She spent a whole career scientifically ripping apart the idea that menstruation was horrible and debilitating and painful and the only thing you could do when “the curse” came around was to lie in bed for a week and suffer. Women really believed this and expected to be miserable one week out of four.

Then she worked against the fear that menopause would cause women to undergo some sort of unavoidable nervous collapse, which was apparently very widespread.

The parallels absolutely beat me about the ears. These are the same words. That commonly taught expectation of dysfunction and pain and inescapable suffering in a normal physical process, just because it’s uniquely female.

In some ways it’s hard to believe that we’ve still in this place almost 100 years later. We can do better than this.

@ Johanna – I love your example of Sojourner Truth!

Perhaps the most veracious part of your post is in regards to the ‘birth high.’ True, true, true. Post partum depression shouldn’t exist. It’s a contradiction. They say 1 in 3 women will have the baby blues or PPD or even worse, a combination of PPD and PTSD. This is such a huge sign that something is wrong. I was high for weeks after my daughter’s birth. Just thinking back to any part of the labour would give me a warm tingly feeling. I am more in love with my husband than ever before (he was my birth attendant). Women believe they are making the safe choice when they choose an OB and a hospital, but it’s because they can’t even imagine what they are missing.