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 had a piss sitting down, I didn't pee on the toilet seat or the floor.

@wrongsideofhistorymyarse

I'm on day three of my first period in six weeks (yay perimenopause) and feeling bloated and in pain.

I'm having to wear a bra despite living on my own just in case my boss video calls. Big boobs are unprofessional, apparently.

And I've read this morning some dippy idiot describing feminism as a franchise that should now benefit men. So I'm angry.

Big boobs unprofessional 😂😂 maybe your boss has boob envy..its like saying I can't be professional as I have green eyes mad nsd world

Think I've just had an early miscarriage. I feel an absolute wreck, although if that is what happened it is the best outcome really. I could not bear the anxiety of being pregnant in a pandemic. I find the NHS, much as I love it, a fairly traumatic experience at the best of times (I have a female specific reason to, not going into it here). I've been really lucky with pregnancies in the past but I have several friends who've experienced recurrent miscarriage whilst TTC. I had imagined their feelings of loss, but not realised the intense hormonal shit storm that accompanies it. I've never felt like this before.

Well today I agree OP. I came on my period yesterday and almost flooded my bed last night 😫 my stomach is cramping and I feel bloated as hell. Hate this time of the month!

Oh stillathing I'm sorry that's shit. There are miscarriage and loss boards here if you need to talk? Otherwise feel free to PM me.

I've been there twice too and no person reacts the same to another, sometimes you don't react the same to multiple losses.

DC is stuck in an endless cycle of "mama-ah ick pool, mama-ah ick pool, mama-ah ick pool!!!" (Sounds posh as hell but we're not really also, it's an ice pole, not a gross pool!)

So that's how I feel like a woman. My biological DC, that I carried and birthed reminds me every single day that I am a woman.

Well pleased I am no longer having periods as I sympathise with everyone on here ,and my own DD who is experiencing tum pain, swelling boobs and constipation /trapped pee as a precursor to the main event (due tomorrow)! She is not usually envious of me in my comfy trousers and loose tops, but would want to change places with me just for a day (So she says!).I have had 30 plus years of periods ,am minus a fallopian tube and missing an ovary,due to gynae probs ! So yep feeling very" womanly "today!

As the proud possessor of a now purposeless womb and ovaries and one remaining Fallopian tube, my feelings of womanliness centre on menopausal mood swings resulting from said purposelessness. This morning I am anxious, but that could change on a hair trigger to rage. It's almost like PMT, without the P or the M ..... so, T I guess!

I’m feeling very up and down because I had a miscarriage two weeks ago. And I’m wondering when the spotting will stop so I can TTC again. Very womanly.

So sorry stillathing 💐

I’ve had 6 nights of my 15 month waking every 90 minutes, she slept through last night so whilst I feel refreshed my left boob is the size of a bowling ball, not my right because of course she has a preference to just one.

So it’s a day in a sports bra and odd looks when I do the shop.

Does wfh in an essential role whilst homeschooling 2 fed up primary school age children, whilst DH has “gone into the office to get some peace” count?

Just want to give to all those who've commented and are struggling in one way or another. I started this thread a bit flippantly, though annoyed at my period problems and how talking about these are seen as 'exclusionary' and 'cis privilege', wanting to make it clear that 'feeling like a woman' isn't about attraction to lippy and frilly knickers. I didn't expect so many heartfelt answers, hope you all have the support you need.

I'm exhausted because I spent half the night feeding the baby. Yes bottle feeding fathers may share night feeding, but no man experiences the sore nipples and tiredness combo of a reverse cycling, cluster feeding, breast fed baby.

Hmmm, I don't think I've done or thought anything particularly womanly today. I am a single parent so everything child and home-related falls to me anyway.
No period, no night sweats, no leaky bladder, no boob issues, no make up on.
I did some work for the therapy I'm having for my eating disorder which started during my abusive marriage and statistically both those affect women more than men.

I switched my running t-shirt from a pink one to a darker colour. It screams lone female and that’s the most likely time I’ll be heckled and threatened by men.

I think for me, though, my main womanly thing at the moment is the feeling of impending doom that strikes just before a hot flush comes. Would be difficult for someone who isn’t a woman who’s gone through the menopause to appreciate what that feels like imho.

I hear you. They warn you, a bit, about the physical effects, but the overwhelming anxiety and the feeling of never again being your real self doesn’t get a mention. Night sweats, night chills, constantly interrupted sleep. I’m not sure men have the fortitude to be women.

Well I’ve been sent back to some sort of 1950’s version of womanliness where I’m now responsible for all cooking and cleaning and have nothing else to do because of covid.

I sacrificed my original career for children and it took years to find a job that worked round them and it currently doesn’t exist and may never exist as it was... ironically my original not child friendly career is covid proof, but, I’d have to retrain to do it.

Other than that... I’m a bit cold, I keep being told that’s a woman thing?...

Can’t think of much else today anyway...

Everyday, as we get less pay, less respect - than males.

Plus boob sweat after a run.

Apart from justified anger towards twitter trolls who prove violent men are to be feared...

I have pins and needles in my left arm, where my breastfed baby is sleeping now, and bruised bleeding nipples where he's teething. I'm typing one handed.

I've had to use up my work leave because working from home with him is just not sustainable. I'm burned out and neglecting both him and my job. Until I took leave I worked past midnight for 6 solid weeks to catch up.

This is quite girly, I was going to wear a white top then saw my black bra still ok to wear and changed to a dark top so as not to have too many bras on the go and disrupt my washing 😂

I'm sitting here sweating profusely even though it's not especially hot, because I'm perimenopausal, and I'm another one who is only wearing a bra in case my boss decides he wants to video call me. Given the choice, I wouldn't bother, but the sight of a nipple outline through my top would be entirely unacceptable.

I've had to put a hairband on because my unruly lockdown hair could be taken as a sign that I've stopped looking after myself, whereas my boss can apparently look like an orangutan in a t-shirt and nobody comments.

I know that, apart from the sweating thing, these are societal concerns not biological ones. I think it still matters that the standards are so different for women though.

Having a bad day with the disability acquired through a pregnancy going hideously wrong. Plus aggravated with menopause galloping down the track at me which is making the usual pain and symptoms worse anyway, so getting no work usefully done. And for some bizarre reason I can't identify out of any of this shit, I've been shouting all morning that I'm actually a 30 year old ripped male, but my body still won't embrace alternate facts and function. Bigoted swine that it is.

And yes, bloody angry and depressed that female people seem to be being exhorted to embrace support human status with joyful and thankful hearts that at least the real humans will be so much happier with their extra choices and privileges and everyone else helicopter parenting and mummying them while hiding their own issues and challenges and valiantly pretending those things don't exist so as not to upset any VIP humans.

Which is obviously all that matters.

Fuck that.

FromMarch2020 Pleased you are in the clear .Sending hugs to you xx

Dd15 is learning what it is to be a woman - she has had to stop her daily run she began to help her MH during lockdown as every single bloody time she goes some arsehole shouts something at her out of their car window or slows down to get a better look at her or stares at her as she runs past.