Womens Sexuality after Midlife, Menopause - Assignment Example

Midlife Research Paper Answer 1) Women are treated as icons of attractiveness; there is no place for a woman who has lost vitality and youth in the society. There are many cultural images associated with the aging of a woman all across the globe. Two of the dominant images associated with the aging of the women body are: Loosing of fertility makes a woman witch, something evil in European culture. Aging of a woman body is often associated in the western society as wicked, needy, bad mother and a lady who is neurotic. They are often portrayed as comical and powerless. Perry in 1999 reported that women in Disney movies are often portrayed as someone ugly, evil, and power hungry greedy as well as crazy. In Eastern society also the scenario is no better. Cultural values force a woman to associate old age with mourning. In India, for example, old aged women are considered as a sort of social stigma and responsibility and this evolves out in their art too. Hindi movies portray middle aged women as witches, snakes in the form of human and female ghosts who are malevolent. The middle aged women are casted in the role of mother - in – laws who are insecure by the youth and beauty of their daughter – in – law, played by the younger actresses and is portrayed as hostile towards younger generation which is not true and commonplace at all. According to Healy, double standard of aging is actually logical extension of the sexist beliefs, which says “women are only valuable when they are attractive and useful to man”. It is perceived that men grow older later than women. Women lose their physical attractiveness early too. There is another perspective in this regard. Vigor of a man is judged with the parameters of personality, intelligence and social status while the sole parameter to judge a woman’s attractiveness is through her physical attributes. This social inhibition is often staunchly criticized by the feminists. This is one of the commonest problems; a woman face in double standard of aging, the other problem is the issue of marriage. If there is a very short age difference between the husband and the wife, then after a certain time the woman looses her youth and the social restriction de-motivates her from participating in youthful activities and feeling young. Problem is more critical with woman marrying younger man and which is why there is a social convention to marry younger women and women are not keen to marry younger man. In case of remarriage or divorce it is easier for a man to marry younger woman and that can be twenty years less than him but women cannot afford to do so and the combination of marriage where older woman marries a younger man is still rare. The next and the foremost problem in the double standard of aging are regarding the great differences in the physical appearances of men and women. While men are advised not to conceal their wrinkles or grey hair, women take greatest care in hiding the sign of age. Cosmetic implementation, surgery to hormone therapy are common in women to conceal their signs of aging, while in man, they are encouraged to reveal being aged as it bears for them the mark of personality and maturity. Physicality is more important in women than in men. Physical problems of aging are therefore confronted more by women than men. The age brings maturity for men and the same age brings detachment and negligence for women. Appearance of aging in women reduces her self-confidence and restricts her social life. While men are free from all these problems, physical unattractiveness de-motivates older women and they feel neglected and depressed. Excessive hormonal therapy or cosmetic implementation along with surgery can evolve many biological complications. Unnecessarily, these women become conscious about their age and social appearance. These are some of the common problem older women face while aging. Answer 2) Menopause is not viewed as a mere transitory phase of the body. It’s not just stopping of the menstrual cycle. This event in life of a woman holds much importance as she views herself as infertile. Many social inhibitions have made the event psychologically important. But menopause must be treated from physiological perspective rather than psychological. There are many negative ideas associated with menopause rather than positive thoughts and this makes the vent more troublesome in a woman’s life. Two poignant myths regarding menopause are as follows: Distress, depression and biological disturbances are consequence of menopause. Mayan women and African - American women shows more vasomotor syndromes, such as hot flashes and night sweats, where as European - American women showed more psychosomatic syndromes during the phase of Menopause such as insomnia, anxiety and depression, reports a survey. All these do not have much relation with stopping of menstrual cycle. Rather, these are the consequence of misery and trouble for the social inhibitions existing in the society. Headache, shoulder stiffness, dizziness are the inevitable part of aging and are not considered biologically or scientifically associated with menopause. These symptoms occur gradually with age. Also, there is nothing called universal menopausal syndrome as different cultures and background as a report evidently proved that fifteen Non-western cultures report no evidence of depression during their Menopause. Menopause is not considered as a normal biological event in our society. There are many social connotations associated with it. Two such social meanings associated with the event of Menopause are the following: Menopause is the indication or symbol of end of life or fertility. This idea prevails in the society because women are closely associated with the icons of birth and life. Women, in most of the cultures, are seen as manifestation of life through child birth and menopause is a clear indication of an end to it. In this process, gradually the self identity of a woman apart from the image of mother overlaps somewhere. Another social meaning of Menopause is that the woman, passing through the phenomena, is suffering the transition