Celebrating being female

Another thing - this is going to sound weird - is how terrifying women can be, with their awesomeness.

Some of the women I have met in my life have left me tongue-tied because they are such forces of nature. Even though they might be physically tiny, they can hit you with the force of a hurricane! Such power!

Also I remember being a young girl and then a young woman and feeling so supported and loved by some of the older women I know, my mother's friends in particular. The best thing about getting older is being able to take on that role now in the lives of younger women and girls.

"Whenever I find myself on a site that's all or mostly men I can't help noticing how dull their conversations are, comparatively speaking. It's someone someone hit the mute button on wit and empathy."

That's so true. And I also find it rare that I encounter women's clear thinking in men. I reckon there are probably a fair few male lurkers on MN who feel a bit jealous of it all and when they try to join in, get frustrated because they can't strike the right tone.

Women are so much more cool, funny, clever and kind ....

So I guess mine would be that the thing I love most about being a woman is my connection to other women. It's funny how hard a lot of cultures work to promote the idea that we hate each other and are always in competition over men. If it was true they wouldn't have to try so hard to convince us of it.

I love when you get women of different generations or from different cultures together and that sense of connection clicks into place.

I love the emotional support women give each other. I love when women acknowledge how strong they really are. I love seeing women lift each other up.

"I also love female intelligence and wit and culture. Sometimes the women on MN make me laugh so much and think. Hanging out with women is so nurturing"

Totally agreed. Whenever I find myself on a site that's all or mostly men I can't help noticing how dull their conversations are, comparatively speaking. It's someone someone hit the mute button on wit and empathy.

My heart goes out to women who cannot conceive too, but I think this thread is important to speak out.

It is about acknowledging and celebrating biological women, without hiding our light under a bushel.

Also I would encourage younger women to have children and go through this amazing right of passage as a woman. I know too many women that wasted their twenties and thirties on being with unsuitable men or hanging out with gay men and taking on their values, missing the boat, who are consumed by grief for the babies they never had.

I myself 'didn't know if I want to have kids' - and it is really by accident rather than design that I am a mother and I am so glad my biology won out against the intellectual 'anti-child' propaganda that surrounded me.

Being a woman is amazing, and to me, being a mum, is without a doubt, the best bit.

I am really hoping this doesn't come across as insensitive to women who can't have children because I agree with the posters above.

I used to be anxious about my health and self absorbed until I had children. I only realised the strength of my body when I gave birth. All my anxieties went after I'd been through child birth.

The absolute contented joy of suckling my first born at my breast. I've never felt anything like it. I felt as if I were complete. And that nothing that ever happened again would matter. Now he's a menacey 16 year old of course things have returned to normal somewhat. But I can never forget how I felt.

I love the way women care for others. How they unsungly look after all generations just for love. My mum and mother in law have been so amazing helping with the grandchildren. Life would be harder without them. So I celebrate them.

How funny - I was thinking about starting a similar thread and didn't know what to say. I love your post Baracker

I love women. I love our biology. My body might have been torn and scarred by pregnancy and childbirth, but I am amazed by it. And my children love it too.

I also love female intelligence and wit and culture. Sometimes the women on MN make me laugh so much and think. Hanging out with women is so nurturing

And I love real women - not the distorted media representation of us, but us in the flesh, flawed and complicated. In fact, I love going to the beach or pool because you see what a huge range of women's bodies there are - so dramatically different from one another but all gorgeous in their own way.

But ultimately it is this power of giving birth to babies that everything stems from. Having babies is the most amazing thing that happened to me, how my body knew what it was doing, how I sent all those hormones at the right time - the nesting instinct - I developed super human strength and determination to push through fixing the house in the later stages of pregnancy.

Women are amazing. Our amazing biology. Here's to us women!

Barrack when it's laid out like that it's absolutely mind blowing. Biology is fantastic.

What a brilliant comment from Barrack, hear hear!

My body created two other humans. I grew them entirely by sacrificing to them energy from my own body. I pushed them out using a muscle which is stronger than any a man possesses, and then my body's breasts kept them each alive without so much as an additional drop of assistance, for a solid six months each, by literally meeting all their food, water and growth needs. And, in fact, continued long after that being their physical food. It's incredible to think about it. I was their food. They are made from me.

This, from a body that was mocked by others for being skinny, underdeveloped, weak, flat chested, late to mature, 'unwomanly'. As a teenager I felt like a kid whilst my peers looked like women. My periods only started at 15. My breasts never really needed a bra, still don't, and I felt they, and I were inadequate.

I don't think I really accepted how powerful I was until I saw what my body did. The pure, raw, female animal power I felt giving birth changed something about how I perceived myself.