November 2003

Women's choices in the media

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

Question: Are women's choices omitted in the media?

Answers: a) yes b) no c) arghhhhh!

Our ears, our eyes, our emotions are flooded with health information and opinions oozing from every possible media pore: magazines, newspapers, the Internet, TV news, and TV comedy/talk/drama shows (some people use "E.R." for health info!). And yet, are women being informed, entertained, or are their real choices being omitted? "Omit" is defined by Funk and Wagnalls as "to leave out, fail to include...neglect."

You know how you believe something once it happens to you? Well, look what happened.

First, Seattle magazine published an issue on the "Top Doctors for Women." While they included a separate section, "A Look at the Alternatives," the look did not include chiropractors. What, no women in Seattle go to chiropractors? Research reports that more people go to non‑medical providers than M.D.s, chiropractic is a leading choice of consumers ‑‑ and 59% of those utilizing chiropractic are women.

I had to contact the publication. Here is what I sent: "Women enter chiropractic care aware of the gap between how their body was designed to function and the reality of how it is functioning, and aware of the tension between potential and reality. Chiropractic responds with great care and backs up their results with research, such as the recent international study on infertility. Chiropractic is reported as the most widely used alternative treatment and has great docs in Seattle and elsewhere. Why was it absent from your article?" Seattle magazine did respond. We'll see if the letter gets printed. (Seattle chiropractors, please look out for this and send me feedback: mbcare200@aol.com)

Then, a writer for Cosmopolitan contacted me responding to the press release for the infertility research project. I was delighted because I knew her work and thought it was excellent. We spoke a number of times, and as I was describing the changes in women's health that are common in chiropractic practices ‑‑ among them, "infertile" women may become pregnant after responding to care ‑‑ the writer questioned why she had never heard this before.

I understood this perspective. A top health writer takes appropriate pride in knowing what is news. But, most lack any exposure to chiropractic news, so the real question is, would chiropractic's perspective be understood?

When the October 2003 issue was published, I eagerly scanned it looking for how the infertility articles, chiropractic, and my comments would be presented. What did I find? There was absolutely NO mention of chiropractic, the infertility project, or any of the authors ‑‑ all of this vital and groundbreaking information was completely absent.

What did make the article? Well the same old, same old. 1‑2‑3‑4‑5, yes, FIVE medical doctors had comments appearing in the article. Cosmopolitan isn't my usual reading, and I wasn't sure how I felt about chiropractic being in the magazine, but I am absolutely sure how I felt about chiropractic not being in it. I don't who omitted the chiropractic research or why, but this will not change through our silence. I encourage you to write letters: youtellcosmo@hearst.com.

Does Cosmo offer readers only one color dress or one lipstick or one hairstyle? Women would revolt! So, why are women offered only one approach in health news? The infertility research had case studies of real women. What about the Cosmo readers struggling with the same problems? Remember, the writer wondered why she had not heard of this before! Well, this experience should answer that.

Meanwhile, chiropractors reach out to help a public that may have no accurate information on what chiropractic is and what it does, people suffering needlessly as chiropractic is omitted in the media.

I ached for the woman who walked in front of me at the airport, her pelvis so distorted that her toes pointed east and west as she attempted to propel herself north. I ache when an audience member in the next row at a movie cracks her neck. I can barely stand to watch news anchors ‑‑ talking heads mounted on twisted bodies. I ache for every child with an ear infection. And, I ache for the chiropractic leaders who spend their days battling the thickest levels of prejudices and toxic agendas to ensure chiropractic is included, not omitted.

True talent everywhere develops creative ways to produce work that expresses choice and individuality (independent movies, etc.). Chiropractic is part of the great swell of what people really want, not what is being dictated through limited information. The infertility project didn't get included in that magazine but it's alive eternally via search engines on the Internet and women are finding it and asking for information and referrals.

It seems like some women already know the answer to the question, "Are women's choices omitted in the media?"

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at drmadeline@drmadelinedc.com)