of life. She is no more treated attractive or young where as a man of the same age is looked upon with vigor and considered passing the best time of his vitality. This causes a great social and gender difference. For example, in India there is a saying and a myth prevalent and more in the urban areas. It runs like this: women over the age of thirty in India are described with the term “Teesi Kheesi” in Hindi, which means that women reaching the age of thirty (teesi) her face caves in and teeth falls out. Where as men are described as “Satha-Patha”, which means men even at the age of sixty (satha) are able to portray their youth (patha). Acceptance or refusal of Menopause is much dependent on cultural background and social structures, yet a research reports that life experience of a woman largely influences their acceptance or refusal of menopause. Women, who are satisfied with their physical experiences accept menopause as a normal phase in life, where as women dissatisfied with life and their physical appearance finds problem in accepting the phase as abnormal and inevitable part of life cycle, as observed by Bloch. Answer 3) Old age is for falling back and relaxation. It is the time to reap the benefits of the hard work of entire youth and middle age. But the world and mankind is such hostile and self centered that it does not provide that much requisite space to the old age to enjoy the superannuated period of life. This is because old has its own type of anxiety and pang of detachment and isolation which makes it cursed. After loosing the vitality and vigor of youth, society or people at the prime of their youth are not that much considerate even to look up to these people who have faced challenges all through their life and now wants a bit rest and space exclusively of their own. This is a social stigma and has continued in the similar fashion since ages. Many of the archetypal images are associated with old age and especially with old women. These images are global stereotypes. As Perry observed in the year of 1999, old women are often considered as ugly, evil, hungry for power, greedy and crazy. Two typical identification of myth or stereotype idea about the women’s sexuality after midlife are as follows: Ageism and sexism are inversely related. Sexual pleasure of sexual urge for older women is considered as a taboo. Whereas, science has proved it time and again that emotionally, age has no relation with sex. Acceptance of a man in sex life is normal but when the issue of women comes in, it is rather treated as a stigma, which is not true. Women are treated as commodity and in this age of marketing, as unattractive goods find difficult to make place on the shelves, so is a body of aged women treated. With aging, some archetypal images such as care or nurturing get associated with women. Attractiveness reduces for an aging woman and so there is a stereotype tendency to restrict her social appearance which is not at all accepted. Another myth with the sexuality in midlife comes more from the side of the women folk more than their male partner and this has also made the myth a consistent phenomena of midlife. It is believed that male do not find any interest in conjugal life after her women attains the age of fifty, which is again not true. The supporting or challenging the stereotype arguments varies according to culture. It is noticed that fear of loosing vitality, was dominant among the European womenfolk, where as the African - American women accepted this phase of life whole heartedly and considered it as a part of life cycle. In the East, old age is treated with inevitable aspect of life. In Japan, old age is associated with wisdom and in many tribal societies aging brings power and increases social status. Accordingly, women confront these challenges or support them but the issue of loosing attractiveness is common everywhere and more or less the fear of loosing vitality and vigor in middle life is common in women, irrespective of their background - rural or urban. A major issue of concern in sexual life in women after their mid life is all about their participation in sexual life and leading a healthy life. A woman at the age of 74 in the video clip says that she still feels horny and in the video clip it is mentioned in the first place itself that it is better to have a bad sex than not to have it at all. The urge and the regular hygienic sexual life are also important and in mid life too, equal participation is essential. The other concern of sexuality for older women in mid life is about maintaining a balanced psychological balance. It is very important for the women at middle age to come out of their stress. They generally become depressed due to their detached sexual life and a sudden restriction on it. This is a taboo in terms of scientific logic and end of menstrual cycle does not mean always end of sexual life. The maintenance of youth and vitality at middle age is also equally important. In United States as well as in global media, a major hostility is noticed for the aging women. A very recent survey and statistics of Quadagno in 1999 showed that major trend is noticed in the sudden disappearance of women above 40 from television commercials, where as 12% featured people were above fifty and they were men. Older women are depicted to pitch products like food, health and hygiene. This trend is striking and can form a major issue top study future course of actions regarding aging and sexuality of women and societies’ treatment or acceptance towards them. Bibliography Chapter 12. Midlife and Beyond. Fecteau, N. (No Date). Perceptions of Young Women Regarding Menopause. Wisconsin Lutheran College. Retrieved Online On February 24, 2010 from http://www.charis.wlc.edu/publications/symposium_spring02/fecteau.pdf Medical Center. (No Date). Menopause Highlights. University of Maryland. Retrieved Online On February 24, 2010 from http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/menopause_estrogen_loss_their_treatments_000040.htm Weidiger, P. Menstruation & Menopause: The Physiology and Psychology, the Myth and the Reality. Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Read More