In the newly released season of Borgen, Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), the protagonist, goes through the climacteric. Rarely has this natural process of women’s lives been pointed out so clearly in fiction. The minister suffers hot flashes, unexpected hemorrhages and fits of nervousness when she does not burst into anger, recognizable symptoms for any viewer who goes through a similar stage.
Added to these discomforts is a biographical issue that is also frequent: the “empty nest syndrome”, the feeling of loneliness – which usually occurs in the same period of years as menopause – that is suffered when adult children move away from home from his parents. This fact adds emotional instability to this time of great change.
Few times (we said) in a fiction; The consequences of this bodily and affective situation are evident in the character’s difficulty in making rational decisions, without being overwhelmed by impulses.
And the unavoidable question arrives: should we celebrate or lament that menopause is called to explain (partly) the political crisis of a woman in power?
And it is a difficult question to answer, because even if the intention is good, the conclusion can end up being as bad as it has been historically: women, dominated by their hormones, there is no way to entrust them with important decisions.
The best? The idea of putting the subject on the table to analyze how a natural situation, turned into a taboo, interacts with daily life; what happens to women (usually) at the top of their careers.
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