To be woman.

To be woman is to exist within the grasp of a culture in which from birth your body is so intimately tied to your value as an individual that regardless of the encouragement Mama and Papa bestowed on you, or the immeasurable positivity and support your role model kick-ass feminist teacher poured atop your developing mind, or the overwhelming self-confidence blossoming within your soul, you are perpetually bombarded, from all angles, with the devilish reminder that your body defines your entire existence.  A reminder that as a female, you are burdened with the tangible weight of the male gaze. Not only from your male peers, but from the people you are told to trust and respect, rather the father of your best friend, your history teacher, or your soccer coach. From childhood on you are forced to swallow a pill, the pill of inescapable self-consciousness that your body contains the potential for both danger and shame, and that it is your responsibility to disguise it, hide it, in a way unoffensive, unenticing to the outside world. 

So tangible are the female bodily conduct rules they need not be verbalized. The walk to the principal's office for the sliver of belly that reveals itself when you raise your hand in Spanish class, or the youth group leader's declaration that the unintentional sight of a blossoming woman's cleavage is to blame for men's fall from grace. You learn that your body stands as a center of public debate, open for everyone's opinions, from your male lab partner declaring your jeans make your ass look fine, to the male-dominated congress dictating the parameters of "legitimate" rape.

To be woman is to live within a woman's body, held to a set of paradoxical standards that leave you to consistently doubt your instincts, and hurdle over dozens of truths in pursuit of a unattainable perfection.

To be man, true, honest man, is to admit you can not comprehend what is it to be woman.

Pure Misogyny in a Dollar Store Disguise.

Personally, I find one of the most hauntingly sick images of misogyny to be the women who proudly proclaim they aren't like most women and don't like/get along with other women. Not only do statements like this place women into a mass generalization of sameness, but it implies as a sex we are something negative (as in, if we were something valued, why would a woman, someone of our own kind, want to distance herself from identifying with us?). What do statements like that even mean? Some women watch NFL on Sundays, some go shopping with their children, some of us kiss men, some of us kiss women, some of us wear eyeliner, some of don't shave a single hair on our bodies. One can not rightfully claim that she does not act like a woman because women do not adhere to some defined list of actions and behaviors.

These women are not rare anomalies. They are perpetrators of misogyny and causalities to the vast destruction of preconceived gender norms.