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Oct 26 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Why would it require ovaries of steel or any other metaphors of courage, for cis women leaders to talk about a life transition that will affect more than half the population?
Even those who were not heads of state have only just recently started talking about #menopause. 

feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po…
In August 2020 on her eponymous podcast, former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, 58, described in surreal detail what it was like to go through a hot flash as she was about to climb out of Marine One. Text: “I'm dressed, I need to get out, walk into an event,
In September, on the first episode of the docuseries Gutsy that she co-hosts with her daughter Chelsea, former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 74, talked about menopause with comedian Wanda Sykes, who has taken to calling her menopause belly Esther. Text: "After a certain age, we all seem to inherit thes
It’s not as if First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, 52, who is the only woman leader in office to talk about it, invented menopause.

Michelle Obama described her husband, President Barack Obama, seeing it around him. Text: "Barack was surrounded by women in his cabinet, m
So clearly, #menopause is an open secret wherever midlife cis women are. And remember it is shrouded in even more silence for trans, intersex, and nonbinary people.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po…
I am glad that both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton have spoken about their menopause transition. But where is everybody else?
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More from @monaeltahawy

Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 26
“There's an upside to this stage in life where menopause can reduce women’s confidence but I think getting to this stage gives you another kind of confidence…F it a little bit & say what you think & who cares what other people think...There's a liberating element to all of this”
The above quote is from First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon. She is not the first woman to lead a country, but it is telling that she is the only one who has spoken publicly about her menopause transition feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po…
Because other than Sturgeon and Danish TV series Borgen’s Birgitte Nyborg, you would think that being elected into office rendered female political leaders immune from a life transition that affects everyone who has ever had a uterus. #menopause
Read 12 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 26
“This is one of the reasons why I’m talking about it…There are very few women who’ve been in top positions in politics, but of those who have been, if you think about Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Thatcher they must all have gone through this,” Nicola Sturgeon on #menopause
“And yet I can’t find anybody that has spoken about it and that would help me, I think, if I could go and hear or read somebody who had the same kind of anxieties that I have about the very public nature of the job.” feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po… #menopause
October is Menopause Awareness Month, also known as World Menopause Month.

We need that awareness and more of it every day.

I've written 14 essays on #perimenopause and aging for FEMINIST GIANT, which are all free to read and share. feministgiant.com
Read 8 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 25
My new essay looks at why First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon is the only woman political leader who has spoken about her #menopause transition.

While Sturgeon talks about taking HRT, brain fog, rage, and insomnia, why are so many others silent? feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po…
Listen and watch FM Nicola Sturgeon in her own words talk about her menopause transition through the links in my essay. 👆🏽

Support my work by sharing and subscribing. It's free--no paywall or ads.

If you can pay, it helps to keep it free

feministgiant.com
Because other than Sturgeon and Danish TV series Borgen’s Birgitte Nyborg, you would think that being elected into office rendered female political leaders immune from a life transition that affects everyone who has ever had a uterus.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-po… #MenopauseAwareness
Read 9 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 24
The revolution in Iran is entering its sixth week.

Glory and power to the women in Iran who have seized the narrative and become object and subject. feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-… #Mahsa_Amini #IranProtests #IranRevoIution
Glory and power to girls in Iran–their rage, and their daring and their audacity, their immodesty and rebelliousness, their disobedience, and most of all: their knowledge that they deserve to be free. feministgiant.com/p/essay-when-g… #Mahsa_Amini #IranProtests #IranRevoIution
As you watch the glory & power of the feminist revolution in Iran, ask yourself (I’m looking at you people in the U.S. cheering on the feminist revolution vs theocrats over there) what the fuck you are doing to fight theocrats & fascists over here feministgiant.com/p/essay-dear-w…
Read 8 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 22
From a very young age girls around the world are told that they are vulnerable and weak. By the age of 10, research shows they believe it. Conversely, boys are fed the stereotype that they are strong and independent. time.com/4948607/gender… (tweet below h/t @Asmauu_Ahmed )
I came across that research while writing the chapter on Anger and the importance of nurturing it in girls, in my second book The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls feministgiant.com/p/how-much-is-…
The research was part of six-year study of gender expectations around the world--Global Early Adolescent Study--which gathered data on 10- to 14-year-olds from 15 different countries of varying degrees of wealth and development. time.com/4948607/gender…
Read 8 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 22
A week after #Jan6, I wrote this:

"If Donald Trump could give birth, it would have been to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, both of whom are clearly created in his image"

feministgiant.com/p/a-white-supr…
And 3 weeks after #Jan6, I wrote this:

If MTG was a Muslim, she would be in Guantanamo Bay, in shackles. But because she is white, evangelical, and a woman--a rich one at that--she is instead a member of Congress in the most powerful country in the world. feministgiant.com/p/if-marjorie-…
Elle magazine, Oct 2020: “MTG, Republican nominee for Georgia’s 14th congressional district, is like a lot of white women you might encounter in the suburbs. She has long blonde hair & does CrossFit. She wears cute dangly earrings, tasteful blouses & sheath dresses..." Headline: The Real Housewives of QAnonTexy: Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican nominee for Geo
Read 18 tweets

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