMS. There is often a wide array of symptoms that come with PMS or PMDD. PMS was even considered for placement in the DSM. But, what does this mean for women? Are women abnormal because they may experience a headache or moodiness before they menstruate? I don’t believe that these types of physical and emotional differences make a woman abnormal or normal. Normalcy needs to be considered on an individual basis. What is normal for one person may not be normal for another.
The article “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior†mentioned that despite all the information we now have on hormones, menstruation and menopause, people still believe that women are subjected to their hormonal physiology. The article also raised questions about women’s competency in leadership positions and the issue of diminished responsibility attributed to the menstrual cycle. Many of the doctors quoted in the article were from the 1970s, but this issue is still a major bone of contention today. I remember reading, during the democratic primary race on some media site that Hilary Clinton could not possibly make a good president because she is a woman. This was because as a woman, because they menstruate, are hormonally imbalanced and could snap anytime. Never mind the fact that she is in her sixties and probably past her child reproduction stage in life .It is interesting to think of reasons like “the education of young women might cause serious damage to their reproductive systems†and the reality today where some women are postponing having children in order to further their careers. My girlfriends and I had a heated discussion once about PMS and how we despised the fact that any kind of “emotional†outburst in a relationship always being attributed to being on “that time of the month†by the men in our lives. And if we happen to be menstruating, that would explain everything and they would feel validated in ignoring the conversation. Like the article points out, not all women experience the same set of PMS symptoms. In this case, the fact that a woman is menstruating does not imply that her day will be flooded with emotional outbursts. I happen to be fortunate not to experience menstrual cramps or mood changes while my sister on the other hand, sometimes has immobilizing stomach cramps. I think this discourse will be interesting when it includes contraceptives that offer the elimination of periods indefinitely. Since the PMS symptoms are associated with menstruation, is the push or demand for contraceptives that stop or eliminate a woman’s period a way for women to compete with their male colleagues without the “inconvenience†of a monthly period? I wonder!
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, was very informational. It is so true that back in the days menstruation was seen as a sickness, a cyclic physical disorder exclusive to women. Since it is connected to blood and bleeding, it has often been associated with the feminine vampire, menstruation being the cause of monstrosity. We all know the fact that menstrual flow is a primary sex feature, or, in simple terms, it is precisely the thing which defines male sex against female. “Women bleed and men don’t” is an irrefutable absolute truth, which seems to be impossible to question.Because it is thought of as a mysterious regular illness, it is immediately categorized as “the abnormal.” Whereas now a days we proudly accept that hormone cycle that we have been taught to ignore/dismiss/cover up/hide actually is the foundation of being; the definition of who we are, our connection to ourself, to other women, to our partners, children, to our life!
Women’s hormone cycles are not just a cyclical pain; they are our integral link to all the other cycles in life. They are so much more than hormones “raging” through our body. Living with the menstrual cycle instead of against it or by denying it gives us the freedom to “be”; to laugh, to cry, to change our mind, our relationship or lifestyle and to know the reason why! I remember when I first got my period. Some friends of mine got it before me, and talked about it like it was a gift. They made those of us who didn’t yet have it feel left out. “Did you get yours yet?” they would ask, like a girl’s period was the next best hot topic to discuss. So when I finally spotted red at the tender age of thirteen I was actually happy and proud of myself. So, I think we should be proud of who we are 🙂
I found the article Hormonal Hurricane to be completely absurd. To think that women cannot be equal because they menstruate and go through menopause is the worst excuse ever. In some ways, I think women can benefit from having their body going through a cyclic change every month. Women are often more passionate or intense during their period and may be more productive at this stage. I also think that in a job world, it could have a better effect on their work. Some women aren’t affected at all by their cycles. They are productive at all times and deal with their emotional changes so well that no one would ever guess they were menstruating.
Also, women were blessed with the power of reproduction. Their bodies are so strong that we were given a uterus to grow and nourish another human beings life. I believe there is more strength in a woman’s body than weaknesses. I think the discourses that have been made around talking about women’s menstrual cycle and menopause has made it to become a negative experience. To bleed once a month is more like a reminder that you have the able to harbor a life rather than some torturous week. Obviously, for some women it is more bothersome but at the core it is a small price to pay in order to reproduce.
I believe that the culture we have grown up in has created this discourse. I loved the idea that was brought up about another culture celebrating puberty by throwing a party. It makes young girls realize the special qualities their body has rather than the US culture that has taught us to always keep it a secret or to not to discuss it. We also cannot stand to not be 100% perfect at all times, which has us pouring money into ways to relieve cramps or bloating or to make our periods shorter or lighter rather than being accepting of our bodily functions.
