Taking off masks and vocalising menopause

Bibliographic Data

ID21394498
AuthorsEmma Franks (Independent Dance, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume74
Issue4
Pages841-853
Publication date2026-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00380261261452017
OpenAlexW7167502870
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited23

This article demonstrates the lasting value of C.W. Mills’ sociological imagination in understanding how intimate bodily realities and biography intersect with, and are shaped by, larger social realities, and the agency we have as individuals to affect these realities – in my case, through art. In this autoethnographic piece, I discuss my personal journey, as a feminist artist, of reimagining menopause through the dismantling of my artistic practice and creation of the Menopause Punk Song . I situate my journey within intergenerational dynamics, as well as the broader social realities and structures, including gendered ageism, body appearance pressures, the cultural moment of menopause’s visibility, art as a practice and the Covid-19 pandemic, which coincided with my menopause. I consider the frustrations and critiques that animated the Menopause Punk Song art project and the pleasures and problems its creation and performance entailed

Affect (linguistics) · Agency (philosophy) · Biography · Menopause · Punk · Reflexivity · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism