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?

I think my postpartum hair loss may have stopped - hooray!

Had the bloke behind me in the supermarket queue hand his items to the cashier while she was still dealing with me as though to demand instant service. He was then looking me up and down and smirking, then kind of shook his head at the cashier, as apparently I wasn't packing my bags quick enough for him. There were no other people in the queue, so he hadn't had to wait apart from the 30 seconds or so it took me to pack my bags. He seemed to think that his dick should give him instant service and priority to be served before me. Bizarre.

Back is hurting from carrying my baby around all day, currently breastfeeding him to sleep. Feels pretty womanly .

I’ve also feeling pretty hormonal, older kids driving me nuts, twinges that feels like period pains (hope not as I’ve not had a period since baby was born a year ago and the first one back with my others was awful). Feel to totally touched out!

Repeatedly breastfed a bored / attention starved 2 year old whilst trying to work, including during at least one video call. Sighed while DP comments yet again that his professionalism is slipping away from him what with having kids at home while trying to work. Not today but we've had multiple conversations about why his stress is more important than mine.

I have suppressed my feelings to avoid male anger and done all the wife work.

Woke up after a broken night's sleep (hot flushes)
Used a walking stick to get to the bathroom due to menopause induced arthritis. Arthritis which my young male GO just shrugs at with "well, what did you expect?" Err.. an investigation into its sudden and crippling appearance following a fall, that went beyond a reluctant prod and maybe some painkillers?

I then had several meetings that included some truly epic mansplaining in one and the constant checking of every technical point I made with a junior male in another. As a woman in a tech field I'm used to this. One of the joys of remote working is meetings have text chat as well as voice and video. I've taken up writing most of my contributions as it's hard to ignore them or claim them as your own if there's written, time stamped evidence that I made that precise point 10 minutes earlier.

@atgnat

That's something I hadn't considered before - the impact of biological differences in the reproductive 'time windows' between men and women on life-defining decisions around partnerships, careers and health.

(I know that men also suffer from reduced fertility as they age, but the change happens more gradually for men, and significantly later).

[quote cheeseismydownfall]@atgnat

That's something I hadn't considered before - the impact of biological differences in the reproductive 'time windows' between men and women on life-defining decisions around partnerships, careers and health.

(I know that men also suffer from reduced fertility as they age, but the change happens more gradually for men, and significantly later).[/quote]
It's on my mind a lot lately. My partner and I are the same age and pretty much 'decided' on no kids but I often consider how there'll come a point where technically he could still have a child when I can't. It's made even worse by the fact that I'm projected to go into early menopause based on family history.

Something else I think of is how men probably have more of an equilibrium in how they feel throughout the month. I can tell at what point I am in my cycle based on how I feel/symptoms at any given point. I feel different right after my period, the follicular phase, ovulation, the luteal phase (14 days of PMS!) and of course my period. It affects so many aspects of my life, and I know not all women will have the same experience, but I think we all know that no man will ever no what it feels like to be ruled by shifting feelings and symptoms throughout the month - every month.

Also angry having just read this FFS.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/17/police-in-england-and-wales-dropping-inquiries-when-victims-refuse-to-hand-in-phones

My teenage daughter who is bigger than me sat on my lap, said mum I love you.
I looked at her Darling dad's eyes looking back at me, and thought I made this, I made and grew this almost woman, from one tiny egg.

So even though I no longer have periods, or am able to gestate a child, I still retain have that bodily memory and experience.

Yes... although I'm post meno, so free of many of the trials of the female reproductive system, I've 'felt like a woman' reading and viscerally understanding some of the posts on this thread.

Woke up with a twanging c-section scar, despite the fact my youngest child is 20. I’ve done some heavy lifting over the past few days, so that might be it.

Got called ‘darling’ by an over-friendly chap at the garden centre.

I felt like a woman last week, when my vagina bled for five days.

I'll feel like a woman next week, when my hormones hit "actually has a sex drive" mode and any undercarriage-tingles are felt internally rather than in non-existent dangly bits. Erections will most definitely not feature.

I'll feel like a woman the week after, when I'm checking the calendar and then apologising to DD for being a grumpy bugger.

This week, though, is the one week out of four in which my menstrual cycle is not screwing me over. Huzzah!

I still got to feel like a woman this morning though, when I was trying to find a reusable pad, because my bladder was a bit shit to start with and childbirth really didn't help matters and I cba with changing my pants every time I cough.

