Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

A woman is...

40 replies

DryHeave · 04/07/2020 18:01

“A woman is someone with a female body and any personality. Not a ‘female personality’ and any body.”

From @FoggyTrails on twitter and one of the most succinct, best-articulated statements I’ve read to date.

OP posts:
ValancyRedfern · 04/07/2020 19:27

thehelenjoyce.com/what-is-a-woman/amp/

sangrias · 04/07/2020 19:14

Xx chromosomes and born with a vagina.

ListeningQuietly · 04/07/2020 19:05

thank you

NewNewt · 04/07/2020 19:04

I agree. Its someone whose existence is underlined by their biology that gives them unique physical and societal experiences such as pregnancy, fear of pregnancy, pmt, thrush, cystitis, childbirth, endometriosis, breast-feeding, fear of superior male physical strength, menstrual cramps, menstruation, FGM, the wage gap, manplaining, sexism, mastitis, breast pain, back pain due to breasts, etc etc etc. The rest is all just preference and personality, yes.

WeeBisom · 04/07/2020 19:03

"Perhaps someone's mind is more important than their physical appearance in defining their identity?"

I actually think it's far more freeing to define 'woman' as someone who is female. 'Being female' doesn't imply anything about your personality, behaviour, likes , dislikes , or even appearance. But if we define 'women' by their mind? Well, what's a womanly mind?I have a female body. But I don't 'feel' like a woman. I'm also not particularly feminine in many regards. I work in a male dominated field. I don't like many typical feminine things. So if we go by minds, we would have to say that I'm not a woman. But this perturbs me because I don't think there should be any right or wrong way to be a woman!

If we say that women are female, literally the only people excluded from this definition are males. Women can come in all different races, classes, ethnicities, backgrounds, etc. But if we say that 'woman' is defined by the mind this will include males, sure, but it may also exclude many female bodied people who don't feel their mind is female.

Oh, and if we reduce 'woman' to just 'anyone who says they are a woman' then the category is utterly empty and pointless. You might as well not have it. It's a totally empty signifier.

feetfreckles · 04/07/2020 18:56

Women is not an identity , hope that helps, it's just a fact

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 04/07/2020 18:55

Yep, OP.

And it's not 'appearance' - it's chromosomes, goes far deeper than bloody hairstyles.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/07/2020 18:51

A female body is a lot more than 'physical appearance'. Hmm

Michelleoftheresistance · 04/07/2020 18:47

That's nice, Renata but to avoid stuffing female people into restrictive, stereotypical boxes, excluding female people from 'woman' who don't fit the stereotypical bits, and removing female sex based rights in a well meant but very thoughtless attempt to be kind to some male people, we need to talk straight about this.

The only thing every female on the planet has in common is their biology. It's the only thing that creates the class of female. This is a fact, it has always been a fact, and when talking about sex based rights and equality under law we need to stay away from foggy, kind and subjective definitions.

WomaninBoots · 04/07/2020 18:46

@MiladyRenata

Perhaps someone's mind is more important than their physical appearance in defining their identity? Just a thought.
So what is a 'female mind' then?
Eminybob · 04/07/2020 18:46

Identity is just personality. Male and female are biological definitions.

digbee · 04/07/2020 18:38

Renata "Woman" is not an identity.

MiladyRenata · 04/07/2020 18:32

Perhaps someone's mind is more important than their physical appearance in defining their identity? Just a thought.

Eminybob · 04/07/2020 18:22

Totally.
It’s completely fucked up that a bunch of individuals have managed to change the meaning of a word.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 04/07/2020 18:04

That's it, isn't it. Summed up in two sentences.

Swipe left for the next trending thread