The reading that really caught my attention was Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior. This article brought to my attention of how women have been oppressed by our pre and post menopausal stages. During the early 1900s a lot of men would use the idea of menstruation and menopause as an excuse for reason why women were less intelligent then men and how they should do certain jobs or get paid less because of the things that happen naturally to a woman’s body. In some countries I know they view women when they are on their periods as unclean and were ostracized from the community at that moment and unable to go back until their period was over. It is interesting to me to see how menstruation was viewed in the past and in some cultures and how it is continuously viewed in modern day. When I first got my period, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought that I was going to die or something because I didn’t understand why I was bleeding. I called my grandmother to tell her that I was bleeding and that she needs to call 911. I even proceeded to call my mother at work and I remember crying on the phone to her. My grandmother laughed at me took the phone from me and told my mother that I was finally becoming a women and I looked at her like she was crazy. My grandmother began to make me this special tea that I had to drink and then proceeded to pray for me. I was very confused but then my grandmother began to explain to me what was going on in simple terms. After a while I learned what menstruation really was and the effects of it. In the reading it also discusses how before medical officials used to overlook the symptoms women were facing pre and post menopause. Then when they began to realize these symptoms were serious they started to use these symptoms as a means of overall oppressing women for assuming that all women got these symptoms when only about 16-20 percent of women, according to the study done, really do. The main focus of the article tell us how “appointing the male reproductive system as normal, this viewpoint calls abnormal any aspect of the female reproductive life cycle that deviates from the malesâ€. Those medical officials try to show that female’s reproductive system is abnormal and unstable compared to a males reproductive system which is more normal and stable. Where they try to continue to persecute the elements of a women’s reproductive system to be less than what it is. It helped me to understand how the inferiority of women has been displayed in different ways in the past and ways women have tried to overcome these terms in various ways by understanding the elements of your reproductive health and how you can use that as an advantage instead of a disadvantage.
The medicalization of PMS remains an important issue as the topic involves the intersection of women’s bodies, pharmaceuticals, and capitalism (as PMS (in my opinion) is associated with products and pills at a woman’s disposal). However, I’m not too impressed with the articles on the cultural significance of menstruation. Although I think the historical context of the issue is important, I would be interested in reading a recent ethnography of menstruation in young women today as I think some aspects of it have changed. As someone else previously posted, when I get my period my primary response is not “Oops, I failed at reproduction, yet again,†but “Yay! At least I’m not pregnant.†I know at least a couple women my age who feel the same way. It seems like a lot of research is perpetually focused on the historical context of women’s bodies, without seeing how people think today. I think that women have varied opinions of their menstruation and focusing only on the medical or male perspective doesn’t get the whole picture.
I was disgusted by the “diseased and abnormal” view of menstruation and menopause that was put forth by the male “researchers” talked about in the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article. It seems that once again women’s lives and biological occurrences are scrutinized, criticized, feared, and ultimately despised. This article emphasized the clearly misogynistic view of women and their natural, vital menstrual cycles. It is so ironic to me that menstruation is viewed in such a negative and taboo way to the point where apparently many “researchers” call women experiencing any kind of PMS symptoms as diseased! It is a common stereotype that women are more “emotional” or “moody” than their male counterparts, but I think using words like “abnormal” and diseased” to describe menstruating women is disgusting and misogynistic. Without our menstrual cycles, human life could not exist!
Probably most disturbing to me were the suggestions of some in the article that menstruation is a public health problem and the insulting and hateful idea that women lose part of their womanhood when they enter menopause. I don’t understand the logic behind either of these ideas since menstruating is a vital part of women’s lives and is essential in order for humans to reproduce. I guess it’s interesting to me that although men of course do not have a menopause, many of them experience erectile disfunction and other age-related problems and they are never viewed as diseased or abnormal in the same way that menopausal women are and they are CERTAINLY not considered only part a man because of these issues in the same way that women are viewed as lesser women after menopause.
The idea that women are the “other” in terms of comparison to men is not a new idea, but it is a pervasive one that is still quite a problem. I think instead of carrying out flawed study after flawed study to learn more about “PMS” which can mean several different things to every woman, I think work should be done to destigmatize menstruation and to promote healthy reproductive habits, such as seeing a gynecologist regularly and being able to have open and honest discussions about any of the physical and/or emotional problems that individual women experience with their menstrual cycles. As long as menstruation and menopause are viewed as some kind of flaw or disease, this backwards notion will further delay the struggle for a less sexist society.
