To wonder what ‘living as a woman’ means?

[Stressmode]

I don’t think I ‘live as a woman’. I only wear men’s clothes, for work and at home. Don’t own makeup or any woman specific items. Hobbies are motorbikes and wood work. My job is in a traditionally male industry. I am the only woman on the team. I know I am genetically a woman. I have a womb and have given birth to a kid. My name is androgynous sounding. It is the name my parents picked for me.

Non of how I am is a sex thing, or an identity thing. I just like practicality and comfort.

I am constantly mistaken for a man. I get challenged about using womens toilets. I am nearly 6 foot tall. A lot of the time I enjoy male privilege. For example I can go running at night with worrying.

What does it mean to ‘live as a woman’? If I say I am a woman, is that enough? Why is it that men have to become a caricature of a woman to live as one?

Genuinely confused by this…

I’m surprised by what you’ve written because it sounds like a viewpoint from pre 1970s Britain.

No it isn't. You only know what it feels like to be you.

If you are male (apologies if you are not but it sounds like you are), do you not understand how arrogant it is to attempt to redefine the only word we have to refer to the female half of the human population as "the way I personally feel inside"?

@HaveYouActuallyDoneAnyWashingThisWeekMum why? In essence I am gender critical. It irritates me that people are caught up in gender stereotypes but I think to some extent we are all a little caught up in it. . Perhaps I have not explained that well enough. I just wish people cared less about what is expected and then perhaps people would be comfortable and not feel they have to 'live as ' a man or a woman.

This annoys me so much. I'm definitely a woman but I don't wear makeup . My daughters liked dinosaurs on their clothes, played with toy trains and never wore pink. I actually once had an argument with the sales person in Next because my daughter chose wellies from the 'boys' section and the sales person kept directing her to the girls section.

And now 18 years on I suppose my daughter should be a trans boy due to this new way of thinking. It's so regressive. What was the point in fighting for boys and girls to be equal and toys to be unisex.

It doesn't mean anything because being a woman isn't something you do, or perform, its just your biological reality.

If youre a woman then however you live is living as a woman. If youre a man then however you live is living as a man.

But I don’t think people do “think they have to live as a man or a woman” unless of course you’re referring to very conservative societies or countries where women have no voice or power.

Living as a woman is having a feminine sounding name on your gas bill.

Thassorl.

There's millions of ways to live as a woman.because there's millions of us on this planet and we are all individuals.

And yethere's really only one common single defining factor that we all shsre and that is actually being a woman.

Because if you're not then clearly you have no way of living as one.

It's a load of old bollocks.

There is no 'woman feeling' or ' woman essence'.

I live as a human being. I know I am a woman because I was born female and have survived till adulthood.

This means was discriminated against as a young woman because of presumptions made about my reproductive capabilites and status.

I then birthed two humans and took a hit on my earning capacity as a result of the reality of the fact that my biology allowed me to do to so.

Now on the cusp of 50 I'm of the sex of humans that's pretty invisible these days and then on top of that I have a pesky thing to deal with called menopause.

All of the things that make me a woman are based on biology.

The rest of it is being human and personality and stereotypes (or lack of them in my case)