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Women's Health

Women say this man (yes, man) just dropped the most inspiring explanation of perimenopause

This is one kind of "mansplaining" we can get behind.

Photo credit: Canva

What if middle-aged women are just discovering their superpowers?

The social media era has had its pitfalls, but some positives have come from it as well. One benefit of people publicly sharing their lives is that it's opened up conversations about things we didn't openly talk about before. If you have a physical or mental health issue, you can now easily find a community of people with shared experiences instead of feeling alone or isolated in your struggles.

Perimenopause has become a big topic of discussion online, and it's making so many middle-aged women feel less alone in the wild ride that it is. The years preceding menopause are rife with dozens of potential symptoms that suddenly come out of nowhere and stay for an undetermined amount of time. Not just hot flashes, which everyone knows about, but random things like itching all over, joint pain, brain fog, frozen shoulder, sleep disturbances, slowed metabolism, irritability, anxiety, and more. The hormonal shift is powerful and impacts everything.

hot flash, menopause, perimenopause, perimenopause symptoms, women, middle age Hot flashes? How about "power surges"?Photo credit: Canva

It's hard for women who are going through "the change" to explain it. But unexpectedly, there's a man who's given an incredibly empowering description of perimenopause.

He lays it all out in a video captioned "YOUR MIDLIFE WIFE IS WONDER-WOMAN" that's gone viral for just the right reasons.

"So your partner, she's going through her midlife 'reset,'" Michael Hunter (@uspiral.life) begins, speaking to partners of women in this stage. "The hot flash years, and you think she's being a little moody, snapping more than usual, forgetful, foggy, fried. Congratulations, because you're not witnessing her fall apart. You're witnessing her upgrade."

And every middle-aged woman's ears just perked up.



"Welcome to the divine demolition phase of her existence," he continued. "'Cause everything that doesn't serve her? Her hormones are throwing that in the fire. Compliance? Burned. People pleasing? Torched. Tolerance for your nonsense? Ashes. She's not becoming unstable. She's becoming unavailable for the roles, the rules, and the rhythms that were never designed for her power."

PREACH, SIR. (I mean, please continue, by all means.)

"So check it," he goes on, "her estrogen is dropping, which means her capacity to sacrifice herself is silently plummeting, too. And the hormones that once kept her agreeable? They're packing their bags. She's no longer chemically encouraged to make you feel safe at her own expense. And you're calling that a problem? It's a wake-up call.

menopause, perimenopause, perimenopause symptoms, women, middle age Perimenopause is a wake-up call. Giphy

"Her nervous system is recalibrating. Her brain is rewiring. And her body is asking better questions, like, 'Why am I carrying this marriage?' 'Why do I say yes when I mean hell no?' and 'Why is everyone around me so damn loud and needy?'"

Seriously, who is this guy?

"She's not being hormonal," he says, "She's being clairvoyant. She's finally seeing through the performance, the politics, and the pressure. She's deleting what no longer aligns, and she's upgrading to a new operating system: Truth 3.0 with zero buffer time for B.S.

"This is your opportunity to rise along with her, man. This is your opportunity to grow. So next time you catch her looking like might spontaneously combust, don't flinch. Witness her. Because if you can survive the fire, you might just get to meet the woman who she was always meant to be."

menopause, perimenopause, perimenopause symptoms, women, middle age, wonder woman Menopausal woman discover their superpowers.Photo credit: Canva

Ordinarily, a man explaining perimenopause would have us all rolling our eyes and tossing around the word "mansplain," but Hunter received the social media equivalent of standing ovation in the comments from women who finally felt seen in his words:

"Omg who are you and where have you been all our lives?!? Thank you on behalf of all of us…can you come speak to my kids next??😂🔥🙌"

"Who are you? 😂 we like you (a lot) and nominate you our midlife spokesperson!!! ❤️🙌"

"The first time I have truly loved a man explaining something that happens to a woman. GO : Ladies send to your husbands and get those husbands to send it to all their friends. 🙌🙌"

"You just became the sexiest man ALIVE! Knowledge applied correctly….sexy!😍💯👏❤️"

"Your words made me tear up, so powerful thank you 🙌"

standing ovation, thank you, good job, menopause explanation, perimenopause Standing ovation for Michael Hunter Giphy GIF by Film Independent Spirit Awards

"Thanks for making us feel normal instead of washed up goods. I find it hilarious learning that menopause is why I can no longer tolerate ANY amount of BS😂 it’s been like a light switch. I feel like I just woke up one day & decided I was done with so much crap that I’ve tolerated in the past…I appreciate the positive spin he puts on this! Blessings my fellow menopause-ers!!"