So apparently the God given body that women have is looked down upon and justifies for a patriarchal society because women are believed to make irrational decisions based on their hormones, menstruation and menopause. Those irrational decisions affect not only women but their partners and all that surrounds them as well. Whether this ideology is ancient or not, women are believed to not be able to take on responsibilities because they are “dangerous, unpredictable†and hey they might kill you for all you know.
It was interesting and actually sad reading about the views of opponents on higher education for women. They believed that since women can not consume as much food as men do, therefore they are less intelligent for men consume lots of food that nourishes their brain and size and women are nowhere near there. They also believed that higher education should only be for men because women tend to change, their bodies, if they get smart. To them, education is so intense that only men should be allowed to have it. Have you ever wondered why girls are all over boys? Or always running away from home? Well it is because of menstruation that “casts a dark shadow†over women. Guess that means stay away or you will suffer the consequences.
Now, how thoughtful of men, not all of them, to describe the effects of menstruation for women. What’s funny about it is the fact that they do not menstruate but somehow, scientifically, they believe that the “actions†of women can be explained because of the differences between men and women, women menstruate. It is bad enough that women menstruate for days, day and night, and to have someone telling you that your actions are due to the fact that you are a woman and you have your period every month. It is so silly to believe that irrational behaviors and thoughts are more prominent in women and that they do not deserve higher education because somehow, magically maybe, it will affect their reproductive system. I mean, who wants to live with a woman that is not only smart but have distress periods where she becomes dangerous and may kill you in the process. To think that women should not be allowed certain employment positions because they have menstruation or are in menopause is ridiculous and frankly, there is not even a word to describe how I feel.
So women in general are just bad. They lose it whether they have estrogen or not, oh yeah welcome to menopause. So after all that menstruation has brought upon a woman’s life, then comes the nightmare, menopause. At that stage is it believed that a woman becomes a “manâ€; no more sexual desires, facial hair etc… I love the article “hormonal Hurricanes: menstruation…â€.
Fausto-Sterling’s article brought up a very valid point that I had never considered in relation to the concept of “normal†and the medicalization of menstruation. I have thought about the “normal†menstrual cycle that has been defined by the biomedical world, but I had never that “women are by their very nature diseased†and thus “abnormal†(353). Consider the statistic she gives that between 70 and 90 percent of women say they have recurring premenstrual symptoms or PMS. If the majority of women are thought to have a so-called “abnormal†menstrual-related disorder or discomfort, then how abnormal is it really? Shouldn’t this just be thought of as a normal component to menstruation, and those who don’t experience PMS have the abnormality? Fausto-Sterling further questions the medicalization of PMS, asking what is the normal standard and does this imply that “males [are] the unstated standard of emotional stability†(354)? Though the medicalization of PMS may be beneficial for women, particularly in giving recognition to their menstrual experiences and alleviating those who suffer from severe symptoms, it also pathologizes women’s natural bodies.
Lorber and Moore discuss the arguments made when PMS was being considered to become a defined disorder in the DSM. Many had feared that such a diagnosis would “stigmatize all menstruating women as potentially “crazyâ€â€ (80). It seems that this fear is very much justified today, now that PMS and PMDD are thought of as widespread disorders. I find the negative connotation surrounding menstruation and specifically “PMS†very frustrating in our society. If a woman is moody or snappy, people (especially men) will automatically assume “she’s menstrual,†and therefore she is out of line and not herself. The stereotypical, negative behaviors associated with PMS, “cranky, irritable, angry, violent, out of control,†are in contrast to the “idealized notion of the behavior of a “normal†feminine, heterosexual women†(Lorber and Moore 79). A woman who strongly expresses these negative emotions is immediately dismissed as premenstrual and her expressions are ignored. Personally, I even find myself (and I’m sure many other women do as well) dismissing many of my own strong emotions the week before my period, since I just assume it’s because of PMS and therefore these emotions are exaggerated and not valid. This seems like a reflection of the negative attitudes surrounding menstruation and PMS in our society: PMS must always be considered negative and abnormal. It’s difficult to imagine a world where women and their menstrual experiences were regarded with positivity and weren’t dismissed as being out of control, but it would be a great leap forward in better recognizing and understanding women’s bodies.
