Perspectives on Being a Woman in a Patriarchy

The order in which I read the chapter “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior” from Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Myths of Gender, Alisa Valdés’ “Ruminations of a Feminist Fitness Instructor” in Listen Up: Voices From the Next Feminist Generation, and Anne Sexton’s poem “In Celebration of My Uterus” aided in my understanding of the problem that all three of the women discuss explicitly and implicitly in their works.
Anne Fausto-Sterling’s chapter “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior” makes an argument for the perpetual oppression and second-class citizenship of women based the erroneous scientific procedures and patriarchal politics involved with identifying the realities of women’s hormonal physiologies. Although I found Fausto-Sterling’s writing to be dense and difficult to navigate, I walked away with the sense that the effects of women’s hormones on their daily lives is used to continually “raise questions about the competency of any and all females” to be successful (Fausto-Sterling, 91). Because of this, Fausto-Sterling says that more and more accurate information is needed before claims of general incapacitation are used to deny women equal rights.
Most important in this process is a reconceived definition of normalcy and a dismissal of the notion that males are “the unstated standard of emotional stability” (Fausto-Sterling, 96). Also important to a revised conception of the role of hormones in females is the rejection of “the assumption that there is but one PMS” or menopause (Fausto-Sterling, 98). With these pieces of information in mind, hopefully society can work to “understand that men and women have different reproductive cycles, both of which are normal. Not binary opposites, male and female physiologies have differences and similarities” (Fausto-Sterling, 121). While this is not such an abstract concept, it is completely opposite than the generally held dualistic belief of males and females. The lack of understanding of this concept impedes our society in progressing in the realm of civil rights for all.
After reading Fausto-Sterling’s chapter I felt discouraged that a fundamental aspect of who I am, a woman who has always had grueling experiences with PMS, will never be reconciled in society and will always be used to subjugate me.
Then, I read “Ruminations of a Feminist Fitness Instructor” by Alisa Valdés. I thoroughly enjoyed Valdés’ narrative and depiction of her situation as “a twenty-something, lower-middle-class musician/writer/social critic cum feminist aerobics instructor with big college loan payments” (Valdés, 25). Although the crux of her situation boiled down to the fact that she will always be a woman and, thus, marginalized by her society, she eventually made choices that resisted this oppression as she rejected the path of least resistance.
I myself am a fitness instructor and I can relate to the apparent benefits of such a job. I had never considered my job from a critical feminist perspective before reading Valdés’ narrative. It is depressing and frustrating that “Studies show that seventy-five percent of adult women in this country think we are too fat, though only twenty-five percent of us actually weigh more than the standards set forth by the Metropolitan Life’s weight tables” and when I think of contributing to women’s indulgence in this misconception, I feel regretful (Valdés, 26).
So, I can understand Valdés’ sentiments of betraying her gender because she was encouraging “women’s obsession with their appearance” by finding herself with a career in fitness instruction. While raunch culture and society momentarily tricked her into believing that she was claiming ownership and power by professionally participating in fitness, Valdés reflects upon this with humor. She says, “I thought, What could honestly be more frightening to men than a room full of capable, professional women moving together, in sync, unaware of anything but themselves and each other? Only Hilary Rodham Clinton and a truly lesbian orgy, perhaps” (Valdés, 29).
Her conclusion is positive, yet realistic. She says “it was a great relief to finally recognize the female obsession with thinness and fitness as an extension of the hurt we suffer at the hands of a patriarchal society, a society that even convinces us to hurt ourselves, so that we are kept from the real business of our lives” (Valdés, 31). Even though she eventually quit the profession and followed her dreams, to be a feminist writer, Valdés admits that it was not without a price. She is highly in debt and reminded every day of her second-class citizenship.
While may feel depressed about the existence of women in the patriarchy after reading Fausto-Sterling and Valdés, Anne Sexton’s “In Celebration of My Uterus” reassures women of the beauty and solidarity in being a woman. She relishes in the beauty of womanhood and of motherhood, “in celebration of the woman I am / and of the soul of the woman I am” (Sexton, 331). Her poem is a joyous one about life and birth and humans and women. It is a poem about perspective and difference. It is a lovely and empowering way to conclude my evening.