I have been reflecting a bit about the title of my blog Radical Menopause. 'Radical' seems to be a very trendy word right now - Radical Parenting, Unschooling, Veganism, Dudes - everything just has to be 'radical'. And of course, here am I jumping on the bandwagon. When I conceived the idea for this blog, the title seemed to come instinctively to me, so I want to briefly explore the word and see how it fits in with me and the ideas I am writing about here.
The word comes from the Latin 'Radix', which means root. Straight away this brings to mind the idea that the Menopause is the awakening of the Kundalini - the snake that lies coiled up in the womb, or root chakra. This radical awakening seems to occur because the energy in a woman's body is changing from the focus on childbearing during the years since the menarche to a more spiritual, intuitive way of being. The serpent of enlightenment is rising in us and if we are open to it and embrace that energy we can only honour ourselves - and live healthier lives into our old age.
When I began this blog, I keyed in the title 'Radical Menopause to that well known search engine, to check that no-one else was using it for a business, book or whatever. Happily for me I could find nothing. Unhappily, however, the search turned up many sites talking about Radical Hysterectomy. Now, while no-one seemed to be advocating radical hysterectomy as a cure for menopausal symptoms ( I hope), it did make me reflect on the patriarchal desire to control womens' fertility, the peddling of the idea that menopausal women are something to be feared and if we take these hormones and we wont be one of them.
Erm - no thank you, I will just be getting on with it myself, and I quite like the idea of being feared by the patriarchy.
Radical to me means going back to the roots of our ancient mothers who accepted the change as a different phase of life - the crone - the Wise One. Older women are still 'The Disappeared' in this culture, but as more of us finally come of age, I can only hope this begins to change - that the spirit of those mothers and elders will be stirred.
I mentioned yesterday to my husband that I was thinking about this post and the word 'radical'. This morning he shared a dream he had last night about a long forgotten childhood memory. Growing up in a mining village in Central Scotland, he was a coal miner's son. His father was extremely active in left- wing and communist politics in the 1950s, and was a shop steward for the union. He was friendly with many well-known left wing politicians and academics at the time, and my husband remembered in his dream how one professor came down to stay with them and his name was Freeman.
I thought about this dream today - while 'radical' is fairly obvious in the political sense - the name Freeman has radical connotations too. A Free man, or woman is not bound by a system which tries to control them. They make conscious choices based on their own instinct or unbiased information - they are free and they are radical.
So there - I am a free radical menopausal woman - I will do it my way - watch out for my serpent rising!
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I can't believe how come there aren't dozens of reactionary and chiming-in comments. Am I the only.. the first? OMG... so well, so be it. Your phrase "... the peddling of the idea that menopausal women are something to be feared and if we take these hormones and we wont be one of them." inflames me with riotess feelings. Why should the norm be to take hormones. You know what? You know what my stepfather's second wife (70 now) said to me as I began hot-flashing about 3 years ago, and we went out in the cool of the front porch to talk... she suggested I take hormones. SHe herself has been taking them for (apparently) decades, and says "don't you want to look young? To have a head full of hair and good skin? " Actually, I forget exactly *what* she said, but I remember feeling several things. Mad first, because , I am so pissed off at the cosmetic industry/society for idealizing/idolizing YOUTH, especially in WOMEN. Grrr. I mean, where does the clan of STRONG women who don't bend over to fashion/cosmetic/youth industry, with whom I can run with?? Nowhere in sight. (Truth be told in fact, I don't really know what a woman who doesn't take hormones really looks like, a whithered up undesirable old bitter androgenous thing? So yeah, aside from PISSED off I am at the industry which promotes carcenogenic disaster, I feel *neglected* and *isolated* because I am seemingly a minority. Oh, what's wrong with this picture? I myself, am high-risk, and no way am I taking hormones, are you kidding? Aside from Pissed Off and Neglected, I feel *scared*. Like, is making this decision on my own radicalness going to either kill me or make me dead to the gaze of handsome grey gentlemen? And will I regret this? I'm more scared actually, that I am going to be another statistic of breast cancer, nevermind the sexual appeal. Okay, so aside from feeling Pissed Off, Neglected, and Scared, I feel slightly *provoked*, like I want to be a part of a new movement of Couragious Strong Women who are Radical enough to Take Menopause As It Comes, and not try to put it off. Okay, aside from feeling Pissed Off, Neglected, Scared and Provoked, I feel *tired*. Tired of hearing women tell me they're *still* hotflashing at 65/70/75/80 ... you want to know what I think? I think it's because likely those women who are hotflashing at 70 years of age are the ones who chose to put it off, and take the hormones, and what is a annoying (okay, so I feel annoyed too) is that the drug industry doesn't tell us that the drug is only putting off The Change, but distorting our whole body's natural gravitational pull toward The Change. I mean, it's downright crazy. So yeah, I feel *crazy* too. :) I am off the rant now. Thanks so much for having this post.. now I'll go read another. ~Jen from N.California
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