I think I might be the only one who can say, “I understand why people may have looked us women who menstruate in a certain way”. Before I started my period, there was an incident where I witness my older sister’s menstrual blood. She had just finished up in the bathroom and I had to pee really bad, so instead of us flushing the toilet she wanted me to use the bathroom so we would not have to flush twice (A way of saving water). Once I saw her menstrual blood in the toilet, I was completely disgusted and did not want to use the bathroom. I made her flush the toilet before I would even think of peeing in that. I was young at the time and did not understand what it was. She told me as soon as I begin my period she was going to treat me the same way, with disgust. Not saying that disgust is the way we should treat women who menstruate, but back in time, not having any knowledge of what menstruation was, I can see why people would have absurd thoughts , such as thinking we are abnormal. I can only imagine how females felt when seeing blood in their underwear for the first time. They probably thought they were dying. Having your period is known to be unclean. In Islam, women are not allowed to perform the 5 daily prayers or hold the Holy Qu’ran and in some cultures they are not allowed to enter the Mosque. Performing these religious task, Muslims have to be clean and if menstruating is apart of not being clean, they are forbidden to not perform these until they are clean.
While reading the Hormonal Hurricanes article, made me realize how much society tries to find any little thing to make us feel smaller and smaller. The article talks about how women were not seen as equal back in the day because they bled monthly. There was a quote in the article that says, “If you’re a woman you never win” which I agree with because I feel no matter what the case is we are always looked as inferior. I remember during the elections, I overheard someone say “Hillary would not be fit to be a President because she is too emotional. What will the world do when she is on her period? She will probably be too emotional to function?” It sucks that that is how society looks at us as. We can’t even be trusted to hold a leadership role.
Speaking of emotional, I feel like the whole being emotional while having your period is all in the head. Because usually when we have our period, we feel dirty or disgusted and just want to wrap ourselves in bed and come out when its over. The fact that we have to walk around and still function and act as your normal self so no one knows you’re on your period can cause you to feel sad or whatnot. Because you feel icky and as if everyone knows. You’re always self-conscious on whether people can see your pad or if maybe you leaked and may have a stain on your pants. There’s just a lot going on where I feel that we probably make ourselves emotional when that time of the month comes along. A lot of my friend HATE when they get their period. Not to say I am excited about it, but to me it’s just another regular day.
I found myself surprised at the articles for this week. Before reading, I never thought of menstruation or menopause as cultural. To me it was always something that just happened. It was normal and everyone (well, all the girls) was going through it too. After reading, it clicked. Of course there’s a culture surrounding menstruation and menopause – there’s a huge culture. In the United States, there is a huge taboo about talking about ‘that time of the month’. I remember needed to use the bathroom when I had my period in seventh grade. I stealthily snuck a pad into my pants and ran to the bathroom. Almost all of my friends were doing the same thing, but we never knew since everyone was too afraid to talk about it!
Something I never though about before was first brought up in “If a Situation is Defined as Realâ€. I thought it was very clever to realize that people market ‘symptoms’ of PMS, menopause, etc. when in reality those ‘symptoms’ are normal life occurrences. Sophie Laws explains: “The ‘symptoms’ of [PMS] which the doctors show most concern over—depression, anxiety, and so on—are mental states which do not ‘fit’ with women’s culturally created notions of ourselves as nice, kind, gentle, etc.â€
I do not consider myself a huge feminist, but sometimes I am disgusted at how all aspects of womanhood are still represented in such a modern, progressive society.
The idea of PMS as a disease and therefore something to be cured never seemed like a problem to me. When I think of PMS I think if it as something most women who menstruate experience every month and as a number of symptoms that women would rather not have. Because of this mindset I spent most of the readings with the question in the back of my mind that how could pms be anything other than a sort of sickness that no one would want? When I looked at the larger arguments presented by the articles as to why PMS and menopause are created and described in medical terms as syndromes with symptoms to alleviate and why these definitions are problematic, I could understand the point the authors were trying to make. Society has largely created definitions of menopause and PMS and attributed them to all women when very few actually experience any of the symptoms. Society has also created a tendency to call the symptoms of pms and menopause bad things, when it is possible to look at the two in different ways and see aspects of them as positive. I wonder though, if the authors’ attempts to individualize and nullify aspects of PMS and menopause take away from our cultural tendency to come together as women in our shared experiences. Without analyzing whether symptoms of PMS and menopause are actually shared experiences of all women and whether the lack of symptoms associated with pms and menopause could create feelings of alienation in women, pms and menopause seem in our culture like something women can share and somewhat bond over. I don’t know if completely removing all of our societal connotations of PMS and menopause is always a good thing when it seems like a number of woman-created discourses and works have resulted from those connotations. Of course, I don’t condone medically problematizing natural events in life just so people can connect with each other. I just wonder if all of the desire of ridding menopause and PMS of all connotations might also be getting rid of a place where women can find some unity.