Stuck on a HRT patch and swallowed an anti-depressant to combat hot flushes and mood swings.
Cared for my elderly mother.
Did housework and worked from home.
Wore my 18 year old sons cast off t-shirt and pyjama shorts because they are comfy. don’t own high heels. Chopped some chunks out of my short, but thick hair. I ‘m not sure if I’m womanly enough to be a woman

Also angry having just read this FFS.

Me too

@atgnat, I hear you. I'm feeling pretty ashamed of myself this evening for how shouty and frustrated I have been with the children today.

In the middle of feeling shitty, my cycle tracking app has literally just alerted me to the fact I may be experiencing PMT symptoms right now. Obviously it is no excuse but it is so real and has a huge impact on me (and I know I'm "lucky" and don't suffer particularly badly). My sister who has severe endometriosis looses hundreds of pounds a year as a result of having to take sick leave - she works in a small company that only offers statutory sick pay.

Some junior man at work mansplained the obvious making me feel belittled and exasperated

I put the kids to bed and provided emotional support to a sad friend over the phone

I cooked a meal for my elderly neighbour and left it on the doorstep

I took oil of primrose oil for my hormones

I ate chocolate

I had very little time for myself due to working and caring for others

I agree with pp - wearing older sons trackie bottoms or t shirts was a bloody revelation. Size 14 Vs Men's Medium. Get the latter! The latter is cut so it doesn't dig into your stomach/is roomy/doesn't ride up or cling/HAS POCKETS.

Women are presented with shite uncomfortable impractical clothing. Of course we have a choice but it's normal to just shop in the area we are expected to. If I didn't have teen son I'd have no idea.

Probably why men ejaculating over stockings dresses and cute outfits and all the very least uncomfortable pieces of female clothing are so very baffling and offensive. Try being routinely presented with it for thirty years and spending most of a day adjusting or fiddling.

As a human being, we all feel emotions, we all feel happiness and fear, pain and pleasure, we live and we hate.
But being a woman is the biological side, the growing of boobs, hoping yours fill your bra, or stop growing a DD hurts your back.
Checking your friends and if they have more boobs than you, yes we all told each other when our periods happened, and we all had one friend, teacher who had a just in case supply.
Your excitement as your friendship group all talk about weddings,children and LTB cos he upset you.
Men have different experiences.
No amount of surgery can change this.
So some Transwoman look better than me, I have a fat tummy, a stretch marks and saggy boobs.
So my outsides are not perfect, but my inside core is very much all woman, something a sex change can never alter or provide.

*least comfortable

I'm looking after (and teaching, whilst working from home) three young children on my own due to the fact that their father continues to be a waste of oxygen. And trying to explain to my eldest that, yes, her friend was able to go and visit her dad's house and, yes, her other friends mostly do live with their fathers but, no, she cannot do that and I can't really expand on that. I don't know how to explain to a five year old what I can barely comprehend myself- how a person who otherwise functions perfectly fine in society, is very happy never to see their children again. It's funny how often it's the male of the species who buggers off, seeing as we're all existing on an ever fluid spectrum somewhere.

If the TRAs wanted something a little lighter, I have now been wearing the same bra for so long that it has developed a sentience and a personality of it's own. I don't know how it identifies yet but, based on the conversations we've been having, I know that is partial to tuna sandwiches and the music of Annie Lennox. Tis a glamorous life, this lady business.

Now I feel like a woman because I'd like to head out for a walk, but I live remotely and it's getting dark, and heading out alone in an unpopulated place puts me at risk of possibly encountering sexual violence.

Maybe it sounds dramatic to put it like that, but isn't that the reality?

Maybe it sounds dramatic to put it like that, but isn't that the reality?

Yes. There are times when I'll be out for a walk and want to explore a wood or something, but then my instincts kick in & warn me not to. And it's INFURIATING.

How do I 'feel like a woman' today? I'm tired of working, mostly because several of my clients treat me like an idiot because they are males and my poor wee lady brain couldn't possibly understand some of the concepts we're discussing. They may not know much outside their areas of expertise and therefore I absolutely won't and therefore need to be told in excruciating detail even though some of them are dolts with nowhere near the knowledge and experience in the work that I have.

As others here I'm tired of juggling too many tasks in not enough time with little to look forward to.

I'm fed up to the back teeth with being deemed inconsequential because I'm over age 55. Aging men are acceptable but aging women should (supposedly) disappear after our usefulness is gone.

I'm tired of men telling me how to be a woman and why they know better than I how to do that.

Most of all I feel that I'm no longer going to put up with a lot of shite in life and am going to call out bad behaviour when I see it. What others think of this won't matter because I want the next 20 years of my life to be better than the last 50.