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What's it like to be a woman?

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by twospiritlycan, Oct 26, 2013.

  1. What kind of good and bad things are there about being women?
     
  2. Nyanko

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    I know one bad: Periods. Sometimes they're not that bad, sometimes they're the worst things to have ever been given to women. You never know how bad they'll be until it hits you.
     
  3. Emulator

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    Biological or social problems?

    One (good?) thing I've noticed is women get plenty of attention and nice treatment, and they are less perceived as suspicious compared to men. Just a fallacious observation.
     
  4. Tzoa

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    I was actually talking about this with a friend of mine. We were both taking an American Women's Studies class, and it can be... depressing. For instance, the Equal Rights Amendment, which was proposed in 1923 and basically says that women are equal to men, still hasn't passed. Women still make about 77 cents on a man's dollar. One person (in a different class than my women's studies one) said, "If a business owner has a position open and could promote a female employee to that position and pay her less than he would pay a man, but he hires a man, then does this mean he values hiring a man over saving money?" I thought that was a really interesting point. Also, a lot of women in universities feel they have to hide their smarts and be cute to succeed. There was a Duke University study done just a few years ago that said women felt they were expected to spend more time and money on clothes and being cute than on their education.

    Not that being a woman is bad! Not at all. I just mean that there is still a lot of work to do in the women's movement. I'm so glad I was born female. I can't really pinpoint exactly WHY, though. I've never been a man, so I can't compare. But I like my body, I like how I think. One good thing about women is the wide variety of styles and personalities we can have. Girly girls and tomboys are both accepted by society. But if a man is seen as having feminine qualities, he's often teased, berated or told to "grow a pair". Being a tomboy is okay for women. Being a "sissie" is bad for men. And, though I haven't experienced it, I've heard that being pregnant is pretty amazing and awe-inspiring.
     
  5. Iodine

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    Well, it's mixed, really.

    Good:
    • I can eat a pint of ice cream and not be questioned.
    • We can play with our own boobs! Score!
    • We can interact with kids in public, even if we don't know them, without being looked at like a pedophile (which is really unfair to guys).
    • Free drinks? I think so.
    • No one ever expects the person who whooped them in COD or Halo to be a girl. It's glorious.
    • Yoga pants. 'Nuff said.
    • Being the only female to understand difficult theorems among males is a great boost to the ego.

    Bad:
    • Periods. Those guys just ruin a week.
    • We're not really taken seriously by... well, anyone.
    • We can't wear comfy clothes all the time like guys. Well, except yoga pants, but that's not something to be worn everyday.
    • Not as strong. I don't know, that just bothers me.
    • There's a picture of "how a woman should look" cast out by the media and society in general. Failure to comply means being either ridiculed or forgotten.
    • If you're not born pretty thanks to genetics you can't change, or have absolutely no curves, be prepared for a tougher-than-usual life, in some aspects.
    • Not treated equally, either in first-world or third-world countries. We're just "trophies" in some cultures.


    It has the same amount of pros and cons, numerically in this list, but in actuality, it sucks having two X chromosomes. I'm somewhat pessimistic, so perhaps my opinion is rather... negative :lol:
     
    #5 Iodine, Oct 26, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2013
  6. Tzoa

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    This is a really important, but sad, point. Even male teachers aren't given the same amount of trust as female teachers.
     
  7. Maddy

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    Some people think that we shouldn't have rights, and when we try to speak out against this, we're accused of being hateful and idiotic.
     
  8. So overall it's just bad?
     
  9. Tzoa

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    I wouldn't say that. True, women are not treated with the same respect or given the same opportunities as men. But being a woman now is much better than it was 20 years ago. And it was better being a woman 20 years ago than it was being one 40 years ago. There is still a lot of work to be done in the women's movement, but things have gotten better.
     
  10. So it wouldn't be that bad?
     
    #10 twospiritlycan, Oct 26, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 26, 2013
  11. Tzoa

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    Unfortunately there might be trouble with jobs. Women still aren't treated equally in the workplace. Like I said earlier, women make less money than men, and sometimes men are preferred over women in hiring practices. Not EVERY company is like that. CEOs with daughters tend to treat their female employees better than CEOs without daughters would.

    I don't mean to be a debbie downer, but it is something people need to be aware of.
     
  12. Iodine

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    Ah, that might be a bit much. While I would rather be male, I am quite content with being female. In today's age, women are more equal to men since any time in civilization. That doesn't mean that we're completely neck-and-neck, though.

    Women still are treated less well than men in a business sense, for example. I could be doing the same work as my male counterpart and earn less money, simply because I happen to have Slot B instead of Tab A.

    But everything has cons. I, in particular, find more cons because I'm a bit of a pessimistic person. My friends seriously love being female.

    To say that it's overall bad would not really be too accurate. Being a woman is just like being a man: it has ups and downs.
     
  13. fortheloveoflez

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    I can only speak for cis women.

    Bad:
    I think that women are socialized to be more "silent", less assertive and less vocal than men. When a woman is a bit more outspoken I find that some people might call her a bitch or take her less seriously than if a man were speaking.

    There's still this notion that people can boss women around more than men. Women are "indecisive" and need to be controlled apparantly. Even in the lgbt community, you might notice that lesbians are often times abused by straight men and people tend to think women are "faking" it but just need some good ol' discipline to change her mind. Men are typically taken more seriously when they voice their opinions.

    There is an awful lot of sexual exploitation of women. It's sad but it's a reality...and goes back to the whole controlling of women and taken their voice less seriously.

    There is too much attention to women's appearance...it's like we are supposed to be decoration. An ugly woman with substance? No one wants that in our society apparantly. When you look at youtube videos for example of women voicing their opinion more attention is paid to her looks and sexual attractiveness than what she has to say.

    We are physically smaller and more likely to be sexual targets. This does give us less freedom of movement which is difficult to say the least. I'll give an example, when I was growing up (and still even today) I was told I cannot go some where alone at some hours...whereas my cousin who's a cis male was free to roam around wherever he wanted. I was policed over what I can wear...because apparantly cis straight men can't control themselves when women show some skin and then wooptidoo often times the women is blamed like "well, you wore THAT that's why it happened". Ya..I really hate that.

    Our reproductive systems are more troublesome to deal with. Women are more likely to get UTIs, have unfulfilled intercourse, STDs, pain during sex, periods, cramps, more invasive birth control methods... etc.
    Good:

    We are allowed to be affectionate and express emotions more freely.

    We are paid more attention to when we dress up nicely. People often comment "look how beautiful you are!".

    We are stereotyped as the safe gender.

    If we wanted to have our own baby artificially (assuming we weren't sterile) it'd be easier

    We can get out of doing heavy lifting if we wanted to
     
    #13 fortheloveoflez, Oct 27, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2013