Beautiful essay from FC

[ISaySteadyOn]

Here www.feministcurrent.com/2018/07/07/feeling-like-woman/

Can anyone make it a click link? I can't do it on my phone.

www.feministcurrent.com/2018/07/07/feeling-like-woman/

Thanks!

That is a clicky link. Thanks for sharing: I enjoyed reading that

Wow what a great article, really resonated with me, thanks!

Thanks.

It is a good essay. My experience of being that age was very very similar.

I don’t think it will do much to convince the gender ideology squad, sadly. They seem convinced that we’re setting up ‘woman’ as some exclusive club and anything we describe as being part of womanhood is some mean exclusive arbitrary entrance criteria we’re being smug about. (See: belief that those ‘pussy hats’ were women boasting about having vaginas, wtaf.) And I have absolutely heard people respond to things like this piece by seeing it as another set of entrance criteria - “oh so you’re saying that only women who’ve suffered deserve womanhood?”

I don’t know how you explain to people like this that we see “woman” as a descriptive term, not the Groucho Club or the Freemasons or something.

Thanks for that, so important to remember that puberty is hard and it’s normal and very common to not like your body while going through these changes

I have said this on other threads and will repeat it here, that's because the gender ideology squad doesn't really think women are people. We are a costume to put on when it suits them. All the same old misogyny in a new progressive parcel.

That’s a very interesting article. It seems it’s very common to have a negative experience of going through puberty.
For me, I looked forward to becoming a woman. I was excited about starting my period, my breasts developing and getting my first bra.
I never felt ashamed of my body and I do wonder why not. I suspect reading Judy Blume books and talking about them with friends at the age of ten might have something to do with it. I also think going to a single sex school helped as it meant I didn’t experience as many comments about by developing figure. My parents were also usually sensitive about it and mostly supportive.
I wonder if my largely positive experience of puberty is uncommon amongst us.

Nuff

My experience was not that dissimilar, regarding body changes (although my periods were awful and there was never any suggestion that there could have been any help for that). I think emotionally, though, puberty was hard

@Nuffaluff no, me too. I was excited to 'grow up' and I remember examining my pants in forensic detail hoping that my period had started.

I have to say, though, that despite my positive feelings about it, puberty did have a massive impact on me. I remember struggling to sit up on the backless stools in the science lab while I was on my period, and the fear of standing up at the end of a lesson in case I'd leaked. I had time off school with the pain and in the end (after several years) had to go on the pill to manage my periods so I could carry on living somewhat normally for those 8-10 days every month.

So even though I didn't have those negative feelings about my changing body, and I don't think I'd have gone back to pre puberty given the chance, I didn't enjoy the actual experience very much. Which in itself is kind of weird!

@Transplantsareplants X-post! Yes indeed, the emotional side was a WHOLE other ball game...

I was so excited to get my period. Thank you, Judy Blume. Except no one told me about the cramps that knock you flat or how long you bleed or that you would worry about staining or that you would stain. So it was mixed for me.

I don’t think it will do much to convince the gender ideology squad

I was angry when I lost control of my body. When my breasts appeared and my uterus bled. When this foul and mutating vessel made everyone around me think that I, too, had somehow changed.

I never asked for menstruation products, so getting my period was another secret shame

It doesn't convince me. I find language like the quotes above completely alien. It is clearly her experience and of posters on FWR - but is it routine amongst women to have such shame and loathing about their bodies? I'm really not convinced of that.

I can remember the girls in my class talking about who had started their periods and who hadn't. I can remember one girl who started early telling us what it was like. I don't recall anything shameful about this.