After reading Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Faustro-Sterling I see how the menstruation cycle was viewed in a different way. Before menstruation was viewed as something bad and abnormal. People thought of it as a disease since they did not know much about it. Doctors from the late 1800s also argued that young women might cause serious damage to their reproductive systems if they pursued higher education. Physicians also said that women unable to bear children might be due to reaching a education level of a young man. This only goes to show how people viewed women. I also feel it was an excuse to suppress women from a higher education. Because of the menstrual cycles women were categorized as abnormal. A lot has changed since then, most people now are happy to accept their menstrual cycle. It is not secret anymore or hidden, it is embraced as a girl becoming a woman in most cultures.
I remember when I first got my period I was confused because I was only 11 and did not learn what a menstrual cycle was till I was 12 in school. My mom was very helpful and made me feel comfortable with everything. Even my doctor taught me about what was going on so I would feel not feel “abnormal.†At the time I was too afraid to admit I had gotten my period in only 6th grade. I did keep it a secret because I felt the other girls in my grade had not gotten there period yet. This did make me feel different from the rest, like I was more mature or older in a way. When the topic got brought up in health class and girls began to open up about it I felt very relieved that I was not the only one going through it at the time. Looking back, I am very happy to learn how open the topic is compared to back when my mother was a girl and had to discover everything on her own.
The Fausto-Sterling article was a breath of fresh air. It was good to read about the fallacies of menstruation and menopause. Both are still regarded as problems to be dealt with, they have been medicalized beyond recognition. All women who have experienced menstruation have experienced a change in hormonal cycling at adolescence and it does take some of us a little longer to adjust to the changes than other but the adjustment isn’t a medical condition. The same follows for menopause, another adjustment in life and not a disease or medical condition caused by a lack of estrogen. Dr Madeline Goodman’s study results don’t really surprise me; I interviewed over 100 women on menstruation and menopause, and found that their experiences and attitudes were not what you typically read about, the hot flushes for those women who had experienced menopause in particular were noticeably fewer than I expected. What stood out to me the most talking to these women was their surprise in how they experienced menopause, those who hadn’t reached menopause were a little nervous about it on the whole, although some couldn’t wait to be done with their periods. The hardest thing for some of the menopausal women I talked to to deal with was what they described as emotional swings. Some of them described the feeling as being very sad and negative others thought they were going crazy. Most of these women agreed that if they had known more about menopause, and talked to other women about it they wouldn’t have felt so bad.
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior quoted various people that thought that hormones made women crazy and that men were superior. Although I know that women do have cycles in which their hormones can affect how they feel I do not believe that it is to the extreme extent that you can blame crimes on the hormones. I will agree that there are certain times that women feel very vulnerable and upset due to their hormones but this certainly does not trigger the average woman to commit a crime. It is also mentioned that people wouldn’t trust women incharge of important things (like being president) because they would make radical decisions due to their hormones. This statement couldn’t be more inaccurate. We were very close to having a female president in this past election which shows that it is not a popular belief. I think that women make less radical decisions than males do because they are less likely to be “power hungry” and they typically make decisions very carefully before acting. Also in this paper is a claim that women are less fit than men are to go for higher education and that our bodies and minds cant handle it. To some extent I do believe that I put myself under way more stress than my male friends but I do not believe that makes them more equip to go to school. Females can be equally as smart as males. As far as menopause goes, I am not an expert but the idea that a woman is no longer a fully functioning woman is a poor statement. Just because a woman’s appearance may change and she is no longer able to give birth does not make her less of a woman. Overall this article sites quotes that make being a woman sound horrible and gives the impression that men are far superior which I strongly disagree with.
There exists a social push for women to have children between certain ages and not at other ages. It is the relationship between the social and the biological that I find interesting. Are the related?
Menarche, ones fist period, signifies that one is able to reproduce whereas menopause signifies the end of reproductive ability. This is a biological boundary. However, social boundaries also exist that determine at what ages reproduction is acceptable. For example, a 13 year old is often able to become pregnant however, in the US this is seen as wrong.
I would say that the social boundaries are founded in the biological boundaries however they are also influenced by social realities. For example, my mother always told me (ever since I got my first period) that it is ok to want to have sex etc. because even as few as a 100 years ago a girl my age would be married and have children. She used this to explain that my sexuality was normal but that since society did not work this way anymore I had to be careful.
Socially, teenage girls are considered children in today’s world and they are expected to be in school etc. They are not expected to be mothers (nor am I saying they should be.) Likewise, there is a strong social push for older women, who have not reached menopause, to NOT have children. Further medical data has added to this social push. The data I am speaking of is that which surround the risk for an \unhealthy\ pregnancy that increases with age. For example, the risk of having a baby with Downs syndrome increases substantially once a women is over a certain age.
