i don't know what women are. do any of you?

[chibi]

i am asking honestly. womanness is not a consequence of chromosomes or external morphology. it is about feeling you are a woman.

i don't feel like a woman. i don't even know what that would feel like.

everyone i have spoken with has assumed i am a woman, and i have done things some people associate with women like menstruating, being pregnant etc.

i used to think that because of my external morphology and the whole giving birth thing, and people's assumptions and my upbringing that i was a woman but now i am not sure.

if you are whichever gender you identify with and feel you are, and i don't feel like a woman, (i don't know even how they feel) but am i one because i also don't feel like anything else?

MRD I don't think it should be offensive to say that gender is a construct and I agree that no-one has a physical gender. I also didn't say that what we feel or think is less important than anything else. How we feel is important and how those feelings relate to our bodies and societies expectations of us based both on our bodies and our conformity (or lack of) with socially constructed views of how a person with our body should behave.

I am a human being with the physical characteristics of the sex which carries and delivers children. This was apparent when I was born so I was raised as a girl in a society which told me there were expectations and limitations on me because I was a member of that class but in a family which told me I should ignore those expectations and limitations and be myself. I am now a woman. I conform with society's expectations of women in some respects but not in others and I continue to be subject to a number of expectations and limitations because I am a woman.

I have wished on a number of occasions that I was a man so that I did not have to deal with various things I don't like about being a woman in our society however I have never felt that I am a man. I should think that having a feeling that you are of the opposite sex when your biology is otherwise would be a very unpleasant feeling. Since I reject society's gender expectations, I have no problem with someone who chooses to present themselves in any manner they see fit. I do have a problem with the concept that because a person prefers those things or has those characteristics that our current society has determined are feminine, that person must be a woman. This reinforces those constructed expectations in a way that can impact negatively on all women.

Ah, sorry, I was partly thinking back to what gothanne is saying about it being offensive, and trying to work out why.

I agree that reinforcing the idea of gender as a concrete category is not going to help anyone.

GoshAnneGorilla I agree society is not accepting. This raises the question though of whether transitioning is an individual choice free of all outside pressures. By wishing to belong to just one of the two binary choices of being a man or a woman, does this entrench the view that certain behaviours and characteristics are natural to men or women. Surely it would be better to have women building bridges and men wearing dresses & baking cupcakes without so much as a raised brow.

I think there is a link between the gains made by women, capitalism and the very narrow definitions of womenhood that are sold back to us. There is a contradiction, as women make certain gains in terms of spending power we find that rather than giving us more choice about how we perform femininity or not, we are being sold a very narrow definition of what it is to look like a women. It seems that as we change our behaviours, expectations & roles, this challenges gender in some respects, whilst other forces act to define us. Its a similar situation with the pressure to both work outside the home and to be the very best doting mother. We are literally pulled in directions that men aren't. Men are surplus to the needs of capital.

I think more confusion will reign forth until gender no longer matters. In the meantime there will be casualties.

Does anyone say transitioning is an individual choice free from outside pressures?

I think that people feel their gender as something more innate then just how they might externally express it.

I have encountered in my day job some very intriguing cases of gender ambiguity and the various conditions that cause it.

There is still very much the desire to "treat" such conditions by deciding which gender the person is closest too, yet quite a few in the intersex community feels it's wrong for their bodies to have been interfered with and they should have been allowed to decide for themselves.

I agree with other posters saying that my feeling of being a woman only comes from how others see me and treat me.

Fascinating thread.

I'm a woman. I have a vagina and all relevant bits. I know that 500 years ago the teen age version of me would probably be burned as a heretic for "dressing like a man" and probably living as one as well (according to that societies standards ). I only wore men's jeans, short hair hoodies. I was still a woman just because you know, I was. I wouldn't say I "feel like a woman" although when dealing with infertility I did for the first time feel like less of one...for some reason. but is that natural or a reaction to the way society sees every female human as a potential mother. As an adult I love cath kidston and bunting,I don't see those as womanly, I think society has decided they are feminine though. I haven't changed who I am since being a teenager I just like different things now that society seems to believe are gender conforming although that's a lot to do with society easing up on what is acceptable for women and how what we see as normal now might have once been seen as masculine.