"That has to be the best and most kind description of menopause I've ever heard. Fantastic. 😍"

"You couldn’t have said it better. It’s nice to hear a man have this perspective."

Someone even nominated Hunter to be an honorary member of the We Do Not Care Club. (Explained here, if you don't know.)

In all seriousness, though, the way he describes what's happening at this stage of life is spot on and such a refreshingly different way of perceiving it than we glean from society. And the fact that it's coming from a man is a strange kind of relief—like we don't have to try to explain ourselves because someone outside of it gets it.

Rock on, Michael Hunter. Thanks for the morale boost and for the education of our loved ones.

You can follow @upspiral.life on Instagram for more.

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These 2017 box office stats are a sign of times changing — for the better.

The final box office numbers are in from 2017, and there's one clear takeaway from the top earners.

Women killed it.

For the first time in nearly six decades, the three highest-grossest films in North America all featured women in lead roles, according to The Wrap.

Daisy Ridley starred as Rey in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," which has raked in a whopping $530 million domestically to date.



GIF from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

Emma Watson led an all-star cast of "Beauty and the Beast," which pulled in over $504 million in U.S. theaters.

GIF from "Beauty and the Beast."

And Gal Gadot transformed into director Patty Jenkin's "Wonder Woman," which earned over $412 million. It's now the top-grossing live-action movie ever directed by a woman.

GIF from "Wonder Woman."

The last time women-led films cleaned up in similar fashion was nearly 60 years ago, when Mitzi Gaynor starred in "South Pacific," Rosalind Russell became "Auntie Mame," and Elizabeth Taylor inspired fans to turn out for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

And it's not all about the money, either — the characters themselves are blazing trails.

Ridley's lightsaber-wielding Rey is a force to be reckoned with in a film where it's the men who let their emotions get the better of them. "Wonder Woman's" feminist message is obvious in just about every plot point throughout the movie. Even Watson's Belle takes on a more assertive, self-possessed nature than in the original Disney classic.

Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images.

But while these fictional female characters are leading the charge, change for actresses in real life has been slow.

USC's Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative 2017 report found that, among the year's top-grossing fiction films, the number of speaking roles for women has remained largely unchanged — and abysmally low — throughout the past decade, Bustle reported.

Hollywood largely remains an old (white, straight, cisgender, abled) boys' club — with a sexual harassment crisis on its hands, no less. Women-led stories are often overlooked by the producers who have the power to bring those narratives to life on screen. The same can be said for stories about people of color, the LGBTQ community, disabled people, and so many others representing overlooked, marginalized groups.

Yet "The Last Jedi," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Wonder Woman" prove that female-led films can be hugely successful.

It's not that audiences won't turn out to see stories about women — it's that filmmakers are more hesitant to create them in the first place.

Why?

Harvey Weinstein and director Steven Spielberg in 2012. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for HFPA.

Change needs to happen from the top down, but just 7% — 7%! — of the top 250 films of 2016 were directed by women. When there are more women in consequential roles behind the camera, the same will be true for the stories told in front of it.

Paul Dergarabedian of ComScore, a media analytics company that collects film earnings, believes 2017 wasn't an anomaly, though — it was a sign of the changing times.

“It is just a renaissance going on in 2017," he explained to The Guardian, of the year's top films. "And now moving into 2018 ... female-led movies and movies with female characters at the center of the story have moved front and center in terms of the box office and in terms of critical acclaim.”

Let's hope so. It shouldn't take Jedi training to get women-led movies made!

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Should we be surprised by the most profitable film of 2017 so far?

Flying below the high-profile summer superhero flicks and the latest blockbusters brought to you by Disney, one unexpected film is hanging on to the noteworthy title of "most profitable film of 2017" (thus far):

Jordan Peele's "Get Out."

The writer and director of "Get Out," Jordan Peele. Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images.

"Get Out" wasn't just critically acclaimed and beloved by audiences — it also raked in cash at the box office.

The horror flick, which brilliantly explores the nuances of race relations and racism in today's America, brought in over $250 million in ticket sales around the world, a number that far surpasses its production budget of a mere $4.5 million.