Lastly, I wanted to ask a question. The \Menopause: A Biocultural Perspective\ speaks about menopause being a transition and menarche as being a rather sudden event. I remember when I first got my period and it then skipped for an entire year. After then it was not regular for years. This suggests to me that not only is menopause a transitional effect but also is menarche. In other words have there been studies which show the ability to conceive right after one’s first period? Is menarche really not a transitional state just as menopause is?
I think that menstruation and menopause are very interesting topics that can sometimes be controversial. I enjoyed reading the article entitled Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior, by Anne Fausto-Sterling. Menopause especially (more so than menstruation) is a topic that I am not too knowledgeable, mostly because I obviously have not experienced it personally yet, I have not even witnessed my mother experience yet, and I have never really learned about it in any sort of detail. Menstruation is a much more common topic. Of course they are both biological processes that are inevitable and sometimes uncontrollable, and the PMS part of menstruation is definitely attributed to biology. When a woman is “moody†during her time of the month, it is not necessarily her fault. It’s just the hormones in the body acting out. I do not understand how some women, even some that I am friends with, try to stop their period or want to take medicine or birth control to stop it at any costs. Personally, I prefer to get my period every month. I like to know when it is coming as a great way to feel relieved that I am not pregnant. If I never had this way of “making sure,†then I would be freaking out a lot more, even with the use of birth control. Cramps are also a big factor in knowing my period is coming and knowing that I am not pregnant. Unfortunately, however, cramps are not a minor problem. They can be quite serious and medicine is definitely needed, so it bothered me some when the reading discussed how doctors in the past overlooked such cramps and pains. Overall, menstruation can be burdensome and painful, but also convenient and helpful. Personally, I feel that although women have to endure all of the biological processes that men do not (menstruation and menopause), at least women can have the joy of being pregnant.
The article, ‘Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause and Female Behavior’ by Anne Fausto-Sterling was very hard to read. I could not believe that people believed that women should not be able to hold positions of power, attend higher education or work in a corporate setting. Just because women are blessed with the opportunity to provide new generations by creating and nurturing another human being does not take away from the fact that they can do anything that they chose and are not equal to males. The article stated that women, when they start menstruating loose part of their womanhood which made no sense to me because when a girl starts her period it is the beginning of a time in her life where creating new life is possible. I thought that the researchers in this article took us back to a time where women were thought of as dysfunctional and menstruation as a disease, when in reality it should be celebrated and praised. People should be educated about women’s bodies and there should not be such a stigma surrounding the period. PMS should not be thought of something that would make a woman inferior, it is part of a normal process that can make them more passionate or emotional, which should not be thought of as something bad. I think that women through menstruation, which has translated in the way they explain it to their kids. The example used in class of a mom getting her period and thinking she was dieing because her mother did not explain anything to her, which in turn made her more aware and explained it thoroughly to her own daughter. This creates a good cycle of knowledge and open relationships among women.
In the article “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, women were portrayed as abnormal by nature and inherently diseased because of symptoms caused by menstruation and menopause. I was very offended by how women were viewed by nine-teeth century scientists. Women were not viewed as humans, but instead “a pair of ovaries with a human being attached,” with estrogen being responsible for “that strange mystical phenomenon, the feminine state of mind.” Due to their emotionally erratic behavior caused by their monthly cycles, they were seen as irresponsible, dangerous, and even violent. If these actions were blamed on women going through menstruation and menopause, then what excuse do men have for being dangerous, violent and irresponsible? Female opponents argued that men were smarter than women because of their brain size and because men can consume more food than women. How ridiculous does that sound! Aristotle and Napoleon were short and Newton and Shakespeare were thin. As for women “being too sick and unfit for hard work” due to natural processes our bodies endure is absurd. Even through the bloating, cramps, mood swings, crying, and body aches, women still come out on top and do the best they can in order to prove that they are just as smart, hardworking, and determined as men.
We now live in a society where men and women are considered equal and the same job opportunities that are available to men are also open to women. We live in a nation that is progressing day to day and continuously working on research and treatments for natural processes like menstruation and menopause. It is important to learn more about how these cycles work, how they effect the body, and how they can be controlled. It is also important to not view them as something “abnormal” or “disgusting” because they are natural behaviors of the body.
