<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"There are many stereotypes of the menopausal woman: hot flashing, irritable, alternately weeping or raging, sexless. You get the picture. And though I&amp;#039;ve tried to debunk some of the myths surrounding this stage, even I have to admit there is truth lurking behind the stereotype. Not all women have hot flashes, but 85% of us do. Not all of us lose our sex drives, but some do. Not all of us fly into a rage or tears at the slightest things (like too few ice cubes in a glass) but some of us do. So where does the truth lie? Last night, my mother and I went to see &amp;quot;Menopause, The Musical,&amp;quot; and judging by the audience&amp;#039;s reaction, and the success of the show, I&amp;#039;d say the truth lies in recognizing we no longer have to be silent about the &amp;quot;silent passage&amp;quot; \u2013 whatever this stage means for each individual woman. I&amp;#039;d wanted not to like the show, as humor can be a double-edged sword when it comes to women and stereotypes, but I couldn&amp;#039;t help laughing at the clever rewriting of lyrics to popular songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and I was impressed by the strong voices and powerful performances of the four female characters.  Yes there were clich\u00A9s of menopausal women \u2013 singing about memory lapses to the tune of &amp;quot;The Great Pretender&amp;quot; or the toll mood swings can take on husbands in a revised version of &amp;quot;The Lion Sleeps Tonight,&amp;quot; which was my personal favorite: &amp;quot;In the guest room, or on the sofa, my husband sleeps tonight.&amp;quot; But the show was funny and it resonated. I wasn&amp;#039;t quite as enthusiastic as the woman sitting in front of me, who&amp;#039;d seen the musical before and was waving her arms and singing and obstructing our view, but I enjoyed it. I later asked this woman and her friends what they thought. &amp;quot;It was awesome,&amp;quot; said one. &amp;quot;The ladies were powerful, each in her own way.&amp;quot; And I thought her response was telling: she was able to see beyond the stereotypes and recognize the individuality of each character and her experiences, even if these experiences overlapped. So true. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/a44724/singing-not-silent-2381/>