PHOTO: ISTOCK
While being a woman is, in my opinion, better than some other things (like being, say, a man,) there are definitely some things that are far from ideal about being a member of the fairer sex.
Recently, a redditor posted a simple question to the AskReddit board:
Almost 3,000 comments later it's clear. A lot.
Not only do we not earn the same amount of money as a man for doing the same work, we're expected to do it while looking amazing and caring for our families.
It's exhausting.
So, while many of us wouldn't have it any other way, let's take a moment to commiserate with these all-too-familiar frustrations that come along with womanhood.
1. "Are you feeling alright?"
"When you don't wear makeup and people make comments about you looking tired or ask if you're feeling sick."
Though ForgetfulLucy28 says she used to milk that when she wanted to leave work early.
"Me: Washes face 'I need to go home early, I don't feel well'
"Boss: 'Yeah you don't look so good, take tomorrow if you need it.'"
Genius.
2. The abomination that is fake pockets.
"Pockets. Whoever created the idea of 'decorative' pockets should be sentenced to stepping barefoot on Legos forever. Seriously, I want to put my phone in my pocket, not in my purse."
IzarkKiaTarj adds she will never pass up an opportunity to call fake pockets an "abomination."
"I would rather have no pockets than fake pockets," she writes.
3. The amazingly high price of a good bra.
"Something that just sucks in general is how expensive bras can be 😕"
Even men know this gripe is real.
User twomz wrote that the cheapest bra he's ever been able to find for his wife was $50.
"Apparently once you move past D, there are no more cute or cheap bras," he writes, understanding our pain. "Just plain expensive ones with support."
4. You like kids, right?
"The assumption that if there are children around you want to play with them or be responsible for them."
She explains that a guy friend of hers once brought his kid over to her place. She was the only woman in a group of about fiv—and when the group went outside to do something, her friend walked away without his child.
"I pointed out he was forgetting something, and he was shocked that I did not plan to be responsible for the kid for him because I was a girl," she writes.
Nope.
5. The period surprise
"When your period stops for a day and you think it's finished, so you stop using tampons/ pads. Then a day later it comes back and soaks everything you own like, a vindictive tsunami."
A lot of women commiserated with this one, including the aptly screen-named neverstops, who says that even with an IUD she still gets surprised. She says her period, "only stops until I switch purses and deem tampons useless."
6. Attempting to exercise while having boobs
"Between the bounce, nipple chaffing and boob sweat it just makes everything awful. I imagine dudes deal with it with their penis, but having your knockers in the way when you're lifting really sucks."
AlwaysDisposable adds that if she does end up trying to get some exercise, she then has to deal with "the occasional ogles or catcalls when running."
"They're boobs," she says. "They bounce, get over it."
7. So, when are you getting married/having kids?
"The first thing anyone asks me is 'are you married/do you have kids?', and they always react negatively when I say no. If I mention my postgraduate degree or my career plans, they immediately ask 'BUT WHAT ABOUT MARRIAGE/KIDS?' and look at me like I have three heads when I say, 'What about them?'."
She also shared the response she's been giving to the question lately: "'My Mam had me when she was 42, I have plenty of time.'"
Though she adds that she doesn't have any particular plan to have kids at all. As she puts it, "My cats will keep my corpse warm."
8. "What a bitch."
"If a women is assertive and doesn't care what anyone thinks and does and says what she wants, she is a bitch, or on her period. If a man is this way, he is looked up to and shown as a figure of power and authority."
Mosaicblur says having high self-confidence has been the biggest obstacle in her romantic life. While BagOFrogs laments the fact that a girl who wants her own way is called "bossy."
"It's much more acceptable for boys to be dominant socially," she writes. "This feeling carries on subconsciously into adulthood and the workplace. Obviously not in EVERY case, but this happens."
9. Just. Plain. Ugh.
Melizathornberry sums it all up perfectly:
"When you're sick, people joke that you're pregnant. When you're in a bad mood, people assume you're on your period. When you are pregnant, people joke that it looks like twins and suddenly think they have the right to rub your belly without asking like you're some kind of animal. If you take time off work to raise your family, you are seen as lazy. If you go to work and put your kids in child care, people say you should be with your kids. If you don't want loads of kids, they say you aren't very maternal. If you have two boys, they say you should try for a girl and vice versa.
"You're shamed for being fat, you're shamed for being skinny (mostly by other women. If you dare to have some time to yourself you are selfish, or a bad mother. If you have kids with someone, you should make it work no matter how they treat you (according to my mother.) If you have depression you are attention-seeking. And all this judgment does not come from men (most of the time) it comes from fellow women.
"From friends, from sisters, from random people on the street (I'm looking at you, old lady who thought at 21 I was a teenage mom because I looked young for my age,) and it just needs to stop."
You just can't win.
But, she does say she feels better after ranting. And 1184 people liked her comment in agreement—so at least there's that.
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