Award-winning author Christina Myers navigates the uncharted territory of midlife in a time of rapid social, cultural, and environmental change.
Modern midlife is finding oneself halfway home but without any reliable maps for the route ahead. With wit and warmth, these personal essays move from a first bra to first hot flashes to consider the lessons we learn through media and culture, and from each other, about bodies, sexuality, fatphobia, gender roles, and what we should want in life. Christina Myers explores the ways that beauty standards and cultural expectations around femininity have shaped our identities and how we might shed those going forward; the power of friendships and the value of having other women to learn from; the anxiety of moving through motherhood into menopause in a time of global environmental crisis and political upheaval; and the uncertainty of how this stage of life should unfold, as old systems shift and crumble. Though our maps for midlife are never identical, we discover familiar paths and common landmarks in each other's stories; these essays remind us there are others on this trail with us, just behind or just ahead, out of sight. We are not alone.
• There is a new openness about women's health, with extensive public conversations about topics that would have been taboo for previous generations: menstruation, perimenopause, menopause—the things we're not supposed to talk about.
• Older women have become more visible on social media, there are Instagram and TikTok feeds celebrating their fashion,
• For women who are in or approaching midlife. For fans of And Just Like That, Baronness von Sketch Show, Working Moms; Dr Jen Gunter's Jensplaining; for fans of podcasts like Julia Louis Dreyfuss's Wiser Than Me.
