Does anyone else think at least once a day, am I woman enough? There is a definite line between what makes women, women and men, men in our society. After reading that statement, some things might have popped into your head. There might have been the stereotypes like the commander of the house, bearer of children, and protector of said child. Forgive me – that is my bias coming out. What I meant to say was; doing the cleaning and cooking, carry the babies, and take care of the children. Others might think of professions that are typically run by women like nurses, teacher, psychiatric, secretaries, or retail.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but for so long they have pigeonholed a whole group of humans. Let’s talk about me for a second; I am 24 years old. A college graduate with a confusing degree and plans of graduate school. I am omnisexual which means I have the potential to like someone from any gender. I don’t want biological kids, and I want to run for House of Representative. I wear both “women’s” and “men’s” clothing and cologne.
Now, most of that probably sounded standard other than my sexuality and most importantly my lack of wanting biological children. That is perhaps the one thing in my life I get the most discussion around (mainly because I am not entirely out about my sexuality, a story for another time).
This comes up in conversation more than I would have ever thought it should. I guess if you are a woman it is mandatory to talk about it like it is mandatory for people in the midwest to talk about the weather. The idea that someone that is “breed” to do this job but chooses not to do that job is mind-boggling to so many. To an extent, I understand. What I don’t understand is the lack of further conversation or understanding on my choice. This one decision, in some human’s minds, makes me not woman enough.
Let’s unpack that for a second. I am not woman enough for one reason and one reason only. Doesn’t matter that I identify with being a woman, I use the pronouns her/she, that I have breasts (not all women need/have breasts) and that I have a vagina (not all women need/have a vagina). None of those factors matter in the idea of my womanhood to these humans.
We put pressure on all genders to be a certain way but don’t question why or how that affects us as a society. We challenge and nitpick groups of humans choices for their bodies for the reason that is still unclear to me. We make these lines in the sand for what it means to be the bi genders, and anything else is not right because of our lack of understanding and compassion; nothing to do with what the individual did.
There is nothing wrong with you if you make choices that are out of the norm for your gender. You are woman enough because you say so. No one can demean what your womanhood means to you. It’s yours; nothing can change that.
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your existence is an act of rebellion” -Albert Camus.