OUR BODIES

by Tera Lessard

In April, 2000 I attended a forum put on to help women make more informed consumer decisions. What I had expected to learn about and what I actually learned were worlds away from one another. I had expected to learn about a variety of products and other forms of capital that we, as consumers, invest in. What the meeting was actually focused on was the link between bras and breast cancer, tampons and dioxines, and the mystery behind menarche. Far from Wall Street and Consumer Reports.

Monica Lang, a professor at CSU, stated that she had found that most women know very little about their bodies and what products they use on them and in them. She states that it is in a political and social context that we must challenge many of the beliefs of women’s bodies to change the current lack of knowledge. We must compromise the comfort zones we have been conditioned to live in.

Susan Ramirez, one of Lang’s interns, went on to discuss what she had found in her research on adrenarche. She found that the female body actually starts preparing for menarche at the age of six. This means that menarche is actually the midpoint of puberty, not the beginning, which is the popular belief. Despite the fact that young girls’ bodies are preparing for this life change, essential information is continually withheld from them. Ramirez suggests that female development is handled this way in order to control "the uncontrollable" female sexuality.

Carol Toney, another intern, began to inform us on the problems facing women as consumers, especially as related to feminine hygiene products. The tampons that are purchased at the supermarket or drug store are made of rayon. Rayon, in its processing, can produce a carcinogenic toxin called dioxin. The rayon is also bleached, to make it more visually appealing, even though it is harmful to women. Studies have shown that dioxin in tampons can increase a woman’s chances of getting endometriosis, cancer, infertility, and other complications. Most of the counterattacks have used studies performed by the tampon manufacturers themselves, which are obviously biased. The government itself has not performed any of their own tests, nor are there many regulations on the manufacturers of these products. In sanitary napkins we also find unfriendly absorbents and plastics, such as polyacrylate, polyethylene, and polypropylene.

Finally, intern Lana Lott began to share with us the correlation between breast cancer and bras. In her research, she came across a study of 2000 women with breast cancer and 2400 women without. For the women who wore a bra 24 hours a day their chance of getting breast cancer was 3 in 4. The less time per day that a woman spent in a bra, the less her chances for cancer. It seems somewhere in the middle 20th century the medical institution took over women’s breasts. Suddenly, they had to be "trained" in training bras at young ages. What were they being trained for? Perhaps to prevent sagging, since we are told that natural looking breasts aren’t appealing to men anymore, or perhaps to prevent the breasts from jiggling or to cover the nipples. From what Lott said, there has been no correlation between bra wearing and the effects of gravity. Young girls are being conditioned to get used to an uncomfortable, possibly unnecessary, form of restriction on their natural development. The consequences of this restriction are that bras restrict the lymphatic system from properly flushing the toxins out of the breasts. These toxins, left behind, can cause abnormal cell growth and, in turn, cancer. Maybe we should start giving young women some choices.

Tera Lessard received her AA from SMC in spring, 2000 and will be transferring to CSU Long Beach in the fall, majoring in sociology with a minor in women’s studies.

Woman Exercising by Joseph Palmer

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