Not my experience

[firecat]

http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/05/masculinity-a-delicate-flower/ (emphasis mine)

...manhood is a social status, something a guy earned historically, through brutal tests of physical endurance or other risky demonstrations of toughness that mark the transition from boyhood to manhood. But while that masculinity is hard-won, it can be easily lost.

Once earned, men have to continue proving their worth through manly action....

The phenomenon helps explain why men are so touchy about their masculinity. Women don't have the same problem, of course. Womanhood is largely seen as something innate, immutable: girls become women through puberty; once achieved, womanhood sticks.

This is not my experience. Is it yours?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I am pretty sure, from primary and secondary sex-linked characteristics, that my geneset is XX. This includes me in a class of people subject to a suite of particular forms of sex-based discrimination and harassment; I will bond with my cohort based on this.

By gender, I'm still "geek", though.

I like presenting as low-effort femme, I like having sex with gynosexual-identified men (as well as gynosexual-identified women, and others), I have a laissez-faire/active-tutoring/pastoral-counselor parenting style and am not suited for pregnancy or early childhood care, I am a poor housekeeper outside of a very few narrow situations, I am an indifferent cook, Christian-specific standards for womanhood are irrelevant to me as I am not Christian and have no desire to be, I have sworn to never marry di catenas, I would prefer to support myself by working within a place I could call home (either from my full-time home, or in a workplace that I feel sufficiently at home in), my self-perception is threatened when I cannot perform feats of physical strength that I feel should be within my capabilities...

So many components that various people carelessly lump into "womanhood", and so few people actually fit naturally.