How do you 'feel like a woman' today?

[hypernormal]

The question of how it's possible for someone to 'feel like a woman' is usually answered by those who 'identify as female' with sexist stereotypes - things such as liking barbie as a child, playing with girls, liking makeup and dresses etc. I'm interested to hear how biological women would answer this question.

This morning I woke up early with period pains, so I took some paracetamol. Then, when I changed my menstrual cup it was so full that it spilled on my trousers that I'd just put on, so I had to wash them and find something else to wear that will fit my massively, hormonally bloated stomach. This is not something that happens to transwomen, yet this is the only way in which I 'feel like a woman' so far today.

How do you 'feel like a woman' today?

Have we all synced? I'm feeling periody.

I have an issue with very occasionally doing an unintended wee due to damage during my first birth. Does that count as feeling like a woman even though I haven't got any false lashes on?

The elastic's gone in my knickers, I made a shit job of these cut off shorts and this t shirt is shapeless and faded with a bleach stain on it - am I even a woman if I don't have any woman signifiers to say so?

I'm feeling womanly today, as my hormones are all over the shop because of the menopause. I'm debilitated by an illness that affects far more women than men. I'm pissed off with the world, but I don't think that's down to being female.

I have looked at my face with its hag hairs and wondered why so few women's faces look as hairy as mine. Am I failing in the womanhood stakes, or is the natural face of an older woman taboo? I'm a bit miserable about it, to be honest.

Interesting how so many of you are feeling womanly due to pregnancy or period.

I think you're spectacularly missing the point.

The one thing all females have in common is the experience - which is frequently shit - of having to live with female biology.

It's interesting that on hearing females talking about the specific challenges of female biology and the difficult bits of the day, your instinct is to a) reproach them for sharing this because mean to TW who don't have that biology and b) by doing so, make it All About You.

I don't know if you've noticed, but female people are human too? Why do you wish them to erase themselves and talk (even among themselves) only in ways that conceal most of themselves and their lives for your benefit?

Trust me, I don't feel 'womanly' today because of my clothing choices, hairstyle or the hobbies I'm indulging.

I am being hit in the face with the aspects of life my body creates which I can't identify out of. I don't 'feel' womanly so much as try a lot to ignore it while going about the business of daily life.

Every day is a reminder that abusive men's rights to continue to harass are more important than mine to a safe and comfortable life. His rights to not want a divorce are more important than my need to be free. And fuck it, I need a real bath. Almost four months now and counting of chilly bathing in a bucket. My oppression is not a fashion.

Am I a woman? Today I have dug in a load of compost to the bean bed, helped sort out a plumbing leak, am wearing comfy trousers trainers and a fleece and not wearing makeup.
Not likely to have a period either.

The answer is yes, because it's not stereotypes that make me a woman but my biology.

@1WildTeaParty

What makes me feel like a woman? Well I was going to say nothing at all, I'm just me.

And then I realised I put XY instead of XX. 🤦🏼‍♀️

So I guess I do have a ditzy lady brain after all.

Can I blame giving birth? DS is a teenager but it's gotta be worth a shot?

I haven't felt like a woman today. I've been in a meeting all morning representing my client on contract negotiations and I've been uncooperative, unsympathetic and pushy,

Perhaps I'm a man today.

I am pregnant and suffering horrible morning sickness, I barely slept last night because my daughter is teething, and I have no chance to catch up on sleep because my day's schedule is packed full of boring, thankless tasks that I need to complete, none of which are for my own personal benefit.

I'd say that's all pretty fucking womanly.

I sat in a meeting this morning where someone who has just been invited into the project spend 20 minutes mansplaining the work I’ve spent 4 months on to me.

I also have underboob rubbing because I really need to go buy some new bras.

Oh the fucking joy!

My 3 year old constantly shouting “Mummy” at me?
The ongoing daily pain of SPD despite giving birth over 3 years ago?
Responsibility of sorting childcare due to shortened nursery hours thanks to Covid-19?
Trying to study and look after said 3 year old

It’s certainly not my jeans and T-shirt, or my long hair that make me a woman.

Well I unexpectedly got my period at work and am hot and sweaty due to that and in pain due to having Fibromyalgia that is currently thought to be down to my last labour six years ago.

Or it could be the pink stripes on my trainers or my long hair (which is tied up in a messy knot because I nearly took scissors to it at 11am when I was sweating profusely)

It's a tricky one isn't it. I woke up at 5am dripping in sweat (again) thanks to the menopause. DH went to work and I was left at home with the DC. So far so womanly.

