Thread by @Smile4UHoney

When I see the phrase "I feel like a woman, I live like a woman.", IDK what that means when it comes from someone who's sex is male. I can understand and have empathy for a person struggling with gender dysphoria and alleviating it by any means, but I don't understand the phrase.

Being a woman is a descriptor. A word that describes a group of ppl that have something in common. Just like the word mammals. We're mammals, bcs we suck milk from our mammas. Their mammary glands produce it. That's why we're mammals. We are women, because we are born as females.

If we forget for instance about female socialization from birth or history of women's oppression based on sex and erasure from history, the way how we live and experience our lives is HIGHLY tied to our reproductive system- the fact we have vaginas, we menstruate, we give birth.

It shapes EVERYTHING. How we have relationships, how we plan work/study schedule, doctors appointments, sex life- when and how, how we buy things, how we plan holidays,...

When you start menstruating, you need to adjust to the cycle, to hormonal changes. How to deal with it, how to communicate your needs with your family, friends, your partner.

You need to learn what's best for you-pads, tampons, menstrual cup. Buy ahead. Have always a pad/tampon prepared for any emergency. If you have a painful period, buy painkillers. If you know the first 2 days are the worst, do more work ahead so you can slow down for those 2 days.

The period also dictates your sex life. Not all women want to have any intercourse during the "shark week". Those who do like, they need to prepare a towel. If you don't want to get pregnant, you opt for birth control methods. If it's other than a condom, you face side effects.

Then if you, on the other hand, want to get pregnant, you need to know when you ovulate and when you have your fertile window of 24-48h. Also, you need to start taking pregnancy vitamins at least 6 months before starting to try for a baby.

When visiting your obgyn, you need to know when was your last period ahead. You can't have a vaginal examination during your period. You also might get denied X-ray if your period was long time ago-possible pregnancy-so you need to sign a paper stating you're def. not pregnant.

You won't spend hundreds of $$$ on a vacation where you'll be bloated, in pain and bleeding- you plan your holidays accordingly. Another option is buying pills to postpone your period to enjoy your vacation. The downside? Next time it comes, it'll be crampier with heavier flow.

I started my period when I was 12 & 3/4, 10 years ago. All the above is my lived experience as a female. But there's MORE. ALL women will go through menopause. MOST women will get pregnant. And 1/3 of all pregnancy ends up in a miscarriage, so A LOT of women experience it.

When you're pregnant, there's a lot of things going on. You can't eat certain foods, do certain activities. Your work/study efficiency can decrease due to exhaustion. You'll face side effects. You'll need to schedule regular check-ups. You'll have to leave work:birth+post-partum.

You also need to plan WHEN to have a baby. You don't want to have it as a 15yo, but you also won't want to wait till 35, bcs after that age, the risks of fetal malformations and complications during pregnancy or birth increase exponentially.

Some women have abortions. Some women have miscarriages. Some women have stillborn babies. All of those things are very hard to go through. Some women will have C-sections, some episiotomy- some women got "the husband stitch". Some will face permanent damage from pregnancy&birth.

Let's be honest, women are still the primary caregivers and do most of the house chores than men- this gap widened during pandemic. Women were the 1st to be fired for not having the same results as their male colleagues. Being a mother will affect women's lives&job opportunities.

Women also face infertility issues (IVF, adoption), some women will give up their kids for adoption. Some women face breast or cervical cancer, PCOS, endometriosis, dysmenorrhea, hysterectomy, mastectomy. A lot of women are not taken seriously when complaining about their health.

A lot of women are underdiagnosed when it comes to ADHD or Asperger syndrome, because those conditions were observed on male subjects. A lot of women are over drugged, bcs women were excluded from medical trials-the medicine was tested on male system&we're treated as "small men".

Women going through menopause and after it will have to think about HRT, because we live longer than before and we need to take care of our bones. Obviously, the higher the age, the higher possibility of developing breast cancer, so regular check-ups are highly recommended.

I described the whole lifespan of a woman. BUT I still haven't even touched problems that women around the world & across cultures are facing due to being women. They're denied basic human rights-rights to vote, own land, drive a car, divorce a husband, travel alone, study/work.

They die during birth or during illegal abortion-they have to travel abroad when it's illegal in their country. They eat pills found on black markets. They're jailed for decades when caught. They are even jailed for miscarriages, because they couldn't prove it wasn't intentional.

Their breasts are burned to not attract male attention. They face FGM- if they don't die during or after that horrible process, they face long life consequences. They die in menstrual huts. They face bride kidnapping as a tradition. They are wed as kids to old men.

China did a full cycle. First they had one child policy-so they aborted female fetuses/abandoned girls. Now when they have lack of women, they placed a thick glass ceiling on the rest of them so they'd stay home and birth kids. They are even proposing polygamy-2 men, 1 women...

...which means double the amount of chores, double the amount of fulfilling sexual needs and double the amount of risk of domestic violence. Another "solution" is human trafficking of women from poorer countries so they will marry men and birth kids.

The body autonomy of women there is disrespected when giving birth-they're waiting for the last moment to perform C-section of 1st time moms, bcs C-sec. increases problems for the next pregnancy & birth. Those women are treated as incubators-a solution to socio-economic problems.