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Gender in America and how people understand it is evolving, especially among younger Americans.
And with that comes some myth-busting revelations concerning facts that people always thought were true about women.
But this is not always the case.
There are women who were insteadassigned male at birth(AMAB).
Other women, who were determined to beintersexat birth, had their own experience with gender assignment.
So if you thought all women were born the same way, that’s a false fact.
But as American society has become more accepting, these attitudes have shifted.
“Things get complicated when people assume that all women are the same,” she told me.
We aren’t our gender because of our genitalia."
Well then, how do we define gender in this shifting age?
It’s ludicrous."
It’s time to couch the assumption that gender = parts.
Relationship counselorAudrey Hopetold me, “In a technical sense, yes.
For example, transgender women don’t get their period, yet they are still all woman!”
If you have a low body weight, you may not get a period.
If you’vehad a hysterectomy, you won’t menstruate as you no longer have a uterus.
Amenorrhea has awide range of causes, from medications to being born without specific reproductive organs.
We want kids
Disclosure: I’m a 36-year-old cisgender woman.
I’m married to a cisgender man.
And I will tell you that people of all stripes have asked us when we’re having kids.
Spoiler alert: we’re not, and it’s not because we can’t.
CounselorHopesays, “Women still hide their true feelings on the subject of children.
They still live by a code that tells them that marriage and kids are the way toward happiness.
But when you sit with women in groups and in therapy, they begin to get honest.
Women are stigmatized on the issue of childbearing.
It’s just the right decision for me, and I don’t feel any less woman for it.
Historically women have been the caregivers of older loved ones and those who get sick in the family.”
FitzPatrick notes that a lot of women are finding other ways to handle the distribution of care.
So fortunately, for some women, there are options.
Evenour own languagehas historically painted us as crazy or unhinged when we express valid, passionate emotions.
All people are emotional.
That is a fact."
And women who live in male-dominated societies?
Hence the origin of the stereotype.
And it’s just not true.
Lingerie expertKimmay CaldwellofHurray Kimmayhas firsthand experience helping women get fitted for bras and other breast-related lingerie.
Or they have one breast.
Or they were born with breasts and no longer have them.
Or they have augmented breasts or reconstructed breasts."
There are clearly many reasons a woman may not have breasts, frombreast cancerto gender transition factors.
Among the women interrogating the obsession with thin, female bodies is writer and activistLindy West.
“It is a constant, pervasive taint that warps every woman’s life.”
So no, not every woman wants to be thin.
But all of us want to be treated with dignity and respect.
But this is not because women are somehow intellectually inferior in these disciplines.
Ditch the stereotypes
Women are not monolithic as a gender.
We’re comprised of a wide variety of individuals with varying qualities, convictions, and features.
Do ditch the stereotypes and embrace the nuances of women everywhere.
