Archives for 2010

The Victorian period is full of canonical literature from women writers. Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen paved the way for later writers like Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. And much has been written about the prevalent theme of madness that serves as a common thread to underpin all of these works. The suspicion of the woman as “unstable” and prone to madness is embedded in the bedrock of western culture, through such classics as Medea and continued through early and medieval Christian assumptions that women were more prone to heresy and demonic possession. The later development of the asylum allowed for a more general accusation of mental illness to permeate the fears of women. Michelle Iwen writes:

While women’s proportion of admission did rise modestly above that of men, I believe that it was the nature of confinement that so effected women’s writing enough to perpetuate the concept of the unruly woman unjustly confined which, in turn, helped advance this idea in popular culture and eventually into medical discourse, in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. It was this cycle which led to the trope becoming reality in the 19^th century as women internalized this threat because of its unique dangers to what was believed to be their inherent female qualities.

The idea that certain female characteristics need to be bridled has not escaped our contemporary writers, nor has it’s hum faded from the background of women’s lives. I experienced these inherited fears myself when I, like most new mothers, was given my first questionnaire on depression from my family physician. Sleep deprived, with images of Vivienne Eliot in my mind, I filled in the blanks.

As you have recently had a baby, we would like to know how you are feeling. Please UNDERLINE the answer which comes closest to how you have felt IN THE PAST 7 DAYS, not just how you feel today.
I have been able to laugh and see the funny side of things.As much as I always could
Not quite so much now
Definitely not so much now
Not at all  

I have looked forward with enjoyment to things.As much as I ever did
Rather less than I used to
Definitely less than I used to
Hardly at all […]  

This article brought back the memories of these questionnaires.

An influential medical group says pediatricians should routinely screen new mothers for depression. Depression isn’t just bad for moms: It can also harm their babies.

That’s according to a new American Academy of Pediatrics report published Monday in the journal, Pediatrics. It cites research showing developmental and social delays in babies with depressed mothers.

The academy says that every year more than 400,000 babies are born to depressed women. Estimates say that between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of women develop postpartum depression.

The pediatrics academy says severely depressed women should be referred to experts for treatment.

There’s no simple way to screen women, women having feared being institutionalized for centuries. While we need screening, I would advise extreme caution to physicians who choose to use generalized tools like these questionnaires. Relying on the answers from these tools will not only give inaccurate results, but may put women and their children in danger. Instead, emphasize the commonality of postpartum depression, look for the more obvious signs, and provide accessible counselling to not only the obviously depressed but perhaps to all new mothers. And of course, avoid words like “treatment”.

Poor Big Pharma, not making quite the profits they hoped to on the HPV vaccine? So they’ve done what any business would do. Put it on sale! Now you can force school age kids through school programs. But what about women in college?

Young women are clearly not aware of how important it is to be vaccinated against this cancer,” said Joan Murphy, head of the division of gynecologic oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. She said vaccination, along with regular Pap testing, provide the best protection against cervical cancer.

I don’t really think the price point is the problem.

Do we really want to encourage boyfriends to administer through-the-mail pharmaceuticals?

The court heard uncontested evidence that Brennan had arranged for the medical abortion pill, a prostaglandin called misoprostol and anti-progesterone called mifepristone, to be posted from Russia by his sister, and that these pills were taken by Leach after she thought she might be pregnant.

The author (perhaps just a teensy bit melodramatically) argues for the defence…

The law the couple were alleged to have broken was an old one, based on the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act of the English Parliament. Crafted in another century in another country and for another time […]

The law, the police, the judge, the lawyers, the doctors were all men, acting in a drama that had its origins when women were chattels and there was no notion that ”women’s rights are human rights”. Our sensibilities are different now.

I think I’m a type 3, too.

For the last seven years, Tuttle has been teaching women how to “capture” their beauty with her course, “Dressing Your Truth.” “Most women do not know how truly beautiful they are,” she writes in her book of the same name. The problem for most women, she believes, is that they don’t know what “type” they are and are therefore “misunderstood.”

