Emplacing and walking the menopause

Abstract

This article explores how menopause can be creatively reimagined through collective, embodied practices that challenge the limitations of contemporary cultural understandings of menopause. It argues that experiences of menopause can be transformed through practices that emphasise emplacement – siting or situating menopausal experiences within specific landscapes – and through shared activities that foster reflection, solidarity and empowerment. By foregrounding embodied and situated knowledge, the article contributes to sociological debates on creative and participatory methodologies, demonstrating how practices such as walking can ground abstract sociological theory and generate new ways of understanding lived experience. The article takes the form of a visual essay that reflects on the creative process of developing ‘better ways’ of experiencing and ‘doing’ menopause – approaches that seek to enhance the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of those undergoing this life transition. It focuses on a series of menopause-oriented walks entitled Walking the Menopause, in which rural landscapes become sites for reflection and collective meaning-making. Methodologically, the article draws on creative practices including mapping, drawing and walking. It examines three walks in particular: one developed in response to my own experience of surgical menopause, a one-to-one walk, and a group walk incorporating the experiences of other women.