But then I dressed in jeans and a men's T shirt, did not even consider applying make-up (and can't remember when I last did) and got on with paid work. I was able to answer tricky science and maths questions from the DC, but was totally crap at multi-tasking so failed to do much of my own work. I ignored phone calls from MIL because I am too busy to chat and I do not feel guilty about it. All very manly.

I think I class myself as 'woman' because of the pesky biological fact stuff. But perhaps I just don't understand and am actually a man. But then by even considering that perhaps I am not always right surely I must be a woman. In which case why do I feel angry at the way women are being treated? Why am I not drawn to all things pink and fluffy? It's so confusing- which means I can conclude that I must have a pink brain after all! Thank goodness we can leave it to the mans to tell us all what's right and what we should be doing.

How do I feel like a woman today

Tired from menopause related sleeplessness

Angry at the men that try to bully women into silence

I feel very tired & guilty because I’ve got to balance full time work, deadlines, home schooling 3 kids (single parent), cooking for them, washing their clothes and cleaning up after them, and helping relatives who are old & frightened. I haven’t exercised for weeks and also feel fat & unhealthy & desperate for time alone. There is an odd smell in my kitchen. And I have run out of my HRT.

Obviously, I’m wearing pink & looking fantastically glamorous because that’s what being female is all about, isn’t it?

@MilkTwoSugarsThanks and your false claim to maleness :)

My new watch has a pink strap - does that make me womanly?

Other than I feel angry that my husband’s employers see my work as less important than his so of course I can do mine this evening and look after our daughter during the day while he has works. In reality DH has come downstairs to help me manage multiple tantrums and on his lunch break he emptied the dishwasher and tidied up the kitchen because I’m so pregnant that I can’t bend properly.

Oh I’ve also cried a few times today so guess that makes me womanly. No make up or high heels here though.

Feeling like a real woman doing all the housework and cooking. Earning less and doing more.

I had to ask my husband to shift some
furniture for me because even though I work out and he does not I am still not as strong as him.

I was spotting this morning and have cramps, so was reminded about being a woman by my impending period.

A man on a work conference call asked me if I work part time. None of my male colleagues have ever been asked such a thing, and I have always worked FT, so why might he have been asking me?

I also took a call about one of my kids' medical appointments, which my DH had booked (and he had left his number for follow up). But as we all know the default for child-related chores is to call the mother so the call came to me. It was good interrupting my work to deal with that sort of thing, after all only a woman can handle child admin.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

I'm wearing pants with no bow, so I had to trouble my woman brain to work out the back from the front. Luckily my bra did have a little bit of detail on the front.

ahh...is that what those bows are for? I always cut them off because their piddly existence annoys me so much. I'm definitenely not doing this woman thing right, am I?

Have we all synced? I'm feeling periody.

The posters on this thread will to be to some extent a self-selecting sample who for whatever reason are 'feeling like a woman' today (rather than just, well, feeling like a human). So it is to be expected that women whose bodies are doing something specifically female at the moment will be overrepresented. Hence lots of periods, pregnancies, menopause symptoms.

Had no womanly feelings today - apart from noticing boobs slightly sore when I went for a run today. Need new mega sports bra to keep my boobs under control. It will have no allure whatsoever. It’s an entirely practical need.

Otherwise no womaning today. Unless you mean working plus housework, shopping, cooking, worrying about children’s education and just generally being absolutely fucking raging.

@Polly99

I had to ask my husband to shift some furniture for me because even though I work out and he does not I am still not as strong as him.

I was spotting this morning and have cramps, so was reminded about being a woman by my impending period.

A man on a work conference call asked me if I work part time. None of my male colleagues have ever been asked such a thing, and I have always worked FT, so why might he have been asking me?

I also took a call about one of my kids' medical appointments, which my DH had booked (and he had left his number for follow up). But as we all know the default for child-related chores is to call the mother so the call came to me. It was good interrupting my work to deal with that sort of thing, after all only a woman can handle child admin.

The medical appointment thing happened to me last week - DH made it and was waiting for the call but they asked for me by default. Still trying to decide if I’m going to make a complaint about it.

The house ran out of shampoo, so I went to the shop.

I'm bleeding like a stuck pig with a perimenopausal period. With the period comes a migraine. I've suffered migraines for 20 years since I had my first child. Of course, there's no effective treatment for the migraines because it's generally a medical issue for women, rather than people that identify as women.
Oh, and I've just got home from my low-paid job that I'm massively overqualified for ..
Yes, I do feel womanly today!