Women who take her course start by examining their personalities, then their facial features. Tuttle believes there are four types of women. Sarah Palin, for instance, she sees as a Type 1. Type 1 women typically “talk readily and easily to people” and “like to keep things light and fun.” Yet, “in an effort to be taken more seriously, and not to look so cute and youthful,” Type 1s tend to dress in black, their biggest fashion mistake, writes Tuttle.

[…]

A Type 2 woman is “diplomatic, empathetic, meticulous, preferring to observe rather than participate in larger social settings.” Julia Roberts is a classic Type 2. The most common fashion mistake of a Type 2 is the tendency to wear bright clothes to counter a subdued nature, says Tuttle, “making her complexion look pasty,” so she seems “weak and shy.”

A Type 3 woman is “swift, fiery, intense, practical and abrupt.” This kind of woman “may have been told as a child, ‘Relax! You’re too demanding.’ ” Jean Price believes Laureen Harper is a Type 3. “She’s got that rich dynamic energy, and whoever is advising her, they’ve got her in tailored, structured Type 4 clothing, including the black, and that really dramatically ages her. She should be wearing browns and rich autumn colours. And her hairstyle! They’ve even got it too soft! She needs it to be cut edgy and uneven with more height to it.”

Type 4 women are “private, disciplined, influential, and uncompromising. You move forward with crystal clear focused determination while maintaining quiet confidence.” Elizabeth Taylor is a classic Type 4—the only type of woman who can wear black. A Type 4’s biggest fashion mistake is wearing soft, flowing clothes. It makes them look frumpy.

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Update: I consulted with the authorities (aka hubby) and apparently I am a 3/4 hybrid. Or, as he puts it, “You have the best qualities of each”. So. In order to feel pretty with what you’ve got, you have to marry the right guy. Simple!

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Andrea adds: Put me down as types 1, 2, 3 and 4. I talk easily to people, I’m empathetic, I’m intense, I’m disciplined and just a teensy bit uncompromising (only on the things that count). On the positive side, this makes it very easy for me to dress in anything at all. On the negative side, I may have a personality disorder. Stay tuned.

I wish I could have gone to this conference at Princeton. Sounds interesting. And I enjoy going into environments where there are the most extreme kind of pro-abortion people. The quotes you get are worth the entry fee in gold. Take this, as an example:

Kissling shocked the audience in the last session by saying, “I don’t care how you accomplish it [the right to abortion], whether through a constitution, the UN, state laws or federals laws, or by the Taliban.”   The University of Pennsylvania, where Kissling is a visiting bioethics scholar, has drawn criticism for appointing the long-time abortion activist who lacks significant academic credentials.

Now that’s dedication.

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Jennifer adds: Here’s a good article about Singer and the fact that he paid for care for his aging mother with Alzheimer’s, going against his utilitarian ethics. “Singer forgot to look on page 2 of his book Practical Ethics, where he asserts, “…ethics is not an ideal system that is noble in theory but no good in practice. The reverse is closer to the truth: an ethical judgment that is no good in practice must suffer from a theoretical defect…” It seems that not only his critics think his action towards his mother negates his ethical theory, he does too! Will he take his own advice and admit that his ethical theory must suffer from theoretical defects, since it is no good in his very own practice?” (Source)

Man rescues baby left to die in dumpster. Later told it was his son. Someone ought to make a movie out of that one.

A horrible story from China:

BEIJING, China – A pregnant woman in south China was detained, beaten and forced to have an abortion just a month before her due date because the baby would have violated the country’s one-child limit, her husband said Thursday.

Construction worker Luo Yanquan said his wife was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people on Oct. 10 and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby. Family planning officials told the couple they weren’t allowed to have the child because they already have a 9-year-old daughter, Luo said.

We are so used to hearing about the one-child policy that I don’t think it quite registers how the mere presence of this law is repressive. Even if no one were ever taken away kicking and screaming, it would still be horrifying, because it is contrary to fundamental human desires to have a family.

