COLD Trailer Exclusive: Canadian Horror Short From Liz Whitmere to World Premiere at Blood in the Snow

Women’s health has historically been disregarded by Western medicine - from the barbaric practice of performing hysterectomies to cure emotional dysregulation, to medicating women into social compliance, to the modern average wait time of 10 years for an endometriosis diagnosis. The recently increased awareness of neurodivergence 1 in women and girls has led to a growing population of newly-diagnosed women who have spent their lives white-knuckling just to survive. We now have words to describe a wider range of experience, but the majority of therapies available are still focused on “appearing normal.” 

 

I have not pursued formal diagnosis for myself, though I suspect I’m some version of “neurospicy”. I have moved through my life relying heavily on social mimicry to fit in, and often feel like I’ve pieced myself together from discarded components. Add to that the pressures I feel as a woman to appear youthful and slim, especially as I pass 40, and it creates a perfect storm. We’re moving through a period of disingenuous normalcy, with the pandemic declared “over” despite overflowing emergency rooms and millions disabled by the virus that changed the world. The life-altering impact of perimenopause is understudied to a comical degree. Neurotypical or not, the cognitive dissonance is enough to pull anyone apart. Women are not actually walking around dead and decaying, but it feels that way. It’s normal. Look pretty. Get a manicure. If you feel terrible, it’s not menopause… it’s probably because you’re not doing enough yoga.