FLASH COUNT DIARY

A keen exploration of menopause, which is “situated at the crossroads between the metaphysical and the biological.”

Like many women, when Steinke (Sister Golden Hair, 2014, etc.) reached her menopausal years, the change hit her hard. Hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, and depression were just some of her symptoms. Menopause, she writes, “is as much a spiritual challenge as it is a physical one.” She struggled to find balance and turned to research and literature to help her comprehend the monumental changes taking place in her body. What she discovered both did and did not surprise her: Menopausal women are not favorably represented (think witches of olden days), and women and female killer whales are the only two (known) mammals to go through this type of life transformation. This information didn’t resolve her physical symptoms, but it put her on a quest to find out more in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the process. “There are things I miss about my old self: the ferocity of physical desire, the sense of well-being (aside from the days before my period) that appears to have been in part hormonal, and the fantasy, no matter how ephemeral, that I might have another child,” she writes. In this thoughtful, intriguing, and sometimes-humorous analysis, Steinke discusses the patriarchal attitudes inherent in society and the way young and sexually active, sexually desired women are the typical images projected as ideal. This led the author to investigate hormone replacement therapy and its effectiveness in the sex lives of older women. She compares women with female killer whales, who are often leaders of their respective pods, which gives rise to a host of questions: If these animals can respect and value their elder females, then why can’t humans do the same? Throughout, the narrative is stimulating and challenges society to rethink how we view and treat older women.

Provocative ideas and illuminating personal stories centered on the idea that “it is not menopause itself that is the problem but menopause as it’s experienced under patriarchy.”