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MINDING BODY, EMBODYING MIND
Just what is all the frantic fascination with the female body about? After eons of being ignored by the medics, we are now inundated with attention in nearly every commercial on or in the media. Every part of our body is held up and declared to be dorous, or diseased or cursed with incipient failure.
But
it's not just the advertisements. Medical
News articles and Women's programs are chock full of guests who dig and
delve into every female orifice, surfacing only to report dire warnings
of present danger and future deterioration. Recently,
we heard two FEMALE ob-gyns talking about menopause. From their point
of view, a woman's body was fraught with problems from birth, and at menopause,
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE..
Yes. There are women who have problems due to physical causes, but what these doctors omitted was the major cause of MOST of the problems that strike women's bodies -- ATTI- TUDE. The doctors never mentioned the cultural programming that continually tells a woman she must be forever young, skinny and childish. Programming that tells her growing old is a crime and that beyond her reproductive years, she is useless. According to them, the female body is defective. Our bones deteriorate and our heart collapses at menopause so we must have exogenous estrogen to replace that which our ovaries are no longer providing.
Balderdash! Whatever did we do before our ovaries kicked in? Actually, we did just fine and many women do just fine when they kick out, because they NEVER BOUGHT IN TO THE CULTURE'S DEFINITION OF FEMALE.
We would have had a much better opinion of these two doctors if they had just taken a few minutes to explain that society is a major cause of the health problems they see and treat.
They should know and teach that people who are programmed, BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER, to starve themselves and eschew exercise will have small bones that become brittle (post menopausal), and health problems that compromise other organ systems.
They could have brought up the ridiculous shoes that women wear for style reasons. Shoes with heels that throw her spine off balance and cause neuro-skeletal problems in later life. They could have pointed out the pressures on young girls and women to believe that their only value was their form or figure -- and how much of it they expose.
Instead, they chose to spread dire warnings and market equine (horse) estrogen compounds, despite the fact that these drugs have been shown to either cause or support cancers in the body -- especially the breast. This, they assured us, was O.K. because 2X a year X-rays would discover and deal with any problems the horse chemicals might cause.
You have to look at a lot of TV to find any program that shows regular women (the kind we see every day) being heroic or smart or courageous or strong and healthy. Rather, the skinny supermodel type is rampant and our children notice this.
The media must be persuaded to present more STRONG role models for girls and women instead of the usual crap that caters mostly to male sexual fantasy.
When exercise and sport FOR WOMEN is condoned by our society and practiced by young girls and women of all ages; when it is combined with proper nutrition and a mind that has not bought into the gloom and doom programming, menopause is little more than a very slight bump in the road. Hard bones in a hard (muscular) body is healthy and a healthy woman's body should be strived for and considered normal.
With all this media and medical attention to our "faulty bodies," we women are said to be missing out on other things. Once again, our "performance" is compared to the male "standard."
A study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that, "... out of 25 questions about specific issues in this year's presidential campaign on the backgrounds of four major presidential candidates, women outperformed men on only one: a question about the Democratic candidates' positions on public financing of campaigns."
"The perplexing finding that women do not PERFORM as well as men on political knowledge still persists in the year 2000," said the report, released Monday, March 27, 2000, and written by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a political scientist at Penn, and Kate Kenski, a student.
"It's unusual in part because the presidential candidates in both parties this year are catering to female voters, aiming their agendas, speeches and ad campaigns at them. The candidates know they probably will split the male vote, and that THE ONE WHO WINS THE WOMEN'S VOTE THEREFORE WILL WIN THE PRESIDENCY." (Our emphasis)
Women make up 53% of the electorate, the article states and have been increasing their participation in politics. Women vote at the same or higher rate than men. More women are seeking political office.
Jamieson said one possible explanation for women's "POOR PERFORMANCE" is that women and men discuss politics differently. "Men talk with one another at work about politics," she said. "Women don't have that same socialization. It's a function of how women talk about politics."
It is a fact that "at work," many women don't have the kind of jobs that permit them to "talk about politics." We suggest that our "poor performance" may be a function of women's intolerance for bullsh*t. WHEN THE CANDIDATES STOP TESTOSTERCLOWNING around, women will pay more attention.
Should we let the scientists and the guys campaigning in on the fact that our so-called "performance-deficit" is a VAST WOMEN'S CONSPIRACY to keep them swinging in the wind of their own ignorance and conceit?
Naaah. It's 7 months until November. Letemsweatitout.
2000-014
Copyright 2000 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@together.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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