i don't know what women are. do any of you?

Bugger, my brain got sidetracked - what I meant to add was that I have often been told that I have a very male attitude, male brain, "a good bloke to go drinking with" (although not quite a "ladette"), had male friends but not many boyfriends. I don't identify with many feminine traits; I do stuff I like to do, regardless of which gender it is typically associated with.

Actually, that should be womanness is something that you only notice if you do feel it but your biological sex is male - of course, that could just be me and most women may feel an innate sense of "woman".

Do you mean that you don't self-identify with things that other people perceive as being "womanly"? I mean, when I was young I was never "girly", I was very much a tomboy and things that are the external trappings of "womanhood" never really bothered me that much (makeup, fashion, shoes etc.)
As an adult, they still didn't. But I did discover that I could look good, and wanted to do so, as a woman. I never tried to hide that I was one (except that one night when I missed the last train home and had to walk 3 miles at 2 in the morning), unlike a friend of mine who is a lesbian and who really despised any "womanliness" in herself.

I can't really answer your question either, as I'm not sure what it is that makes you feel that you don't know what being a woman is.

Now you've got me thinking. I don't really know if I "feel" like a woman or not. I probably do because I have never questioned it but I really couldn't tell you what it feels like.

I know what you mean. I've always been confused by the whole "woman trapped in a man's body" because of it. I have no innate sense of "womanness" that I'm aware of.

I'm not a particularly feminine sort of person - I do things that other women do, but I do things that men do too. I think in a way that women are meant to think (stereotypically), but I think in a way that men are meant to think too.

I can only assume that "womanness", if not biology, is something that you only notice if you don't have it.

(honestly, honestly, honestly not meaning to start a trans* bunfight)

Sorry, 'maybe' to chibi.

I think my issue with the sexual organs thing is that I would bet none of us is that 'typical' woman whose body does exactly what the biology textbook says. So it's quite hard to identify with that totally.

Maybe.
TBH I am fairly sure if everyone treated us equally it'd be no more interesting to be female than to happen to be someone right-handed, or brunette, or whatever.

But then I do get what people mean because when I started thinking about all of this, I was thinking there must be more to it than just genetics or chromosomes because otherwise why would I constantly be aware of gender? The more I look into history and law and language, it seems obvious why I would be aware of gender. But until you look into it, I think it is very natural to assume it's an internal thing rather than a set of external pressures.

"...as soon as you come into contact with other people, you notice it." Yes. So gender is a social construct. What about sex? What is a woman but that you have a certain type of chromosome and certain organs different from a man's? That's it, isn't it? Then what you feel has not much to do with your sexual organs and therefore not much to do with whether you are a man or a woman?

I think I very much feel like a woman. Not when I'm on my own, but as soon as you come into contact with other people, you notice it.

Maybe gender queer is the term you are looking for.

You've put that Shania Twain song in my head!

So what do you think you're not feeling? Or is that impossible to answer?

Do you feel like a man? Or just not like anything?

I can't say I've honestly thought about my "womanness" it sounds like you're feeling existential.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.