Embodied Meaning

A culture's conception of gendered bodies is determined more by social constructions than by the nature of reality, and as such, reflects a specific historical, social, and political context. Constructions of women's bodies have changed throughout history but since the Enlightenment and, with it, the hegemony of science, they have been determined primarily by a biomedical perspective. This perspective results in a master medical narrative which reduced women's bodies, in general, to a biomedical reality; and their experience of menopause, specifically, to a biological event representing deterioration and decline. Analyzing the meaning that a research cohort of women make of their experience of menopause, I examine the ways in which their meaning conforms to and/or resists the medical narrative, as well as the new narratives which are created as alternatives. Implications for social workers in health care are addressed.