Is Jeannie Ritter crazy or is it just menopause?
Not to outdone by Oprah et al and before any other political wife gets in on the act, Jeannie Ritter, the wife of the Colorado Governor, is getting on the menopause band wagon and, according to CBS4 Denver, co-hosting a forum on menopause. What are her qualifications in this area you ask? Well she is female and 52 and, while she has not experienced any severe symptoms of menopause, she does chat to her girlfriends about it. And of course her political wheel barrow is mental health awareness, after all ...
Say that again?
Mental Health Awareness.
Apparently Jeannie considers menopause ”a physical and mental issue that fits well with her crusade for mental health awareness.”
Setting menopause as a mental health “issue” is not new. You only have to read the cover of Louise Foxcraft’s Hot Flushes, Cold Science to know that. Even back in the 50’s the medical industry still treated menopausal women like they were crazy and sedated and even institutionalized them. Slowly but slowly, as science convinced medicine what every women already knew – that menopause is a natural biological process not an illness - we’ve moved away from this draconian view. We really have to thank you Jeannie, for putting it back on that particular table.
Apparently in making menopause a physical and mental “issue”, Jeannie is “doing it for other women”. Of course, she is doing it for other women. No way does she want that label to applied to her. She might be menopausal but she’s not crazy!
Oh wow, that could be construed as sooo “negative”
Is feeling “negative” a sign of mental illness?
Although witty, your article takes Jeannie’s quote out of context. As someone who has heard Jeannie talk in length about the subject of Menopause, it is evident that your article is misconstruing her view and her message.
First of all, mental health doesn’t have an exclusive focus on disease and illness, it can also focus on well-being. Second, if your quote is read in context you can see that Jeannie didn’t say that. You are quoting the article, not her. Her quotes are, “We have a chance to impact the women that come behind us in a way to say ‘embrace this, this is something to look forward to don’t be ashamed of it.” and “We’re moving into a really rich time in our lives and I don’t want to be caught off guard. I want to be ready and I want to be ready to hit those decades ahead of me, you know, running.” Quite a different message. You are a good, provocative writer. Try to post something that is not so sensationalized.
That is correct. The quoted text is from the referenced article. For the record, the complete sentence from the article is:
“She calls it (menopause) a physical and mental issue that fits well with her crusade for mental health awareness”.