Paula Xiberras
Some time ago I had the chance to talk to the wonderful Jean Kittson as she was on her way to a book signing for her latest book ‘Still Hot to Me’, an informative and mostly light hearted or should that be ‘heated’ look (‘ botox is make up for under the skin’) at menopause.
Jean has strong connections to Tasmania with her ‘best friend in the world’, with whom she travelled the world, eventually set up home in Tasmania for five years and Jean remembers well, her visits to West Hobart during that time.
Jean says she still visits Tasmania at least 2 or 3 times a year and most recently was here in January speaking to Ophthalmologists as part of her role as spokesman for muscular degeneration, an issue close to her heart as her Mum has the condition. Jean is concerned with seeing and vision in a wider sense in that her aim is to help us see and clarify many issues, including in her recent book , helping men and women(to know themselves) and be aware of and how to manage their fertility and menopause .
Jean is keen to visit MONA and with its commitment to representations of bodily functions as Jean and I muse, there might be the opportunity to have a model of the female reproduction system installed there as Jean believes most people, especially women themselves, are ignorant of its appearance and tells me how she herself was surprised to know it is a ‘very vacuum packed area’. Perhaps no surprise there as a lot of women would vouch for ‘packing’ a lot of vacuuming into their lives!
Jean in fact, packs her book with many interesting facts such as ‘oestres’ affecting all parts of the body, even the eyes, evidenced by a symptom of menopause being dry eyes.
Jean’s conclusion is, in spite of all the modern technology and the help with and extensions of fertility it offers, there is ‘still the sobering thought that all are captive’ of this particular ‘biological trap’, that fertility, is ultimately finite and that’ mother nature’ is ‘old fashioned’ and hasn’t really kept up with the liberation of modern women or the advances of modern technology.
‘Still Hot to Me’ is out now, published by Pan Macmillan.
