Weekly WTF

Treating menopause like a death knell

MY GAWD.

A dear friend sent me this screenshot of an objectively horrible infographic meant to illustrate some of the potential side effects of menopause.

Grotesque by all possible standards!

Here’s a screenshot of our brief conversation following the sending of said infographic.

As you can see, the name of this particular installment of the newsletter was easy for me to land on because these are the words (“what” “the” “fuck”) I most frequently find myself saying or typing in response to the various flavors of bullshit lobbied towards moms and women.

Let’s name the unfortunate person featured in the above graphic, Rhonda, shall we?

Does Rhonda look happy? She sure doesn’t! Does she look homicidal? A little!

And how could she not? She’s suffering from anxiety, depression AND insomnia. She’s irritable as fuck and her poor vagina is dry. She’s gained weight (which is obviously supposed to be viewed as BAD because hapless Rhonda is shackled to diet culture tenets), she doesn’t feel like having sex (also viewed as BAD because I guess “good women” should always be down to fuck), and she’s fucking tired because she has insomnia! Rhonda can’t remember where her glasses are (neither can I so maybe I should be worried about menopause even though I’m currently bleeding?!), she’s having hot flashes, and Rhonda’s bones are brittle.

Rhonda might also be feeling a little itchy about her haircut because WHAT IS IT, and her jeans, which look uncomfortable. She looks like she’s mid-growl so maybe she’s actually just Nightbitch?

I’m glad “the art of living dot org” lets the potentially terrified viewer of this infographic know that menopause “does not occur overnight,” because damn, that’d be a rude awakening (at least according to the fear mongering jerks over at “the art of living dot org”).

A few more thoughts.

1. I experience nearly every one of these symptoms as a non-menopausal woman living in America so maybe it’s not menopause but being a woman in America making us all look like we wanna attack whoever is unlucky enough to cross our path?

2. As my friend said in our text exchange, “Can we highlight fucking freedom on this walk-the-plank list?” CAN WE PLEASE? Can we highlight the utter bliss of no longer being tethered to our capacity and potential as engines of human reproduction? Like, “the art of living dot org” fucking buried the lede by mentioning that menopause “marks the end of the female reproductive cycle” at the bottom of the fucking page. Can we celebrate leaving our supposedly most sexually desirable, child-bearing years behind us? Can we rejoice in no longer being inconvenienced with fucking monthly bleeding (which can often be accompanied by almost every single potential symptom of menopause???!!!!)

3. Dear “the art of living dot org,” please stop perpetuating the widespread belief that everything that happens to or in women’s bodies is something to be feared, avoided, legislated, or fixed.

Who else is being treated to menopause scare tactics? What sort of menopause-centric targeted ads would you prefer? HOW CAN THE PEOPLE SELLING US MENOPAUSE REFRAME THE NARRATIVE? ********

******* “And what you gain after menopause is the power of invisibility. You become sexually invisible to both men and women. You gain the power of not giving a [expletive].” - Frances McDormand

Image by Katy Grannan for The New York Times