What does being a woman mean to you?

[Mahsa Tezani]

I am keeping this question open ended. What does being a woman mean to you? How do you define the female gender?

[Karla]

A woman is a sort of a grown up more adult version of me.

[mimpi]

That's a question that was asked me about 20 years ago by a male doctor at Charing Cross Hospital's Gender Identity Unit  or whatever it's now called. My answer was that he should tell me as he was the self professed expert on how to define gender and that certainly, as a man, he was in the perfect position to define what being a woman was. The session did not proceed well after that...

To answer honestly I don't know, it's a such a basic level that it feels similar to the part of the brain that makes our hearts beat and our lungs breathe. It just is and there's nothing one can do about it, believe me I tried.

It's not for me to define any gender, let individuals do it for themselves, only then can we possibly approach truth and reality.

[jainie marlena]

@mimpi, yeahhh!!!

Down with the quak doctor!!!

[chloe23]

Means alot to me, being your true self

[V M]

I am a woman, a woman is who and what I am... No further definition necessary

[Amazon D]

A woman of course is .. well ok a woman is a person who... hmm i know a woman does a lot of.. well .. ok i got it.. a woman is a woman when she knows she is a woman

[mimpi]

@mimpi, yeahhh!!!

Down with the quak doctor!!!

Hehe, when they start talking patronising crap like that what can one do. There was much worse too, his world view appeared to be that of a 1960's TV detergent advert crossed with some weird Barbie fantasy.

[Cen]

My therapist pulled that question on me.  All I could really say is, it means being and accepting myself.  It's such a relative question that I wasn't sure what she really wanted to know.

[Cadence Jean]

That's a deep one.  When I first started defining my gender identity, I wrote a list of adjectives that I considered male and those that I considered female.  Here's the female list:

compassion
love
partnership
community
life
creation
mother
goddess
beauty
passion
expression
warmth
sexy
soft
supple
smooth
harmony
adaptable
moody
divine
grace
deceptive
back-stabber
acceptance
superficial
emotive
calm
frail
polite

The male list has a lot more of what I'd consider negative adjectives.

[Forever21Chic]

  Being able to fully express my emotions.

[Princess of Hearts]

That's a deep one.  When I first started defining my gender identity, I wrote a list of adjectives that I considered male and those that I considered female.  Here's the female list:

compassion
love
partnership
community
life
creation
mother
goddess
beauty
passion
expression
warmth
sexy
soft
supple
smooth
harmony
adaptable
moody
divine
grace
deceptive
back-stabber
acceptance
superficial
emotive
calm
frail
polite

The male list has a lot more of what I'd consider negative adjectives.

Oh dear you have opened a can of worms.   Every single one of those adjectives - yes even mother - could be applied to men.   You don't need to be a woman to fully express your emotions either.

We should be very wary of 'Sugar and spice and all things nice' thinking.

[Sunnynight]

Being a woman means just rockin it on a surf board getting paid and having babies. Amirite?

^{Note: link removed.}

[Jen61]

Vagina, boobs, fashion, babies, being pundedd, emotions, manipulative, bitch, vulnerable, swallowing

[Jillieann Rose]

It means life.
As pretending to be a male mean death and I mean literally.

[cynthialee]

I have puzzled over this since I was first asked it a long time ago and had no answer.

I think I finally have it.

Being a woman is honoring the goddess within.

at least that is my answer

[Beni76]

If my new therapist springs this on me I'll just have to say that it's a feeling inside which is a bit like what it feels to be in love that you can't fully express though you know that it's a feeling that you aren't a man. Um getit?

[kelly_aus]

It means being me.. It means being able to live free and happy for the first time in my life..

My therapist asked to 'define' being a woman..  I said the answer to that question is that there is no real answer - but I'll happily blather on for 10 mins if you llike...

[Gravity Girl]

No one mentioned skateboards! Pah...none of you are proper women then

[justmeinoz]

I think I'd turn it around and as taught in General Semantics remind him that the map is not the territory, and the word is not the object.  I will define it, and it will not be the same now as it was five minutes ago, or five minutes from now.  = me, at one point in the Space Time Continuum!

Karen.