I think I would struggle as a straight man as I think what "makes a man a man" is a much more rigid lifestyle then I could adhere to. men aren't allowed to enjoy "female" things for fear of catching the dreaded vaginaitus or the gay.

Am I talking nonsense? have I answered the question? it's the middle of the night here and I'm so tired

'I think I would struggle as a straight man as I think what "makes a man a man" is a much more rigid lifestyle then I could adhere to.'

Not nonsense at all, I think that's very true and relevant.
Men are the more privileged group in relation to women but induction into idealised manhood is not particularly pleasant.

I think this is one reason why a lot of women have an instinctive sympathy for transwomen - sort of 'don't blame you for not wanting to be a man, I wouldn't either'.

Interesting.

I have no idea what it 'feels like to be a woman'. Honestly, none at all.

I would never describe myself as trans-"phobic", I sympathise with transexual women and wish them all the best with finding themsleves/happiness/whatever they seek - but I honestly do not for a second understand what those who say they feel about the 'wrong' body are describing.

I am a female who was raised in a very gender-neutral way (In the 70s) and have some male-dominated hobbies. I studied a VERY male-dominated subject at university but now do a job that is more equally done by both male and female. I have friends who are men and friends who are women but mostly socialise in mixed-sex groups and most people in my social group socialise in mixed-sex groups.

I do minimal 'feminine grooming' as in I don't wear high heels, make up or 'style' my hair, but also I do not look male or even 'butch' - with my figure and features I couldn't but I also choose to have shoulder length hair and wear a mix of clothes, many of which are 'women's' in a subtle way (shape, pattern, colour) even when not overtly feminine.

Currently I am pregnant.. is that a 'woman' thing? Or is it just a 'female' thing? For now, even though I'm the pregnant one there's not a lot different in how my husband and I are approaching impending parent-hood....

So, OP - you are not alone in not knowing what it means to 'feel womanly'... but personally I have never felt the expectation to feel womanly so don't feel anything missing.

Changing my mind for the twentieth time... What it comes down to for me is that I've lived in one place for a long time, during which time I've been pregnant and breastfed. The vast majority of people I know have seen me breastfeeding or pregnant, so I am visibly reproductively female. There is nothing I can do other than move and not speaking to anybody I know ever again that is going to change that.

No amount of no longer coercively assigning gender at birth or bringing in different ways of organising gender is going to change the fact that pretty much everyone I know knows I am reproductively female. As I am already going to be perceived in that way with all the baggage that goes with it, I don't see any purpose in making any kind of statement to other people about the extent to which I am a woman (whatever people take that to mean) because that would just give me an additional category, not remove the one everyone already considers me to be in.

Whether there is any benefit to making that statement to myself, I don't know. I don't think I'm capable of dividing up everything about me into male and female thoughts and experiences. I'm not sure what a man or or a non-binary person gets to think or experience that I don't.

Tunip, thanks for your post of 10:47 Sunday.

Woman is entwined with what I am, I think. It's comfortable that way.

There is a limitation to the freedoms that men and boys have in this area though, isn't there? I mean, THESE days, no one blinks an eye at a girl in trousers or historically "masculine" clothing, but men who would like to wear skirts and dresses and other traditionally feminine clothing cop all sorts of hassle.

So when it comes to choosing whether or not to wear traditionally masculine or feminine clothing/garb, women have the advantage there.
One of the few areas we do, though.

No, I didn't mean that wearing a dress was a freedom for women - I meant that females have the choice between wearing a dress (feminine) or trousers (masculine) in most places now without prejudice; whereas men don't have that choice.

And yes, I agree with your first paragraph there. Other men do not like to see men "feminise" themselves - and indeed some don't like to see women in trousers - because it is seen as weak and "girly". Yes, women are still definitely seen as the underclass by too significant a proportion of society and the trappings of womanhood are seen as signs of that second-class status.

Possibly getting into the trivial here, but I don't view wearing a skirt as a restriction. I almost always wear a skirt or a dress because I find them more physically comfortable. I can understand that people who were made to wear them for some kind of dress code and didn't like wearing them would find that restrictive. I don't wear them primarily for the sake of appearance but for physical comfort.

some skirts and some dresses are very comfortable, but many are built for looks and not comfort and combined with the rules for women. knees together, don't show your knickers, don't bend over, can't reach up. they're very restrictive