Stereotypes keep us disempowered

Mar 5

The journey through and with menopause is one LOUD invitation into your own empowering transformation. Menopause is about embodiment and reclaiming our own stories. It’s about how you (re)learn to connect to your body (and its inherent wisdom) when society, education, and work systems have all taught and trained us to be disconnected. One of the main ways that disconnection gets perpetuated is through toxic stereotypes that have been invasive through the medical and social commentary on those of us born with uteruses.

Psst, to those of you born without uteruses

Or, if you’re reading this thinking, ‘why is Tamara talking about this now, it doesn’t apply to me.’ It does because you have people in your life experiencing peri/menopause, and they are tired of being gaslighted by society and our medical system. To stop the patriarchy that is killing ALL of us, we all have to attend to injustices. And what I’ve learned on my own journey, as well as all the clients I work with and my friends, is we all have been stereotyped in such harmful ways all around how our bodies change. Keep reading and share with those you care about around you.

Google anything related to peri/menopause and all the stereotypes, deficits, brokenness, failure, etc. come flooding out. It’s hard to get helpful advice sometimes because you have to wade through the shitcreek of negativity and hatred of our bodies. The bullshitery of medical advice and health insurance biases and coverage - not to mention all that is not even researched about bodies with ovaries. All that railing and complaining doesn’t feel good long term so let’s get some context acknowledged so we can shake that shit off and rebuild for ourselves and all the others around us.

Historically, much of what we knew about peri/menopause was based on medical men’s interpretations and notes, but as The Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gunter reminds us, they were very different names and stories passed down, orally amongst communities of women. We just do not have access to them.

Access to higher education had a similar start. I used to teach a graduate seminar on the history of US higher education. A pervasive argument used against women’s enrollment was by a medical doctor who said the ovaries would explode if exposed to education with all its ideas and work. And I know who is reading this - and so I know we’ve all done a kickass job of rewriting that story and its bullshit stereotypes.

That’s where this new free workshop comes in. You can rewrite your own story of this journey and then share that story out with your community. And the sooner you understand the stages of the journey - the symptoms, your own family’s stories, the experiences of your community of women - the better prepared you are to make this transformational and empowering.

My Wilding Women Retreat co-creators and I are offering a free workshop coming up on April 3 about this very topic. We will also be sharing resources full of all the other voices that are empowering, educational, and advocating. You will want to get your hands on that goodness.