Vaginas, Valium & Victorian Values: Why Midlife Women Are (Still) Misunderstood

Ashley
May 23
2 min read

Let’s talk about vaginas. (Hi, Google algorithm.)

Specifically, let’s talk about the way medicine, media, and most of Western society have treated women’s bodies—especially during menopause—as mysterious objects requiring heavy sedation and complete control.

Germaine Greer, in her glorious grenade of a book The Change, doesn’t tiptoe around this. She kicks the medical establishment’s door down and says: “Enough already.”

She writes about how menopause was once considered “a form of mental illness.” (Yes, really.) And how doctors, mostly men, decided the answer was hormone therapy, mood stabilizers, or just flat-out telling women they were irrational and difficult. Sound familiar?

Valium was basically mom wine before mom wine.

Greer’s not subtle. She’s furious. And Honestly? Same

Because even now, women are often prescribed medication before they’re asked a single meaningful question about how they’re actually feeling.

You’re emotional? Must be your hormones.

You’re angry? Better calm you down.

You’re exhausted, disillusioned, and no longer interested in baking three kinds of muffins for the PTA?

Must be menopause. Let's medicate

But what if… you’re not broken?

What if your body is doing exactly what it’s supposed to?

Greer argues that menopause is a natural transition—not a pathology. Not a crisis. Just a shift that, yes, brings change—but also brings clarity, boundaries, and (dare we say it) relief.

She calls out the “Victorian values” still lurking in modern health care, reminding us that society is much more comfortable with quiet, smiling women than with bold, menopausal ones.