And to think, Marie Stopes International is expanding their presence there.

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Update: You can see a news report about this case, here.

Since two people have jokingly asked, no, “Andrea” in this column is not me:

Last Saturday I chatted with a young woman I met after a panel discussion I’d participated in. “Andrea” has high ambitions typical of most young women today, but she also looks forward to marriage and a lot of children. She asked what advice I might have for her.

I was stymied, I must admit. She is already 25 years old and in no hurry to settle down, statistically about par for the course. Her career ambitions demand heavy educational investment, but to end up with her big family she should have started yesterday. A woman’s fertility peaks between the ages of 15 and 25. After 30, fertility declines somewhat, and after 35, a lot.

Andrea is a complete anomaly these days. There are certainly millions of women in the world who willingly accept and make room in their hearts for as many children as nature provides. And there are millions of women of ambition pursuing higher education and demanding careers. But there are hardly any women in both camps.

Ah, 25. At the time I had returned from an internship in Europe, was unemployed, looking for work and was in the midst of a relationship breakup that lasted almost as long as the relationship itself. Needless to say, I don’t long to be 25 again.

I never said things like what this “Andrea” has said anyway, though I might agree in principle. I did my Masters degree by accident, yes, by accident, and have generally speaking been nonchalant about “career” (in a meticulous, please, dear God don’t ever let me be fired kind of way). That’s one of life’s great ironies–you think you can control it but you can’t.

I’m not surprised Barbara Kay couldn’t give any advice. Because there’s no micromanaging life, fertility, babies or careers, which is the general opinion of this blog and the main reason why young, early 20s students who get pregnant unexpectedly should be strongly encouraged, indeed, admonished to keep their babies. Because life isn’t actually going to go according to their powerpoint plan anyway, so why not just do the right thing now?

Never miss a chance to express your opinion, so they say. Bottom line, that “Andrea” wasn’t me.

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Véronique adds: As an higher-educated woman with a career and a super-sized family, I feel compelled to have  a whack at this one!

First, she should indeed have started yesterday. At 25, I had three children and a law degree. But more fundamentally, she needs to know that she can have it “all”… but not at the same time. When I hear women ask how they can have an education, a career, a functional marriage and a family, I get the impression that what they really want to know is how they can have all these things concurrently. But the fact is that all these things must be pursued relentlessly to achieve success. As a result, “Andrea” must have vision, patience,  and focused attention. All her decisions — starting at 25 — will be determined by whether or not they “fit” in the bigger plan. And that includes decisions about dating and education.

Secondly, at the risk of sounding like a crusty old goat, she must find Mr. Right. Because to be a working/studying mother of a large family, she will need a partner who is 100% committed to the end game and to the family. But marriage is never a one-way street and she shouldn’t expect her partner to commit to her objectives if she doesn’t commit to his. Teamwork and focus: both spouses have to be pulling in the same direction.

Once you accept that you can’t have it all at the same time, go ahead and have your children young. You will be healthier. They will be healthier. They will have the chance to enjoy their grandparents. And they won’t have to care for aging parents at an age where they should be starting a family and a career. In my case, I cannot say that I have it all yet. I have a solid 15-year marriage. I have half-a-dozen healthy and happy children. I have a house. I am healthy and fit. I have a university education. And finally, I am starting a career. But I make 1/5 of my husband’s salary with more education. And my peers on Parliament Hill are 10 to 15 years younger than me. All in all, I expect that by my 50th birthday — by then my children will be 14, 17, 21, 23, 26 and 27 — I will finally “have it all”.

You’d never have thunk.

Not that I needed another one… but this is kind of interesting:

A study claims sex hormones in the contraceptive Pill bring out the green-eyed monster, making a woman more possessive and more likely to fret about her husband or boyfriend’s fidelity.

Those taking brands with the highest levels of oestrogen may even find their hormone-driven suspicions place their relationship in jeopardy, researchers warned.

Also: I will always choose Sean Connery over the latest cutesy-poo girlie star.