General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsREAL Women...
From FB, by a talented writer on feminism. I support this. Take the time to read.Excuse me while I throw this down, Im old and cranky and tired of hearing the idiocy repeated by people who ought to know better.
Real women do not have curves. Real women do not look like just one thing.
Real women have curves, and not. They are tall, and not. They are brown-skinned, and olive-skinned, and not. They have small breasts, and big ones, and no breasts whatsoever.
Real women start their lives as baby girls. And as baby boys. And as babies of indeterminate biological sex whose bodies terrify their doctors and families into making all kinds of very sudden decisions.
Real women have big hands and small hands and long elegant fingers and short stubby fingers and manicures and broken nails with dirt under them.
Real women have armpit hair and leg hair and pubic hair and facial hair and chest hair and sexy moustaches and full, luxuriant beards. Real women have none of these things, spontaneously or as the result of intentional change. Real women are bald as eggs, by chance and by choice and by chemo. Real women have hair so long they can sit on it. Real women wear wigs and weaves and extensions and kufi and do-rags and hairnets and hijab and headscarves and hats and yarmulkes and textured rubber swim caps with the plastic flowers on the sides.
Real women wear high heels and skirts. Or not.
Real women are feminine and smell good and they are masculine and smell good and they are androgynous and smell good, except when they dont smell so good, but that can be changed if desired because real women change stuff when they want to.
Real women have ovaries. Unless they dont, and sometimes they dont because they were born that way and sometimes they dont because they had to have their ovaries removed. Real women have uteruses, unless they dont, see above. Real women have vaginas and clitorises and XX sex chromosomes and high estrogen levels, they ovulate and menstruate and can get pregnant and have babies. Except sometimes not, for a rather spectacular array of reasons both spontaneous and induced.
Real women are fat. And thin. And both, and neither, and otherwise. Doesnt make them any less real.
There is a phrase I wish I could engrave upon the hearts of every single person, everywhere in the world, and it is this sentence which comes from the genius lips of the grand and eloquent Mr. Glenn Marla: There is no wrong way to have a body.
Im going to say it again because its important: There is no wrong way to have a body.
And if your moral compass points in any way, shape, or form to equality, you need to get this through your thick skull and stop with the real women are like such-and-so crap.
You are not the authority on what real human beings are, and who qualifies as real and on what basis. All human beings are real.
Yes, I know youre tired of feeling disenfranchised. It is a tiresome and loathsome thing to be and to feel. But the tit-for-tat disenfranchisement of others is not going to solve that problem. Solidarity has to start somewhere and it might as well be with you and me.
~ Hanne Blank
shenmue
(38,506 posts)ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)but happen to love this OP.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)I was happily incorrect
nolabear
(41,987 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)nolabear
(41,987 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,640 posts)nolabear
(41,987 posts)We are SO many things, and so much more than people believe.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,640 posts)a la izquierda
(11,795 posts)I struggled for years with eating disorders.
And now I have muscles. And I'm proud of that.
nolabear
(41,987 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)nolabear
(41,987 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)It will be very interesting to see the reactions. I might lose a few friends over it, but I don't care. I agree with her article.
nolabear
(41,987 posts)But, me too.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)If they are RW, good riddance. The article nails it.
eggplant
(3,911 posts)...person.
eggplant
(3,911 posts)Skittles
(153,169 posts)I am tired of the meme that "real women" cannot be a single digit size - I am in my fifties and I have never been a double digit size
nolabear
(41,987 posts)Oh wait...
Skittles
(153,169 posts)WE'RE AWESOME!!!
Sissyk
(12,665 posts)I alerted your OP because I thought it was a Copyright Violation. I was wrong, but wanted to let you know.
Please forgive! I also copied and pasted it because I love it! lol
nolabear
(41,987 posts)JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)The sooner all women realize we're all in this together and we need to help each other, the better off the world will be!
I for one am happy to accept my sisters in this world however they happen to be.
Rock on my sisters!
Julie
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)Link Speed
(650 posts)Simply great.
Thanks for the post. This is the first thing I have read after waking at noon and having my cup of coffee.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)That is about all you can say about "real women". Everything else really doesn't matter
KitSileya
(4,035 posts)For a variety of reasons, women may be born without a uterus, or a vagina, or both. Or they may have had to remove either, or both. Doesn't make them less of a woman.
nolabear
(41,987 posts)Transgendered people (male to female) don't originally, and women who have had certain kinds of surgery don't, and they are still women. I know. My mother was one. So that doesn't matter either.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Real women have curves, and not. They are tall, and not. They are brown-skinned, and olive-skinned, and not. They have small breasts, and big ones, and no breasts whatsoever.
I had no idea that "real women have curves" is used literally. I honestly believed that skinny women were not women at all, they must be aliens.
In other news, Captain Obvious to the rescue.