When I first got my period, I was nervous at first, but felt very relieved because I knew it was something I needed in order to grow from a young girl to a young woman. I cherish it to this day because I know my body is functioning the way it should be and it makes me happy to know that it’s something that all women share. With this, we have to power of reproducing, something men can never have. We have the gift of giving life to beautiful children and nurturing them with our own bodies. Even though cramps suck, being bloated prevents me from wearing my favorite jeans, mood changes make my friends run away, I am happy with what I was given and have no regrets with my body!
I found the article, “Menopause: a biocultural perspectiveâ€, to be very informative. The one thing that I found quite interesting is that estrogen has the effect of reducing bone loss but also increases the risk of breast cancer. After going through menopause, your estrogen levels lower dramatically and by this, increases bone loss. Many women take different forms of estrogen, like the pill and the patch, to prevent this. However, if you take birth control pills for so many years, what are the effects in the long run? This is definitely something that I will keep in mind for the future
Also in this article, a survey was given to forty-year old women and was asked when they would prefer to go through menopause. Majority of them said that thirty years of periods is enough. I was surprised to hear that women wish they could enter their menopausal stage at an earlier age. Sure, we all go through a week of hell every month but that’s nature’s way of telling us that we’re healthy and not pregnant. It’s a journey through womanhood that every women needs to appreciate. Going through menopause is like celebrating that you’re getting old and I’m sure that’s the last thing that many of us would want to celebrate.
I was very interested in reading Moore and Lorber’s “Gender and the Social Construction of Illness†because I felt it most accurately described a modern woman’s feelings about menstruation and menopause. As we discussed in class, teens and young women so often complain about their periods, and use the birth control pill as a means of escaping their ‘monthly visitor.’ Women see the image of menopause as one which symbolizes their age, and use that as something to complain about, as well.
In Judaism, it is traditional for women to be ‘cleansed’ after they finish their periods each month by taking a ritual bath in what is called a mikveh before being seen as pure again. During biblical times, women who had their period were sent to sleep in a place separate from their husbands and families for the duration of their cycle. While this may been seen as derogatory, it dates back to the years of the earliest Rabbis, who developed rules for keeping food kosher within the homes. During the time a woman has her period, she is seen as ‘un-kosher’ and is technically not allowed to touch her husband, therefore needing to go to the mikveh. Husbands and wives who observe this often feel that those days set aside each month allow them to rely on their other means of communication and emotional bonding, rather than being physically intimate. When the woman’s period is over and she goes to the mikveh, she is able to come home again to her husband, and celebrate their ability to procreate once again.
Historically, menstruation has been viewed by others as ‘women’s maladies,’ and has been blamed for making women crazy, emotional, and neurotic. It seems as though the fact that the rest of society has, for so long, viewed the menstrual cycle as disgusting, abnormal, and medically mysterious, has led modern-day women to feel the same way. However, I believe that it is possible for women to view their menstruation as a blessing, as it is the primary way for them to be aware of the fact that they are able to procreate. A woman’s period can also be a time for her to become in touch with her body, and learn about her cycle, as well as what comes along with her monthly period.
“If a Situation is Defined as Real” discusses the medicalization of PMS, menstruation and menopause. I have trouble seeing these in any other way. I hate getting my period. I hate PMS. To me the symptoms are a nuisance that prevent me from going about my every day life without having to constantly stop and change my tampon or pop Advil to deal with cramps that make me want to stay in bed. If anything I’m glad for these because I’m so busy that I sometimes don’t have time for exercise (which does alleviate the symptoms) and I don’t know if I trust herbal remedies.
As I was reading I started to think about how Western society is designed around a “man’s” schedule meaning that everything is about production and we need to “deal” with our periods in an efficient way so we can keep on working. This formation doesn’t just give women a second class status, it also hurts older people who can’t produce as much and as efficiently as when they were new to the working world. If women had time to be a little less productive when they had their period then maybe the symptoms would be less debilitating? Maybe I wouldn’t have to pop Advil and could try to make myself better by relaxing and using a hot pack if I wasn’t always rushing around. Maybe if I wasn’t always rushing around the symptoms wouldn’t be a nuisance but merely something uncomfortable. Maybe the symptoms wouldn’t even exist because stress just increases the pain and discomfort.
I also looked at menstruation and PMS from an evolutionary standpoint. Women used to (and still in some other cultures) have many babies so they don’t have as many menstrual cycles as women in Western cultures. This is because they are always breast feeding or pregnant during their fertile years. Evolutionarily women weren’t as mobilized as they are now to do one hundred things at once. Now it is inconvenient to have many children and so we have less and have our periods more. I wonder if the menstrual cycle would be the same if societies historically (meaning from the dawn of time) were the way that they are now. Really our bodies are designed to have babies so how do we reconcile that historical purpose with the other jobs that we have now.
