Menopause

Like so many other issues surrounding women’s reproductive health, menopause has been treated as a cultural taboo. On the rare occasions that menopausal and perimenopausal women are depicted in popular culture, they are stereotypically cast as the butt of demeaning jokes that encourage us to laugh at their deteriorating bodies and emotional volatility. The result is that women facing menopause often feel isolated and ashamed. In a spirit of community and support, this collection of comics presents a different view of menopause that enables those experiencing it to be seen and to feel empowered.

Balancing levity with sincerity, these comics unapologetically depict menopause and all its attendant symptoms, from hot flashes and vaginal dryness to forgetfulness, social stigma, anxiety, and shame. Created from a variety of perspectives, they represent a range of life experiences, ages, gender identities, ethnicities, and health conditions. The common thread uniting these stories is the affirmation that, while we can and should laugh at ourselves, no one should be ashamed of menopause. The comics in this book encourage us to share our experiences and to support one another, and ourselves, through self-care and community.

Featuring works by a host of pioneering and up-and-coming comics artists, Menopause is a perfect foil to the simplistic, cheap-joke approach society at large has taken to this much-derided women’s health issue. Readers will revel in the sly humor and universal truths found here.

The contributors include Lynda Barry, Maureen Burdock, Jennifer Camper, KC Councilor, MK Czerwiec, Leslie Ewing, Joyce Farmer, Ellen Forney, Ann M. Fox, Keet Geniza, Roberta Gregory, Teva Harrison, Rachael House, Leah Jones, Monica Lalanda, Cathy Leamy, Ajuan Mance, Jessica Moran, Mimi Pond, Sharon Rosenzweig, Joyce Schachter, Susan Merrill Squier, Emily Steinberg, Nicola Streeten, A. K. Summers, Kimiko Tobimatsu, Carol Tyler, Shelley L. Wall, and Dana Walrath.

“Often informative, sometimes moving, and ambitious in its frank talk about what is oddly taboo: an inevitable experience for half of humanity.”—Publishers Weekly

“Playful and enjoyable indeed, as well as moving, affirming, and solidarity-sparking.”—starred review, Booklist

“The cartoons in Menopause: A Comic Treatment depict what is generally considered an unbecoming, if not humiliating, life event. This collection, edited by M.K. Czerwiec, joins the Graphic Medicine Series (Escaping Wars and Waves) in treating a complex topic with candor and creativity. Twenty-five comics represent diverse women and their experiences, in drawing styles as distinctive as the artists.”—starred review, Shelf Awareness

“Shattering the silence and secrecy surrounding the ‘big change,’ Menopause: A Comic Treatment offers an unflinching look at an often stigmatized or taboo topic.”—Mike Rhode, International Journal of Comic Art

“There is so much politics, a lot of it quite toxic, attached to everything about us, including our bodies. What’s refreshing about this book, in that regard, is that it’s engaged in some primal truth.”—Henry Chamberlain, Comics Grinder

MK Czerwiec, RN, MA, is the artist in residence at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the cocurator of GraphicMedicine.org. She has served as a Senior Fellow of the George Washington School of Nursing Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement and as an Applied Cartooning Fellow of the Center for Cartoon Studies. She is the creator of the graphic memoir Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 and coauthor of Graphic Medicine Manifesto, both published by Penn State University Press.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

MK Czerwiec

Menopause

Maureen Burdock

Menopositive!

Lynda Barry

#crockpotrunner

Ann M. Fox

When My Biological Clock Stopped Ticking

Monica Lalanda

Burning Up

Comic Nurse (MK Czerwiec)

Desertification

A. K. Summers

Zen and the Art of Menopausal Maintenance

Leslie Ewing

Climacteric Calamity

Rachael House

My Menopause Story

Sharon Rosenzweig

“Are You Sexually Active?”: Vaginal Truth Telling

Joyce Schachter and Jessica Moran

Invisible Lady

Carol Tyler

The End, for Now

Roberta Gregory

A Slow Intermittent Leak

Jennifer Camper

2:14 am–4:43 am: Let Me Introduce Myself

Nicola Streeten

Any Day Now

Ajuan Mance

Cycles

KC Councilor

An End Is Not the End

Leah Jones and Cathy Leamy

Ready, Set, “Pause”

Ellen Forney

The Big Change

Teva Harrison

Paused

Emily Steinberg

Kimiko Does Menopause

Kimiko Tobimatsu and Keet Geniza

Surgical Menopause—in Ten Postures

Susan Merrill Squier and Shelley L. Wall

When the Menopause Carnival Comes to Town

Mimi Pond

(A) Men-O-Pause

Dana Walrath

Antique Restoration

Joyce Farmer

Resources

List of Contributors

Gender Studies

General Interest

Graphic Studies

           LGBTQ studies