Celebrating being female

Kind of OT but there was a guy in Spain who was on the news recently who rescues bulls from bull fighting and while that's a lovely thing to do and good on him the photos of him lying around in a field cuddling with the bulls did make me wonder if the follow-up story would be about him being gored or trampled.

Ah it's only theoretical Assassinated I'll never be allowed to do it. But hormones really affect aggressive behaviour. It's why male animals are castrated all the time, not just for fertility reasons but also because they are less aggressive afterwards. Like cats, dogs and horses. Think of uncastrated bulls...they are terrifying.

For the record, I'm not a mother. Seeing other women celebrating the fact that they are doesn't make me feel diminished. Doesn't have to be an either/or situation.

"non-mothers being excluded and patronised and having to defend themselves."
that's not what has happened on this thread.

"mothers trumpeting motherhood as the essence and pinnacle of femaleness"
neither is this.

The idea that because women can do this amazing thing that men can't do that means that it's the only thing that we can do or that's important about us is very male. The OP asked for positive things about being female, being able to create an entire human being is one of them. How that's been interpreted as meaning that the people pointing out that this is a positive thing that only women can must mean that it's the only thing we're good for, on a feminist board, I'm not sure. Consider the source, eh?

I'm really, really disappointed that a thread that is supposed to be about celebrating womanhood threatened to descend, yet again, into a chasm between mothers trumpeting motherhood as the essence and pinnacle of femaleness, and non-mothers being excluded and patronised and having to defend themselves.

When I think of what makes women awesome, I see a sea of faces. A judge. A construction worker. A writer. A surgeon. A chef. A teacher. A soldier. A ballerina. A mother. An admin assistant. A world leader. A priest, a thief, a hedge fund manager, a street sweeper. Someone who sells wedding dresses. Someone who makes sandwiches. Eleanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Rigby. Straight, gay, all races, all ages, all religions. We're all different, and we're all the same, we share the one thing that we were born with and will die with. It means nothing, and everything, and you can't define it or pin it down beyond body parts and chemicals, but there it is.

I am fifty this year and my birthing days are over - and I mourn my loss of fertility.
I really wanted a 'natural' menopause as I have had two heavily medicalised births and many medicalised pregnancies. My own birth was heavily medicalised too.
But even though I tried I could not cope with the symptoms of menopause - I felt like I gave in when I started HRT

Which is a defeatist attitude. Fucking hell I am a fucking goddess and I deserve to feel well and happy . I did an amazing job bringing my girls into the world and nearly paid for my life both times. Their births have affected me physically since. The babies I lost have not been forgotten.

Also to top it off - being a mum for over 30 years has given me the gift of being able to look in an empty cupboard and rustle up something tasty... I think that trumps everything!

Yeah, creating new human life is totally not worth celebrating and being in awe of.

No on has said it's the pinnacle of womanhood, simply that it is something to celebrate.

How depressing - a femanist thread that concludes the pinnacle of womanhood is that some of us can have babies and can breastfeed. Good grief

But it's pretty impressive and men can't do it, which is why it is devalued. Not very feminist to continue the devaluation, eh?

It's not that it's the pinnacle of womanhood for some women. It's that it's the thing only women can do and the mechanics of it are more impressive than anything a man's body is capable of.

lemon - I agree with you completely.

How depressing - a femanist thread that concludes the pinnacle of womanhood is that some of us can have babies and can breastfeed. Good grief

Women are very interesting to get to know because they put the same amount of effort into figuring you out as you do them, so you end up with intricate, informed, intelligent relationships.

(Men have a tendency to just sit there waiting for you to figure them out and then cater to their foibles which is frankly dull as ditchwater)

I don't think chemically castrating men would have that effect, in fact it might make matters worse. Fury/rage at impotence, redirected.

I also find the whole process of pregnancy and birth to be astonishing. I have two children and I often think how remarkable it is that I made them and brought them into existence.

Personally I think the best thing about women is that they do not (in the absence of men) start wars or band together in armies to fight wars, causing thousands,even millions, of deaths.*

Also their sexual assault and violent crime rates are a fraction of men's. Those are the best things about women compared to men.

(*In my opinion female leaders like Elizabeth I or Margaret Thatcher acted like men in a man's world. That is different to what women as a whole, as a sex, tend to act like. By which I mean for example we have never seen, a 95-100% female army marching off to war like we see all the time with men.)

It would be fascinating to temporarily chemically castrate all the adult males of the world for a period of time and see the warmongering just STOP.

hear hear! batteries!

There is nothing more magical, mysterious or amazing for us than our life itself. And who brings this life into the world?

Women!

Reproduction is awesome. It just is.

There was not a person. And then there was.

Regardless of the circumstances of the pregnant / birthing / child-rearing woman. That is amazing. Creating life is amazing.

There was not a person. And then there was. A whole new unique different person. It’s inexpressible. It’s the most amazing thing there is.

Before you were born there was a whole planet without you on it. And then you were created. Made. Out of female flesh. Fed. Grown. Birthed. There was no you, then there was a you.

It’s fucking amazing.

Birth was only a few hours in whole existence this alone does not define me as a woman.

I look the way we can have friends across generations

It was not my intention to derail and I am saddened to see that questioning the idea that giving birth is the pinnacle of womanhood is seen as somehow tearing women down and that I should be ignored.

personally i consider time spent in women's spaces be they girls's schools, clubs or other leisure activities particularly outdoor activities to be fantastic, the sense of community and support that they give is a real source of strength.

However many women do it, want to do it and can't (awful), or don't want to do it, or or or...

... a female body gestating an entire new human being is a much, much, a million times much better thing than anything a male body can do. Making a few sperm? Pfft. Not worth a candle in comparison.

I have achieved all kinds of things professionally and personally in my life. At 60 I can look back and feel proud of many of these. I have also grown, birthed and fed two DSs and that also felt good. My body has now let me down and I have chronic illness and a very restricted life. But I feel so happy that my feeble body is still a comfort to my lads when they are down or distressed. A hug with Mum still helps.

Before I had children, I saw myself in the future with daughters and was almost distraught when I gave birth to sons. But I feel that my feminism has helped two loving and wonderful (most of the time) men to develop and go out into the world. They are a legacy as well as some of my professional achievements.

I like to think of the other women in my family, beyond my mother, aunts, and grandmothers, and the history that we share as related women.

I'd love to know more about them, their lives, their experiences, and tell them mine.

I just like that there's this long history of women behind me, and this will sound odd but when my daughter died I dreamed that those women we're related to were waiting for her, and it comforts me to imagine that although she's not with me, somewhere she's joined them.

I'm not in the slightest bit religious so it's not that, just this idea of the women who came before me are somehow also as nearby as the women who will come after.

I realise I've been nowhere near as eloquent as some of the women here and I'd like to thank them for their posts too

After years of infertility, IVF, the help of an amazing woman who donated her eggs (thank you), a shit pregnancy, a horrific childbirth that could have killed both us of us, the moment when I looked at my crumpled up little baby who looked more like gollum than a small child and my whole body was filled with monumental love for this teeny tiny little thing. That moment for me was immense. I thought he was the most beautiful thing in the whole world. He really wasn't!

Because obviously the only definition of strength that matters is who can hit things the hardest.

Can we ignore the derailer please?

Indeed!

Let's celebrate women!

Apology accepted. 😊

What would you feel for you is something specifically female and wonderful? Something that resonates with you personally? I'm loving this thread.