Open this publication in new window or tab >>2022 (Swedish)In: Kvinder, Køn og Forskning, ISSN 0907-6182, E-ISSN 2245-6937, Vol. 34, no 2, p. 11-26Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The balance recipe: the art of managing menopause in the hormone stories of self-help literature
In recent years, menopause as a phase of transformation has received great media attention in a Swedish context. It is then not only specifically concerning the time when menstruation ceases – but about a longer period of time when female bodies undergo an adjustment with a focus on hormonal changes. In books such as Hormonstark (Hormone strong) (2020), Perimenopower (2018) and Livet med klimakteriet (Life with Menopause) (2020), the stressed reader in the middle of the career receives knowledge, tips, ideas and inspiring stories about how to deal with the fluctuating hormones that are said to affect the body during menopause. In this article, we start from these books with a poststructuralist feminist perspective on narratives and body control on the hormone stories of self-help literature. The aim is to explore how the literature represents women's menopause and hormonal bodies in a broader sense, and how women are encouraged to act in relation to this. The results show that hormone narratives may have feminist potential, but that they primarily make menopause an individual rather than structural matter. Further, they also reveal a close resemblance between the hormonal narratives and a biocapitalist contemporary, with an aging female body as a lucrative threat.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Copenhagen: Københavns Universitet, 2022
Keywords
hormone narratives, self-help, menopause, body control, biocapitalism , hormonberättelser, självhjälp, klimakteriet, kroppskontroll, biokapitalism
National Category
Gender Studies Ethnology General Literature Studies
Research subject
gender studies; Ethnology; Literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-201833 (URN)10.7146/kkf.v34i1.129048 (DOI)2-s2.0-85166197401 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2020-01220
2023-02-152023-02-152023-08-15Bibliographically approved