What If?

Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

There is much we can learn-- or maybe unlearn about menopause and aging if we apply a Speculative Fiction lens. Our current understanding of Speculative Fiction is tethered to science fiction and fantasy, and the way this genre broadens the story or narratives begging shared to include the potent age-old question of “what if.” This question that has been posed by poets, folklorists, writers, and philosophers invites us to reimagine our present reality, and it offers us multiple diverse opportunities to understand “who” is speaking and what is happening from their vantage point.

Black Speculative Fiction is often grounded in Black feminism, radical Black liberation praxis, and gender liberation ethics. Because notions of a multiverse live inside of string theory science, science fiction, and fantasy, there may be some juicy “what if” unlearning around menopause for Black women, women-identified, and gender-expansive people that are actually based on truth…like:

*Menopause doesn't always happen in your 40s and 50s

*Menopause happens to people who don’t identify as women

*Menopause happens to people who aren’t heterosexual

*Individual menopause experiences are impacted by white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny

In episode 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, we explore some of these "what ifs" and truisms with Austen Smith. We explore:

*Disenfranchised Grief

*Austen’s journey to gender-affirming surgery, barriers in existence via the medical industrial complex, sociocultural norms, etc.

*The importance of intergenerational spiritual communal work and liberation as a "time-bending" somatic experience

Come with us on this journey and conversation through the infinite possibilities of what menopause is and how it is a portal to the next iteration of you.

Episode Notes:

Austen Smith IG: @transtheory

Austen (they/them) is a masculine-of-center, non-binary wordsmith, editor, community facilitator, and radical imagination doula.

Their work explores healing spiritual impacts of oppression, postactivism, gender proliferation and play, black queerness, and co-imagining liberation as a somatic experience in addition to an environmental reality.

References:

Trans and Menopausal article by Austen Smith: https://www.taunt.me/trans-menopausal

Grandmother Hypothesis: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/07/617097908/why-grandmothers-may-hold-the-key-to-human-evolution

Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html

Whale Whispering, Michaela Harrison, https://www.michaelaharrison.org/whale-whispering

Post Activism, Bayo Akomolafe, https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/the-times-are-urgent-lets-slow-down

"Say More" about Menopause!

The Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause, in partnership with Kindra, co-designed “Say More,” a collection of conversation and journaling prompt cards filled with thought-provoking questions, personal storytelling prompts, and creative ‘wild cards’ that empower people to support themselves and loved ones through menopause and aging. BGG2SM listeners can use the code "OMI20" to get 20% off their "Say More" purchase at https://ourkindra.com/

Learn more! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

Produced by Mariah M.

Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott

Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott

Season 4 of the podcast is sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio! www.wunc.org