Debbie Bateman

Your Body Was Made for This (October 2023, Ronsdale Press)

Women over fifty are a significant force in the world and we know middle-age can be as life-shifting as adolescence. Kids leave home, parents become ill, and relationships are tested. Plus, our bodies undergo radical transformation. That’s why I wrote Your Body Was Made for This. ​

​The women in my linked short story collection work at a college and their locker room doesn’t have change stalls. They expose their peri-menopausal flesh within sight of one another’s judgment, and they tend to their bodies in a crowded exercise room that stinks of rubber and sweat.

From Lynn who no longer desires the man she loves, to Pauline who does not believe she will ever reach her emotionally unavailable mother fading into Alzheimer’s, the women in these stories yearn for intimacy. Their bodies must have it and will do surprising things to satisfy the urge: carrying bloodied nipples through a marathon, having sex with a younger boss, refusing to eat, choking down handfuls of sugary cereal, trying the “love” drug.

But there’s something they need more than intimacy: a rumbling in their belly, a clench of their fist, an unwinding of a silk scarf, the proud refusal to have breast reconstruction. From the moment they were born, they’ve been told their main job is to make babies. Whether they’re in a relationship with a woman or a man, their choices would be taken from them. Not anymore.

The mess on her bottom, the rash on her skin, the rages that do not yet have language, none of it can be ignored any longer. Shirtless at the stove, stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce, her white bra glowing, her chest shining with a fresh coating of sweat, pure hot rage flares in her flushed out womb.

Bio

These days I’m a post-menopausal woman. Now that all that is cleared away, I am a real force, thank you. Yes, I am a person to be respected. The great transition helped me uncover the truth of myself and finally blessedly stop wasting precious time worrying what other people think. I’d rather be writing.

As I imagine other people’s lives, I seek to approach with compassion and patience, to recognize that we are all tender on the inside. If I happen to accomplish what for me is the goal of stories, if I am able to touch upon the contradictions that make us human, I am grateful. The characters I meet become intimate cohabitors of my heart and mind. Truth is, they change me.

When I am not writing, I am likely to be editing other people’s words, or simply walking in the woods talking to ravens or taking photos, or at home happily chopping vegetables for yet another pot of soup. I am a quiet rebel and a known troublemaker, a hugger of trees and a peaceful soul, and a practitioner of Buddhism.

Also proud member of Federation of BC Writers