How “the change” taught the music superstar to love herself.
The superstar who scored a global hit with “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” is opening up about the changes every woman must face as she grows older — but her perspective is much different than the discourse we’re accustomed to hearing.
Problematic perspectives about menopause are everywhere in our culture, which is why we’re so thrilled to hear Twain’s refreshingly positive take on this life milestone in a new interview with The New York Post. She explains that observing the ways menopause altered her body actually made her more grateful for the way she looks — and more eager to appreciate every stage of her evolving physicality.
“I think menopause was a very good thing for me because there were a lot more things changing in everything about me physically that I had to very quickly come to terms with,” Twain said. “Menopause taught me to quickly say, ‘You know, it may only get worse. So just love yourself now. Just get over your insecurities — they’re standing in your way. And fear is standing in your way.'”
The lessons of menopause also extended to Twain’s perspective on her work, she added.
“I always sing about being fearless and all of that. I go there when I write. But I’m not living it the way I’m writing it. And I want to live the way I write,” she said. “I’m more fierce than I ever was because I really demanded it about myself.”
One example of that newly leveled-up fierceness? The nude photo shoot she did to promote her latest album, Queen of Me. Twain, now 58, told the Post that she probably wouldn’t have posed for these kinds of images in her younger days, but it’s meaningful to do so now with her mindset of self-acceptance.
“Well, I’m the opposite from being an exhibitionist. But I like to feel sexy, and I like to enjoy my body more now than ever,” she explained. “I used to hate my body. So when my body was young and, I guess, maybe one wouldn’t be afraid of exhibiting it, I was hiding it a lot.”
Twain previously told PEOPLE that the topless photo was “a statement of being comfortable in my own skin and just being really myself.”
“I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It’s really liberating.”
Celebrities are becoming increasingly outspoken about this attitude of embracing aging, and Twain’s comments remind us of what Andie MacDowell told Katie earlier this year about why she was so thrilled to let her hair go gray. And while there’s nothing wrong with being honest about the troublesome symptoms of menopause, we’re in full support of reframing the way we think about “the change.”
Everyone travels their menopause journey at their own pace, but if you’re ever faced with criticism about your evolving body, we advise clapping back with a signature line from Ms. Twain herself: Don’t be stupid!