The return on investment for "Get Out" stands at a staggering 630%, according to The Wrap, which considered overall budgets and box office results of the top-grossing films of 2017 for its analysis.

Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya, who star in "Get Out." Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images.

To be clear, "Get Out" isn't the top-grossing film of 2017. That honor currently goes to "Beauty and the Beast," which brought in $1.26 billion worldwide.

"Beauty and the Beast," however, was created on a $160 million production budget and included a costly global marketing campaign. While its return on investment is still impressive, exceeding 400%, it pales in comparison to "Get Out."

Should we be surprised by "Get Out" standing at No. 1?

On one hand, any film that can pull in those box office numbers from a budget that small deserves a round of applause.

On the other hand, the historic success of "Get Out" comes amid growing demands that Hollywood recognize and respond to the impressive financial feats of films featuring stories about people other than straight, white men.

Stars of 2016's "Hidden Figures" (left to right) Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, and Janelle Monáe. Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Hollywood tends to see blockbusters led by women, people of color, and other marginalized groups as rare exceptions to the rule.

But in the past few years, evidence has shown that's not really the case at all.

"Every time there’s a success [of a film with a mostly black cast], it gets swept under the rug,” Jeff Clanagan, president of Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films, told The Washington Post in regards to 2016's "Moonlight." "It's almost like there's an asterisk on it. They chalk it off as an anomaly.”

Last year, "Hidden Figures" — a film predominantly led by black women — was the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee at the Academy Awards. In July, "Girls Trip" (again, starring all women of color), exceeded box office expectations; it has pulled in over $76 million globally to date.

Surpassing "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" as this summer's highest-grossing blockbuster, "Wonder Woman" is nearing the $800 million mark in global box office sales.

Gal Gadot, star of "Wonder Woman." Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images.

Audiences are hungrier than ever to see diverse stories on the big screen. Why isn't Hollywood listening?

A new report by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism paints a bleak picture in terms of media representation across the highest-grossing films of 2016.

The report, which analyzed the demographics of speaking and named characters in the year's 100 top films, found that marginalized groups — particularly women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ people — continue to be underrepresented. For Hispanic women and people with disabilities, the numbers were downright abysmal.

It's not so much that audiences are choosing not to see films featuring these characters — it's more that those movies aren't being produced in the first place by a film industry overwhelmingly run by older straight white men.  

"Diversity is not just something that just happens,” Katherine Pieper, a research scientist at USC, told the Associated Press of the study. “It’s something you have to think about and aim for as an objective and achieve."

The data suggests studio execs would be wise to get out of their boxes and start making films for a more diverse audience. It'd pay off in more ways than one.

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Check out this video of Gal Gadot meeting a teary-eyed Wonder Woman fan.

Gadot came through big time for a young fan.

Wonder Woman came to the rescue of a young fan at Comic-​Con — and honestly, it just got a little dusty in here. I'm cryin'.

A young girl, dressed as Wonder Woman, approached Gal Gadot in tears during a meet and greet with the "Justice League" cast. According to the girl's mom, children's author Christine Keller, the girl was so overcome with joy that she couldn't stop crying.

"There’s no reason to cry," Gadot can be heard telling the young fan in a video of the encounter, captured by Variety. "Here we are together."

"Your ability to cry is what makes you such a warrior," Ezra Miller, one of Gadot's "Justice League" co-stars chimed in. "Come join the Justice League whenever you get ready."

"These characters matter and can have a huge influence on young people," wrote Keller on her Facebook page. She's not alone in thinking that, either.

"What a great role model and genuine, nice person. My daughter will always remember this moment for the rest of her life. Thank you, Gal Gadot!"

Back in June, "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins shared some awesome feedback she received from a kindergarten teacher.

Around the time of the film's release, actress Viola Davis posted a photo of her daughter dressed as the iconic character and has talked about how Wonder Woman helped inspire her to be brave and stand up to bullies when she was growing up.

Boys have plenty of iconic heroes they can see themselves in on the big screen: Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, 12 different iterations of The Doctor on "Doctor Who," and on and on. That's why when an awesomely badass character like Wonder Woman gets a chance (and absolutely nails it, by the way), it's worth taking note.

There's even more good news for Wonder Woman fans: In addition to the upcoming "Justice League" movie, Warner Bros. confirmed that there's going to be a "Wonder Woman" sequel.

Check out this Wonder Woman-focused "Justice League" sneak peek that debuted at Comic-Con. *makes loud, excited noises*

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