{"id":3256,"date":"2020-02-04T13:35:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T18:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=3256"},"modified":"2025-07-26T14:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:22:22","slug":"the-art-of-menopause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/the-art-of-menopause\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Menopause"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darcey Steinke \u201985<\/span><\/strong> was angry. As she began to experience menopause she looked for books, resources, and other materials to help guide her through the normal life stage, but all of the descriptions of menopause she found in medical texts and memoirs fell flat.<\/p>\n

So she did what comes naturally to a writer and started a diary to document her menopausal hot flashes. The successful author filled three notebooks recording the uniqueness of each hot flash, vividly describing the bodily sensations associated with each one.<\/p>\n

Flash Count Diary<\/em> is what Steinke would describe as a long-form essay\u2014melding together memoir, scientific research, and interviews of nearly 100 women to document menopause transparently on a personal and societal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cMenopause needs to be normalized,\u201d says Steinke. \u201cThere is a shame around it and an absence of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond pulling from her own hot flash diary, the book examines the patriarchal influence over how society frames menopause and the patriarchal valuation of women as sexual beings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of fear and shame about going into a phase where you would feel less valuable to men,\u201d she says. \u201cYou are sort of not allowed to age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPart of the scientific research that went into the book was Steinke\u2019s self-declared \u201cobsession\u201d with killer whales, narwhals, and short-finned pilot and beluga whales. These whales are the only other species that experience menopause, and female killer whales emerge from the experience as pod leaders. In stark contrast to how human society looks at menopause, Steinke examines how these whales are valued beyond their childbearing years and become respected elders in their communities.<\/p>\n

This juxtaposition between female human and whale experiences of post-reproductive years has resonated with readers, along with Steinke\u2019s honest narrative of the physical and emotional toll the female body goes through during menopause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I have enjoyed most [about this book] is the women who write to me about how the book made them feel seen\u2014that impact has never happened to me before,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Steinke\u2019s remarkable literary career started at Goucher, where she studied creative writing with Madison Smartt Bell and Elizabeth Spires. \u201cThey were my mentors,\u201d she reflects. Grateful for the experience she had at Goucher, she returned to the college to serve as the first Kratz Center for Creative Writing Writer in Residence. In addition to her six books, a collection of her early papers, including correspondence with her first editor, Jackie Onassis, is also included in the college\u2019s Special Collections & Archives.<\/p>\n

For this book, Steinke channels her frustration into her prose to help reframe menopause, female anger, and mortality. She believes that in today\u2019s society misogyny is taken more seriously and that there is a steady change to have more post-reproductive women in important and powerful roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that the book will help open up a conversation for women to feel more free to discuss what is actually going on,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This spring, <\/em>Flash Count Diary will be released in paperback.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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