The article the change: Women, aging, and the menopause by Greer talk about the description of menopause that has shifted from a normal, progressive change to a progressively more medicalized view that accentuates organic discrepancies of the aging feminine figure. Although menopause could be simply defined as the time when one’s menstrual periods stop permanently and one can no longer get pregnant. Notably, Greer talks deeply about menopause as being a topic that people no longer shy about to analyze. Also, it clearly brings the difference in the definition for the mothers and their daughters. Mothers knew that menopause is a developmental transition and they would consider it a time of self-evaluation and prior setting whereby they would sit down and do a personal reflection of their life keeping away from their husbands and kids. While their daughters thought it was a physiological process of the aging body. Additionally, it was a health problem that could be cured.
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Utz in her article titled like a mother, (not) like daughter interviewed on her own she visited different women to be able to gather information. Although some women would shy off from talking about menopause as during their mother’s age was considered taboo (Utz, 2011). On the other hand, their daughters would talk about menopause even in their office or even during dinner time. About the information gathered by the author, the mothers didn’t see anything wrong with menopause so they didn’t even go for treatment. Contrarily, daughters thought it was a disease to be cured so they would go to see a doctor or the pharmacist get medication. Evidently, the thesis is fully supported by the article because everything in the article discusses menopause starting from the definition, the perception, and treatment up to the side effects of the treatment.
The article fits perfectly with the findings within the perspective from other feminist theories as it defined menopause as a natural development process according to the mothers. Similarly, other authors like Utian and Schiff define menopause as a natural process. Utian, & Schiff in their article titled NAMS-Gallup survey on women’s knowledge, information sources, and attitudes to menopause and hormone replacement therapy state that medicine consumed during menopause has side effects which include cancer that affects women when they reach the menopause stage.
In my opinion, some words like treatment and cure stand for me because it is known that menopause cannot be treated as it is a natural process that has to come to pass to every female. No matter how hard young females try to treat menopause there will reach a point whereby they will have to sit down and wait for it to pass. According to my the best way to make menopause come to pass at a late age is by observing diet as well as the way of life. I believe that females should accept menopause as a rite of passage and move on with life.
I believe that the article was biased as it compared only two cohorts of females forgetting that the world is changing radically due to changes in technology and cultural influences thus every cohort of females have new ways of coping up with menopause not to mention better medication which don’t have side effects and lengthen the age of menopause.
Reference
Greer, G. (2018). The change: Women, aging, and menopause. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Utian, W. H., & Schiff, I. (2018). NAMS-Gallup survey on women’s knowledge, information sources, and attitudes to menopause and hormone replacement therapy. Menopause, 25(11), 1172-1179.
Utz, R. L. (2011). Like mother, (not) like daughter: The social construction of menopause and aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 25(2), 143-154.
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