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 am 55 and more or less unemployable after 20 years of a patchy part time/small business work record...... that makes me feel wonderfully womanly.

Well I went for a run this morning and ended up going along a busy road instead of through the woods where I wanted to go because it seemed really isolated and I remembered that time alone in the woods when a man told me he was going to rape me and laughed when I ran away. Felt pretty womanly. And angry. Definitely angry.

Woke up. Existed as a biological female. Craved foods in a way a way no man will EVER experience.

My morning sickness is making me feel pretty darn womanly. The constipation that results from being sick every time I drink more than half a cup of water is also contributing to my feelings of femininity.

My tits are also swollen and tender and covered in veins. My husband keeps squeezing them and commenting that they're 'magnificent' and we argue on a more-than-daily basis about how it hurts me when he touches them but he always conveniently forgets that.

Well I'm pregnant and I feel like utter shit because of it. Don't get much more womanly than that.

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.

I feel like a woman today by being angry at my dh who said I ‘put barriers in the way’ of accomplishing what I need to. Those barriers bring our fucking dc and their needs who I’m responsible for as dh is out of the country and due to his job we moved and I have no local support system.

Going to the toilet 3 times already today trying to do a proper poo because 2x vaginal births have resulted in, er, issues.

Waking up sweaty from bf hormones. Yay glamorous. Wanting a shower but can't yet because baby.

Researching pelvic floor programs online and deciding which one to pay for.

Feeling angry about be penised people tweeting things like "I'll use your toilets, and kick your teeth in"

Posted to soon in my anger.

I feel womanly today because I’m angry at male privilege.

Failed entirely at womaning today. Put on gumboots and sloshed out in the mud to take hay to the horses. I wore lipgloss, does that count?

Woken up at 4 by period pains. Googling cervical cancer symptoms because I bled after I had sex last.

DuesToTheDirt I switched to a wool duvet and it has helped my night sweats enormously.

Changed sheet this morning due to leaking blood on it.

Worrying about whether the thing I can feel in my breast is a lump or not.

Fitbit told me I'm due on today.

I’m still angry with the numerous woman on Facebook who told me that biology doesn’t define their ‘womanhood’ as a result of the JKR stuff. Today I mostly feel like a woman because I seem to be solely responsible for keeping four other people (one of whom is an adult with a Very Important Job) fed and clothed. Responsible for educating two of these people because their school is closed and arranging contact with their friends, responsible for not killing their various pets by neglect. Meal planning, cleaning cooking, thinking up entertaining activities, remembering other childrens’ birthdays.

Having to take time out and de-prioritise my career because that was the only thing that made economic sense. Shouldn’t have taken all that maternity leave!

@ThatLockdownLyfe

I think I may have similar issues as most of my bottom fell out during birth and I am left with a womanly rectocele. Can I recommend an extra long shower hose (a few quid on amazon) so that you can squirt a jet in the right place to assist.

Sorry for derail and possible TMI but it was a life changer for me to feel both empty and clean after going to the loo. It also helps feel cleaner when heavy periods hit hard.

I work in a call centre and just got greeted with 'alright darling?' by a bloke who proceeded to talk all over me when I was trying to help him. That's a definite feature of womanhood. I'd be happy to share it with anyone who fancies themselves a woman....

Thing is how do I know that I feel like a woman if it’s all I know? How I feel right now could be exactly how a man would be feeling? So how do people know they don’t feel female or male? It’s all bollocks really isn’t it.

But I am a woman, I am very proud to be a woman and all the associated pain, childbirth, hormones, etc that goes with it.

I now have that flipping annoying man I feel like a woman going round in my head.

I got up and have added folic acid to my daily supplement taking because of a split condom dh and I ignored 2 weeks ago and now I'm late for my period, haven't had time to get a test yet but thought I'd better start.
Another baby won't be such a bad thing, but ds isn't 1 yet 🤦‍♀️

33 weeks pregnant. Didn’t sleep much at all due to heartburn and needing to wee every half hour. Either have a varicose vein or trapped nerve on one side of my vulva which is making it painful to walk and hard to find a position to lie in that doesn’t hurt. Feeling guilty and a bit worried that I didn’t start my injections I’ve just been prescribed last night as I couldn’t bring myself to do it (not stunning and brave enough) and couldn’t ask DH’s help as he was a bit pissed and didn’t want him injecting me like that. Overall am understanding that DH wanted a drink last night - it had been his grandmother’s funeral in the day (FIL’s mother - but it was MIL who did all the running around organising it just as she did the majority of the caring for the grandmother, she looked fucking exhausted yesterday so I do have woman feelings of concern for her at the moment too). However slightly frustrated that DH’s life and body continue unchanged right now. Injections are blood thinners prescribed due to various risk factors including family history which includes my own mother having a history of blood clots and dying in childbirth with me, so I’m having some woman feelings about that and about my own impending birth.

Thanks for reminding me to do my pelvic floor exercises.

Mansplaining by someone who should know better.

Reading about 'how to make myself look sexy after 50'.

Had an extra long shower because I’m having a smear later.

Crikey. I don't.
Does this mean I am a man?
Although I woke up this morning feeling like I want to eat porridge so maybe I'm a bear.

Or Goldilocks.

Nope. I've got back to back online meetings and shedloads of preparation plus parenting to do. Much too busy to be a woman today. Maybe I could fit it in tomorrow?

Interesting how so many of you are feeling womanly due to pregnancy or period. Almost as if you'd deliberately picked something that transwomen will never experience 😉

I'm not pregnant. I don't menstruate. I am not even close to "proper" menopause. What does that make me?

I have XY chromosomes 🤷🏼‍♀️