Madres tardías y mujeres menopáusicas: el lenguaje del control social

María  Ángeles Orts

doi:10.14198/dissoc.29844

Autores/as

María Ángeles Orts Universidad de Murcia, España https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8178-9255

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/dissoc.29844

Palabras clave:

maternidad tardía, menopausia, medicalización, discursos biomédicos, regulación social, análisis crítico del discurso, Corpus Sense 0.9

Resumen

En las sociedades occidentales, el aumento de la longevidad femenina ha permitido a las mujeres prolongar su vida profesional, social y personal. No obstante, esta extensión vital ha estado acompañada de discursos que condicionan sus decisiones sobre la maternidad y el envejecimiento. Dos momentos clave —la maternidad tardía (a partir de los 35 años) y la menopausia— son objeto de medicalización y control. La maternidad tardía suele ser tratada como un fenómeno de riesgo, mientras que la menopausia se presenta como signo de decadencia. Este estudio examina cómo se representan ambas etapas en 22 guías biomédicas y de divulgación escritas en español (12 sobre embarazo tardío y 10 sobre menopausia). A través de un análisis léxico-retórico basado en el análisis crítico del discurso (CDA), se emplea la herramienta Corpus Sense 0.9 para identificar los patrones lingüísticos que presentan estas etapas como problemáticas. Los resultados muestran cómo estos discursos refuerzan normas sociales y médicas que imponen límites sobre lo que se considera aceptable o deseable en la vida femenina. En consecuencia, se contribuye a la regulación simbólica y práctica de las mujeres en distintos ámbitos, perpetuando una visión normativa sobre el cuerpo y las decisiones de las mujeres en relación con la edad.

Citas

Anderson, Clare H. (2016). Public voices, private voices: An investigation of the discourses of age and gender and their impact on the self-identity of ageing women [Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham]. https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/6510/

Baldwin, Kylie. (2019). Egg freezing, fertility, and reproductive choice: Negotiating responsibility, hope, and modern motherhood. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787564831

Bessin, Michel (2006). Aspects sociologiques de la paternité tardive. Gynécologie Obstétrique et Fertilité, 34(9), 860-872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gyobfe.2006.07.015.

Bordo, Susan (1993). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body. University of California Press.

Boston Women's Health Book Collective. (1973). Our bodies, ourselves: A book by and for women. Simon & Schuster.

Calasanti, Tony M., y Slevin, Kathleen F. (2006). Age matters: Realigning feminist thinking. Routledge.

Cardin, Melodie (2019). Reconsidering "Advanced Maternal Age": communicating about pregnancy, disability risk and ageing. Feminist Media Studies, 20(8), 1073-1087. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1663360

Carranza Almansa, Juan (2022) La razón por la que las mujeres viven más que los hombres. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/la-razon-por-la-que-las-mujeres-viven-mas-que-los-hombres-191084 https://doi.org/10.64628/AAO.m943hsstr

Carranza Almansa, Juan (2022) Hay razones evolutivas para la menopausia. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/hay-razones-evolutivas-para-la-menopausia-191701. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAO.rw4tvyavr

Conrad, Peter (2007). The medicalization of society: On the transformation of human conditions into treatable disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Costanian, Christy, Farah, Raymond, Bahous, Sola A., y Sibai, Abla (2020). A narrative review on the relationship between female reproductive factors and longevity. Innovation in Aging, 4(Suppl_1), 885-886. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3269

De Clercq, Emmanuel, Martani, Alessandra, Vulliemoz, Nathalie, y Elger, Bernice S. (2023). Rethinking advanced motherhood: A new ethical narrative. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-023-10172-w

Ehrenreich, Barbara, y English, Deirdre (1978). For her own good: Two centuries of the experts' advice to women. Anchor Books.

https://doi.org/10.1097/00005721-197911000-00014

Fairclough, Norman (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.

Friese, Carrie, Becker, Gay, y Nachtigall, Robert D. (2008). Rethinking the biological clock: Eleventh-hour moms, miracle moms and meanings of age-related infertility. Social Science and Medicine, 66(7), 1529-1539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.12.019

Güçlü, Necla (2021). The intersectionality of age, gender, and body: A case study on educated women's menopause experiences [Doctoral dissertation, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global].

Lemoine, Marie-Eve, y Ravitsky, Vardit. (2015). Lemoine, M. E., y Ravitsky, V. (2015). Sleepwalking Into Infertility: The Need for a Public Health Approach Toward Advanced Maternal Age. The American Journal of Bioethics, 15(11), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2015.1088973

Martin, Emily (1987). The woman in the body: A cultural analysis of reproduction. Beacon Press.

Merodio, Guiomar, Martínez Ortiz de Zárate, Ana, Zhu, Fanghanyu, y Morentin-Encina, Javier (2024). The impact of gendered ageism and related intersectional inequalities on the health and well-being of older women. Research on Ageing and Social Policy, 12(2), 146-165. https://doi.org/10.17583/rasp.15017

Molina García, Leticia (2019). La edad materna en el proceso de embarazo, parto y puerperio [Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Jaén]. Repositorio de la Universidad de Jaén. https://ruja.ujaen.es/jspui/bitstream/10953/1169/1/MOLINA_GARCIA_TESIS.pdf

Moreno-Ortiz, Antonio (2024a). Making sense of large social media corpora: Keywords, topics, entities, and sentiment in the Coronavirus Twitter corpus. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52719-7

Moreno-Ortiz, Antonio (2024b). Corpus Sense (Version 0.9.7) [Python 3]. https://corpus-sense.app

Orts, María Á. (2024). The right to menopause: A cross-cultural analysis of judicial discourse on climacteric-related discrimination in English and Spanish Courts. Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación, 34, 37-58. https://doi.org/10.6035/clr.7863

Rowson, Tatiana S., Jaworska, Sylvia, y Gibas, Iwona (2023). Hot topic: Examining discursive representations of menopause and work in the British media. Gender, Work and Organization. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13021

Sampedro, R., García Gómez, M. V., y Montero, M. (2002). Maternidad tardía: Incidencia, perfiles y discursos. EMPIRIA: Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales, (5), 11-36. https://doi.org/10.5944/empiria.5.2002.911

Scala, Francesca, y Orsini, Michale. (2022). Problematising older motherhood in Canada: ageism, ableism, and the risky maternal subject. Health, Risk & Society, 24(3-4), 149-166.

Tower, John (2017) Sex-Specific Gene Expression and Life Span Regulation. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, 28 (10) 735-747. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2017.07.002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2017.07.002

Vargas-Sierra, Chelo (2024). Framing menopause from negative emotional language: A study of metaphors in medical discourse. Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación, 34, 15-36. https://doi.org/10.6035/clr.7890

Walker, Helen, Grant, Diane, Meadows, Mark, y Cook, Ian G. (2007). Women's experiences and perceptions of age discrimination in employment: Implications for research and policy. Social Policy and Society, 6(1), 37-48.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746406003320

Weinstein, Netta, Legate, Nicole, Ryan, William S., y Hemmy, Laura. (2018). Autonomous orientation predicts longevity: New findings from the Nun Study. Journal of Personality, 87(2), 181-193. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12379

Wood, M., y Newton, V. L. (2023). Constructing 'natural' menopause: Narratives of aging, responsibility, and moral motherhood. Feminism and Psychology, 33(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221145342