Recently, The Slate published an article in the Ship Life section detailing what “Being a woman is…” for Women’s History Month. As I read the article, I noticed a trend where women were boiled down to outfits, makeup, chick-flicks, jewelry and period problems. To me, being a woman is so much more than the stereotypical cliches that people are so used to pinning to women’s chests.
Being a woman is growing into strength and having compassion. Being a woman is showing up for other women and having their backs. It is making sure you watch as your girlfriend gets out of the car and enters her apartment safely. Being a woman is when you notice the eyes of another woman speaking back to you on the subway, on the street, in class sharing something only you two could understand. In Well and Good’s article, “13 Women open up about what being a woman in 2020 means to them,” 49-year-old Melody Maia Monet, a trans woman, expressed that being a woman, “is a living, breathing, undeniable force that lies deep within me.”
Being a woman is not about what you wear or what movies you watch or how your makeup looks. Being a woman is loving and dancing and singing and being unapologetically yourself. Being a woman is a mindset. A mindset where you know that the world is fighting against you, but you continue to be resilient and relentless pushing yourself and proving yourself to others while rising with your fellow sisters.
In the same article by Well and Good, 27-year-old Sarah Barrett expresses: “I think being a woman…is breaking all those stereotypes and not being what everyone expects a woman to be. As someone who identifies as so many things, you can’t put me in a little box that other people might think ‘Oh she’s this or that.’ I’m a multifaceted person.”
Being a woman is so much more than giggling and obsessing over boy bands. Being a woman is the journey from childhood to adulthood. It is the lessons you learn, and the mistakes you make. It is growth, triumph, denial and failure. Being a woman is not wearing lip gloss and wearing an excessive amount of pink, (not to say that it cannot be), but knowing that the things we like, and wear do not define our person. Being a woman is strength in sisterhood and claiming ownership of that title, a title that carries so much power. Being a woman is so much more.
The Slate welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.