Celebrating being female

The solidarity of other women

I’ve told this story before, but I had a boss who was known for being a bit tough on staff. Lovely woman, but took no prisoners, ykwim? While I was working there, one of our staff hired a man who had raped me to work for one of his companies. I was in a role that would expect to deal with all workers frequently. I was a tad upset when I first saw him and spoke to my boss. He was let go the next day and a note put on his file not to hire him for anything else.

Compared to the male of the species, women are living in wartime conditions, constantly. And that’s something no man can ever really understand.

Maybe that's why men start wars and we don't! We are already there!

This is such an interesting thread. For me, the best thing about being female has been carrying, delivering and raising my children. That's been the best thing FOR ME. I'm not saying it's the pinnacle of womanhood for all women.

I work in an almost all female environment and at times I feel blessed. The support I've received from this diverse bunch of women is amazing. We talk about everything and have so many experiences to share.

I truly love being a woman. I love the solidarity between women, the depth of emotion. I would hate to be a man.

I think the most amazing thing about women is that we don’t just survive, we thrive.

Most men will never have to go through life in an almost constant state of fight or flight, will never have to risk their lives to create new life, won’t be growing up and living in a society that deems them the less important half. As women, we live through all this and more, and we are still here fighting.

Compared to the male of the species, women are living in wartime conditions, constantly. And that’s something no man can ever really understand.

the pinnacle of womanhood

Eh? Obviously there isn’t one. There is no ‘best female’ competition.

www.metro.us/body-and-mind/women-stronger-than-men-hardship

Seems the right thread to link to an article about this new research

The moment when I had my first 12 week scan was mind blowing. Not even 12 weeks, because the first 2 are before you've conceived, so 10 really - in those 10 short weeks my body had built an actually recognisable, tiny human, with arms, and a tiny face and rudimentary organs of its own.

10 weeks. I could barely start learning a new language in ten weeks, and my body had just got on with creating a whole new person that was wriggling around in there just from two building blocks.

Biology is incredible. I can marvel at male biology too, which can do things I can't and will never do. But this thread is for recognising uniquely female marvels, and creating, nurturing, growing, supporting, birthing and nourishing a whole new human is most definitely an amazing achievement.

Don't get me started on breastfeeding. I also think that is incredible biology.

Sorry that should be PMT

I also hope the bull rescuer doesn't end up gored angry!

BlindYeo have you heard of "Testosterone Rex" by Cordelia Fine? I've not read it yet, but I think it should be fascinating. It looks at all the scientific evidence around the impact of testosterone and whether it is such a huge biological driver as we think, or not.

It's on my list to read this year!

I love this thread

And also on the resilience of women - a couple of corking posts there too!

Despite all the shit... periods, PMT, pregnancy/infertility, hormonal contraceptives, misogyny, domestic/sexual violence by people we know, menopause, lower wages, more likely to be doing housework and house admin, carrying a heavier load of child/elder etc care, more likely to suffer bereavement if we live longer..., we get back up again.

"Shit things women did today" would be mostly men whinging about how some women wouldn't go out with them/wasn't as pretty as they thought she should be/didn't smile and giggle in response to being catcalled.

Fantastic post Barracker

I still believe a world in which men have less testosterone would be a less violent world. Their offending rate and warmongering is not all down to socialisation. Good socialisation can reduce it, but statistics to date show the male/female differential always remains even in the most peaceable society. This thread is about celebrating women. I celebrate our less violent nature. To me, male violence is like the elephant in the news reporting room. Every night. I wish they would divide the news up into "shit things women did today" and "shit things men did". I know which programme would be shorter and less horrific.

I can still remember the moment where my view of my mother's life shifted from "how did she allow this to happen to herself?" to "why is society organized in a way that forced her into being a housewife when she'd rather have had a career and why is my father ok with this?"

Pressing on...
Here's a thing. Growing up, my mum, her friends and sister in law all took care of the home in addition to their careers, mostly as teachers. My dad, my uncles held the higher paid professions and the women also did the domestic stuff too. As a know it all teenager, I was fairly disgusted at the sex division of status and chores, and I thought the women weak for letting it pass unchallenged.
Decades on, the men in retirement are shadows of themselves. Lost, without strong purpose and still without the skills to organise their lived well. Meanwhile, the women that I had thought so weak, are brighter, purposeful, full of humour and efficiency, organising lives, families, grandchildren, holidays, homes, just....handling life. Watching my mum handle my dad's heart attack revealed her to have a backbone of steel, despite the ease with which tears flow over a soppy song or grandchild's drawing. She is fortified to cope with life no matter what. Her friends are the same. I know that the men in their lives will simply not cope without their wives like the wives can without their husbands.

There is just a steely, good humoured resilience in these women that I once mistakenly thought belonged to the men. I was so, so wrong.

Giving birth was the single most empowering, primeval experience of my life. Miscarrying (twice) was when I felt at my most helpless. Different sides of the same coin.

And even though I've done it, I still cant' get my head around growing an actual effing person in me and then squeezing it out through my vagina (how? how does it stretch so much??)

we really come into our own in endurance events.

Yup, like life. The biggest endurance event of all

Sorry, AssassinatedBeauty, was posting as you were.

It’s that it’s the only thing that women can do
OMFG

No. Try again. I said:

It's that it's the thing only women can do.

Two very different things.

@Effic you've misquoted there which has changed the meaning. What @LangCleg said was:

"It's that it's the thing only women can do"

Do you see the difference?

Oh
My
God

"this alone does not define me as a woman."

ME NEITHER. What defines me as a woman is that I'm female, which was established in the OP as a premise anyway.

How is it that you are so desperate to misrepresent what people are saying that you are both dismissive and negative about an amazing thing only women can do?

Can't you understand that "X can do this astonishing thing" does not mean "X believes this is the only worthwhile achievement"?

I can list my lifetime achievements if you like, but not many of them are uniquely female as such. And this isn't about individual females and their individual personalities. It's about female people and what we can do (that men can't or don't) that we can hang onto to have faith in our incredible sex whilst we're still the underdog after several millennia.

Could those superior smug posters who've dropped into this thread purely to snark a tone of "that? God, how sad that you imagine such a pathetic thing to be marvellous, you losers"

Could you just please find some other thread to be negative on? The OP asked for positive contributions because she was feeling down, and frankly, this isn't the right thread for you to sprinkle your vinegar.

Plenty of animals are still aggressive and out of control after being castrated. Plus in your theoretical situation men would know it had been done to them and why. Don't think it would go down well!

It’s that it’s the only thing that women can do
OMFG