AIBU To think there is joy to be had in womanhood?

There's a reason that people accused of doing 'womanly magic' tend to be women.

You do you , boo.

I'm not sure I experience womanhood as joyful tbh. Maybe what she's trying to point out is that there is no such thing as feeling like a woman - we can all only know what it is like to feel like our own self. So when you feel joy about experiencing life as yourself, even solely female things like motherhood, that's not really womanhood, it's one specific woman experiencing one female experience which not every woman goes through and which every woman experiences differently.

One of the most irritating things about how many TW talk about 'being a woman' is precisely that they seem to believe in one type of womanhood, which is characterised by one set of traits, experiences and attitudes. Also, if you can cherry-pick the parts of being a woman that you like, no wonder you find it joyful.

I enjoy being a woman but I would never in a million billion years say that I took joy in my womanhood. Nor would anyone I know.

I think perhaps you are conflating ethnicity and culture here.
If you were born to Irish parents but adopted and raised in Russia, speaking only Russian and having barely heard of Ireland, you would not feel any joy in Irish culture. If, on the other hand, you were ethnically Russian, but raised in Ireland by Irish adoptive parents, speaking English and Gaelic, you would feel everything you have described regarding joy in your Irish culture.
So it is not your biological ethnicity which brings you joy, but the culture you grew up in.

Many people have said similar things on this thread, along the lines of liking being a woman because of their deep friendships with other women. The implication is that men are not capable of experiencing this joy, but this isn't true. I grant you that in a typical UK context it is less common. But is this not because we have raised men to be 'strong' and bury their feelings? Men can and do form these close friendships with other men; it is not exclusive to biological women. But it is easier for women to achieve because this society does not discourage women from talking about feelings. It is therefore cultural, not biological, just like the Irish example above.

The question is whether you consider womanhood to be exclusively biological, or whether you think society's current expectations/stereotypes etc are actually part of womanhood.

Men can be healers without the lure of financial gain. In an Irish context, for example, men are just as likely as women to have The Cure. And plenty of men have been accused of witchcraft.

Neither of these have anything to do with starting wars.

"Joyful in their womanhood" sounds very cringe to me, however I have always been happy to be a woman (with no children) and can't remember ever wishing that I was a man.

I think I had a good result being a woman.

I think women are better and I wouldn't like to be a man (since I'm lucky enough to have been born here and now) but joy sounds a bit wanky

well "white Brits" are not some homogenous mass, for a starter.
I can't imagine someone from Edinburgh is particularly proud of or finds joy in the Welsh or Cornish languages, for example...

I think her point is that most women might be happy enough being female and wouldn't necessarily change it, but that doesn't mean they're out there making cringeworthy wanky statements like an American self-help guru. It reminds me of a friend's mum who told her 'Welcome to womanhood,' when she started her periods. Most women just get on with their lives, of which being a woman is an inextricable part of it, rather than actively performing special magic pink sparkly sister solidarity femaleness all the time.

I wouldn't say there's "joy" in being female any more than there's "joy" in having 2 working legs, or brown hair, or being white. I'm not unhappy with any of them, some of them (e.g. my health) I'm very grateful for, but I wouldn't say they cause me joy!

Genuinely sorry you feel that way.

Puberty came very late for me and I will never forget the joy of watching my body change to - finally! - look like a woman's instead of a child's. I found my body so beautiful and miraculous, and was so thrilled and grateful and have never taken it for granted.

I feel like you about being Welsh.

This is interesting.

I agree with the people who don't feel a specific "joy" related to being a woman. I feel joy in being a mother, but obviously, not all women are mothers. I feel joy in many things, but the fact that I am a woman isn't relevant to any of them.

It is interesting that some people do feel that, because I wonder if it explains the difference in perspective in the debate about trans people. Personally, I just can't understand how it is possible to "feel" like you are/are not a woman, because I feel no inherent identified sense of "womanhood" - I am just me.

If i did feel some deeper sense of commonality between women, then I can see that it might be possible to feel on the outside of that.

Sorry but "joyful in her womanhood" is such a cringey phrase, and if you heard it in a TV drama, you'd change the channel

I think there's joy in getting to be truly yourself as an individual. I can't personally understand the joy in feeling you fit into a socially-imposed category, but each to their own.

Her point is no woman has ever said it. And I agree. There is no joy in being the sex class where 2 of us die every week at the hands of men.

Puberty was shit, periods were shit, avoiding pregnancy shit, menopause now shit. There's been nothing good or positive for me in female biology; it's only served to make life more difficult,

Where I have found joy is deep and meaningful connections with my female friends, truly something special.

I’m joyful and I’m a woman but I don’t attribute my joy to being a woman. It’s just my sex, like my height, or my ethnicity. Brj v a woman brings me no more joy than being white, or 5ft 7

I have no particular issue with being a woman, but I can’t think of any joys that don’t apply to men too!

Op your joy in womanhood stems from your ancestors being such good healers people thought thry were witches and you think no man could psychologically cope being good at healing??

I don’t feel joy in womanhood. I feel joy for myself. I’ve never had anything happen to me by a man tbh at makes me hate them. In fact, my closest friends are male. My DH is wonderful and so is my son. It’s not womanhood that makes me who I am

I like being a woman very much. I would hate to be a man.