Hot and Bothered

Houck...has researched menopausal sentiments expressed by doctors, the popular press and women themselves, from the late-19th century to the present...Much of the information she's unearthed is both horrifying and fascinating. -- Michele Kort Ms. 20060401 [Hot and Bothered] examines how, within each epoch, new meanings of menopause emerged when biotechnological developments intersected with changes in the social and cultural landscapes of women's lives. Houck mines the medical, academic, popular, and self-help literature of each era to support an argument that aging women and menopause have figured prominently in society's angst about the nature of womanhood, the roles of women, and the practice of medicine. This examination of how feminism, women's agency, social constructionism, and medicalization intersect in menopause is a helpful addition to the women's health scholarship. -- P. Lefler Choice 20060601 All in all, Hot and Bothered is more than an historical narration of culturally driven gender representation. If it receives the readership it deserves it will help women become--more genuinely--themselves. -- Jill MacKay Scot PsycCRITIQUES Houck takes white, middle-class women's experiences and the complexity of medicine seriously. Activists will find her historical analysis provocative and scholars will be particularly interested in the sources she has identified and examined. Houck's view of menopause certainly complicates both medical and feminist history, proof that this story from the past can still generate heat. -- Susan E. Bell Women's Review of Books 20061101