So when the lady-tubes dry up and there are no more monthly eggs popping along hopeful for fertilization, why are we biologically still here?
The animal kingdom generally dispenses with females when they can’t reproduce anymore: thank you very much, your purpose is served, now leave it up to the males and the younger creatures. Get in the bin, adios and goodbye.
But not humans. And not some species of whale.
In our play, ‘Busted Flush’, the grandmother, Helena, one of nature’s wise women, observes that humans, killer whales and pilot whales are the only creatures who go through menopause and then keep on going.
Click on the play button to hear Helena briefly musing on women and whales.
(Helena played by Jenny Lloyd Lyons, The Stables Theatre)
So, do we have any purpose when our periods stop? Why, when the rest of nature has decided that females are no longer useful when they no longer make babies, why are we still going?
Consider these three bold women.
Southern Armenia, 1990.
This 106 year old woman has experienced a lifetime, and more, of war, invasion, occupation and bloodshed in her homeland.
In nearby Nagarno-Karabakh, conflict rages.
She sits defending her home in Degh village, holding an AKM rifle.
I wish I knew her name, to give her due honour and credit for the grit and determination etched into her features, her beautiful refusal to give up, her belief in the importance of one's individual place in the world.
. . . . .
Dame Jane Goodall
She gave intelligence, passion and sheer bloody hard work to her years studying, understanding and illuminating the lives of the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.
Born in 1934, her research, writing and lectures inspiring the world to learn and comprehend environmental issues have continued way past her ‘productive’ years.
In her latter years she has set up a number of initiatives such as the youth service programme Roots and Shoots, and in 2002 became a UN Messenger of Peace.
Still campaigning for a more humanitarian planet, there is no sign of biological pointlessness in this extraordinary human being.
. . . . .
Ana Aslan
Born in Romania in 1897, she was founder of the first Institute of Geriatrics.
Her research and focus was the process of aging and, as she tipped over into her ‘unproductive’ years, she achieved the following:
she was appointed head of the physiology department at the Institute of Endocrinology in Bucharest
she founded the ground-breaking, world’s first Institute of Geriatrics in Bucharest
she organized the Romanian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics and founded an accompanying quarterly journal
Also, in this second stage of life, when other species are biologically no longer required, she developed medicines to alleviate the aging process and was internationally renowned for the ‘Aslan Therapy’.
Her clinic attracted the great and the good from the worlds of politics and the arts
Aged 79, she formulated the concept of gerontoprophylaxis (preventing aging).
Aged 85, she was one of the organizers of the World Meeting for the Third Age in Vienna.
She died aged 91, just a few days before the start of the International Congress of Gerontology, which she was to chair.
Elegant, intelligent, and utterly dedicated, she knew without doubt that human biology has evolved so that we continue contributing richly, defiantly, wittily and with bag-loads of wisdom way beyond our child-bearing years.
“To be forever young is not to be 20 years old. It is to be optimistic, to feel good, to have an ideal in life for which to fight and conquer.” (Ana Aslan)
. . . . .
Not all of us will be globally renowned celebrities.
The Frontier women, the tribal grandmothers, the kind neighbour who has funny stories to share and a wry take on life, the friend you meet to share your news, all of them are sassy old bats living for decades past their ovaries.
Our evolution demonstrates that it’s not all about the ability to have babies.
It’s about what we know, what we have experienced and learnt, what we offer to those we love, what we may choose to offer to the world.
Who would you add to the list?
You can comment at the end of this blog or share thoughts or suggestions of amazing ladies by clicking on the Forum
More outspoken gals inspiring us past their 'use by' date:
Dr Wangari Maathai, born 1940 - Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Right up until her death in 2011, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa.
‘Mother’ Mary Harris Jones, born Ireland (date unknown but baptised 1837).
Emigrated to Canada then the U.S.
By the age of 30 her husband and all four of her children had died from yellow fever. She picked herself up and started a dressmaking business, but four years later lost everything in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
She emerged from these tragedies as a political activist, organising strikes and campaigning for the rights of workers. By 1902, when she was 65, she was dubbed "the most dangerous woman in America" by a West Virginian district attorney.
Criticised by suffragettes for not campaigning for women’s rights, she confidently clarified that "I'm not an anti to anything which brings freedom to my class."
A controversial figure, she was a loud, proud thorn in the side of those who put down the working class. Denounced on the floor of the United States Senate as the "grandmother of all agitators", she joyfully replied, "I hope to live long enough to be the great-grandmother of all agitators."
The list could go on and on and on:
Mother Theresa
Dame Mary Beard
Nora Ephron
Emmeline Pankhurst…
...who would you put on the list?
Comment below or click here to leave something on the Forum.
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