That is where the biomedical model comes in. In order to participate and be full members of society and not be looked down upon as being weak we try to just deal with our periods and get rid of the symptoms so we can keep working at the pace that is expected of us.
I think women deserve a special, not lesser status in society because we do so much. We have babies and menstruate and also do the same things that men do. I don’t think we should be looked down upon because we need time to perform a function that helps to create the next generation of people. Looking at it from a public health perspective I think that everyone could be more productive and happier if we had more sick days (the first day of menstruation should definitely count as a sick day at least for me) then people could have more time to think of health not just as getting better and dealing with problems but as a way to improve your overall well-being.
The article Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior by Anne Fausto-Sterling, brought to mind the recognized medical condition Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). PMDD is characterized by severe emotional and physical problems linked closely to a women’s menstrual cycle. PMDD is diagnosed when premenstrual syndrome (PMS), a condition many menstruating women experience, occurs with greater severity. What is interesting to me is that both PMDD and PMS share symptoms in common that include depression, anxiety, tension, irritability and moodiness. However, PMDD symptoms are more problematic. The treatment for PMDD prescribed by physicians, is Sarafem- pink prozac. I find it concerning that symptoms that may be a normal part of a women’s typical monthly cycle, could be medicalized and treated with serious psychotropic medication that have a variety of side effects. I am confused by this intervention, on one hand I agree that it is important to define disease and treatment so they can be legitimized, while on the other, I disagree with pathologizing a normal biological process. PMS and menopause are connecting for women and I agree this is important, but meaningful connection and support can occur throughout a women’s life and be a matter of empowerment and do not have to be about pathology and illness. What would it be like if we had a support group for celebrating women’s bodies? My wish would be that women who experience any symptoms within the range of the PMS symptom spectrum would feel they could benefit from a support network.
The topic that I liked most in this weeks readings was the concept that womens bodies are naturally flawed. I thought that this was an interesting analysis of western medicine and fit in nicely with a feminist critique on how our society views menstruation and menopause. I liked how the articles addressed the idea PMS and how it’s usually thought of as a disease that all woman suffer from. The articles argued that if all women experience it (to different degrees) than it wouldn’t make sense to call it a disease because it is part of a natural cycle. I liked how the article by Lorber and Moore discussed the idea that PMS is a used as a scapegoat to some extent because it allows women to blame their feelings of anger, emotion, and irritability on something. I liked how they argues that this is a reflection on our society that requires women to act feminine at all times by controlling their feelings and that any loss of control has to be attributed to something. The article also argued that most of the symptoms of PMS are suffered by not only by women but also by men, which seems to point to the direction that people experience a range of emotions and they shouldn’t be medicated to stop these emotions.
After reading the article titled, “If a Situation Is Defined a Real: Premenstrual Syndrome and Menopause”, it really made me think back to our discussion during last class about how periods are viewed in American culture. In class, some students mentioned that their periods were seen as a coming of age milestone. The fact that they were becoming a woman was to be celebrated and rejoiced. I remember one student saying that her grandmother cried when she found out that her granddaughter had received her period. Since there is always the possibility for complications to occur, the fact that her granddaughter had received her period meant that things were going according to plan. However, for many people, including myself — periods have been viewed as a nuisance. It’s that time of month where we have to spend extra money on pads, tampons, pantiliners, midol, etc… etc… It’s also that time of month where we get mood swings or don’t “feel like ourselves” and for some people, the symptoms that are experienced during this time of month is really debilitating and gets in the way with their daily lives. Speaking from personal experience, when I was in middle school/high school, my cramps used to get so bad that I would black out. There was one incidence in my spanish class where I tried to go to the nurse’s office, but I blacked out from the pain after my teacher had handed me a hallway pass and I hit my head on the edge of his computer table. Then during my freshman year in college, I had my period every 1.5 weeks to 2 weeks which was such a pain because I couldn’t function or do everything that I wanted to do since I was always trying to control my period.
In the article, it mentions several times that women’s periods and menopauses portray women in a negative light at times because it makes them seem “unstable” and “unreliable” because they are not seen as being themselves during their periods. This is why there is a stereotype saying that women are not considered to be good leaders. However, in class and in the article it was interesting that women do not usually view periods as empowering because it marks a time when we exude the meaning of what being a woman is. Basically, the article is asking why we feel like we should have to be ashamed of what makes us a woman. Instead, we should embrace it and be proud. Although I do agree, I also think it’s really difficult to have that mindset when the culture around you thinks a certain way.