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?

@Mascotte Own the longer hair , I have decided you let mine grow . I had short hair 2 years ago and I felt so mumsy but because of my age (53) thought it should be short , 2 years on its bra length swishy highlighted and I've decided to see how long I can get it before I'm 60 .
I love it , if you like it keep it

Because I am due on in about three days and I've just walked into the living room and DH has left coriander bits all over the side table where he was eating his tea and not cleaned them up. And got curry on the fucking cushion and just left it for me to clean up.

I feel an in proportionate amount of rage about this and think he's showing a complete lack of respect I'm not his fucking mother.

@Starbonnet123 I think I just bloody well will! 😃

Reading this:
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

(M. Angelou, I hope this is okay)

I have an online interview today and have made sure that my children are hidden away upstairs with devices so they don't interrupt me. As a women I'm concerned that a potential employer will see them as a negative to my already women status.

This morning I breastfed my baby, did my pelvic floor exercises to help my prolapse, caused by giving birth to my baby, got asked by my landlord if I was married because my 'maiden name' was on my tenancy agreement and they will change it for me. No actually my name is my name, not my maiden name and I bet you wouldn't have asked my husband why his name was different.

@Mascotte you do that 😁 enjoy the swishyness .

I haven't RTFT but the first couple of pages made me think. What if all these ways in which we 'feel like a woman' serve as a horrible reminder that you're female and this causes alot of psychological pain.

I remember absolutely hating my first periods and longing to be a boy.
I even went for a couple of years pretending to be a boy. I don't think I had gender dysphoria, but I feel for those who genuinely suffer with it - and think they get lost a bit in this debate as it rages.

I wonder what the treatment is when you feel a misalignment with your sense of self and your body. Counselling? Because it must be awful.

@Anoualler

Reading this: Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

(M. Angelou, I hope this is okay)

Love that , I've just googled it and read the whole poem . It really speaks volumes .

Hmm well probably the fact I can no longer run without leaking? Or the early morning breastfeeding? Or the time I sat in a three hour meeting and got up to find my light blue jeans and the chair were covered in blood? Couldn't give a fuvk about barbies though. Or short skirts, or garish lipstick.

I’ve got cramps, only had them 2 weeks ago ffs. Think I’m menopausal

I’m breastfeeding my 4 week old baby whilst simultaneously attempting to entertain a slightly bored 3 year old who can help himself to the contents of the fridge,

It’s the multi tasking most of all that makes me feel like a woman today

No man I know can do either of these things

@cheezy I see what you mean, but that's life, isn't it? These things, or their absence, can also be bet upsetting to women who feel their body has failed them in some way.

Be, not bet.

Exhausted from night feeding
Sore nipples from the growth spurting, angry baby
Perineal pain as healing from the birth still
Afterpains

Rage at DH complaining he had to get up at 7am rather than 8 with the three year old

Like a previous poster mentioned - being a woman is painful and sometimes embarrassing too

I hated the bleeding of periods when I was a young teenager and wished I was a boy

It wasn’t gender disphoria though

@cheezy yes I imagine it is awful. I'm just not sure I really believe that it suddenly affects thousands more teenagers. What does affect them is the difficulty and humiliation that is involved in becoming a woman. Sometimes I'd have very much wished I could get away from random builders saying stuff like "those would be great to jizz on". I worry that lots of people either think they're in the wrong body because misogyny is so entrenched, or they have other significant MH difficulties, to which changing their body seems like the answer. I've been looking up tran women's opinions on twitter, the ones who are not TRAs are so lovely and have no intention of claiming womanhood. They really wish they could, and it's a sad and complex subject. Then you've got that one bragging about how she scared a woman away from the toilets in booz Allen Hamilton, like it was some sort of victory in a war....

I definitely feel like a woman today: I've been listening to a daft shoot em up thriller and they keep calling in the HRT.... 😂😂

Apparently it's the Hostage Rescue Team.

I'm groggy from having a night interrupted by hot sweats, and really, really pissed off because my period has started after nearly a year which would have meant I was post menopause, but the counter has just been reset to zero. Oh, and it's a really heavy, flooding period, and I only had regular tampons in (which are in fact my daughter's who's away at uni) as I had hoped I'd seen the back of periods. That womanly enough?

I’m having to have injections of a blood thinner due to risk of clotting in pregnancy. I tried to do it myself but couldn’t bring myself to, so husband has been doing it for me. He knows I need him to do it before he has a drink as I don’t feel comfortable if he’s had a beer. Came in to see he’s about 3 beers in. He’s not pissed and could probably still do it for me, in the end he sat with me and said reassuring things whilst I did it myself. It’s fine, no big deal.

But the reason it made me think of this thread was him saying ‘I’m so sorry I just completely forgot’ and I just thought (and did say!) ‘well lucky fucking you’.

Dunno, we both desperately wanted this baby but it just hammered home the huge disparity in what we’re going through to be parents. Not that it can be any different of course, I’m just grumpy today - woman grumpy.

Interstitial cystitis - feeling like being a women means becoming overly critical of the comfort of my loo seat after 15 minutes and the boring decor in my bathroom. Feeling like a women means I Need advanced serveillance skills when out to spot toilets.....Can’t cycle to keep fit any more! 😢 . Being on antibiotics long term.

Yes, and the sleep deprivation from night sweats- 5 years post menopausal and still going strong

I think the key issue here is for women many of us are defined by biological functions and dis-functions especially as we get older or have kids. I don’t believe that men are as affected by their biology outside of sexual intercourse...could be why so many don’t recognise that feeling like a women isn’t about looking pretty....

Went for a run in a built up area rather then the stunning forest close by due to fear

@ScrimpshawTheSecond

This! I have female biology that manifests I'm away that only biological females will ever experience. Fact.

The dismissal of any of my feelings as “hormones”. Been happening since I was 10.

Don’t be silly it’s just your hormones
You’re just upset because of your hormones.

Nobody ever bothered to find out why I was upset, or angry, or if they could help, my feelings were never genuine.

Men otoh are listened to.

It does piss me off when women post on here with a shitty situation they have every right to be pissed off or upset about, and then minimise with “i’m probably upset because TOTM/pregnancy”. No, someone treated you like shit, that’s why you’re upset, don’t excuse it.

Went for a run in a built up area rather then the stunning forest close by due to fear

Always this