Every person also fits into a different combination of those groups so the pressures are different for everyone.
It's pretty easy to rant about being a young, white, overweight woman in today's society. Finding clothes that fit is challenging, time consuming and expensive. Finding shoes that fit my ladies size 10 feet is much the same. Feeling expected to wear make-up or dresses whenever I go places, only ever wanting to wear sneakers or other items of comfort. And that's all before mentioning any of the other related struggles of being a woman over a size 10.
But this is not about any of that.
This is about feeling unable to talk about various important parts of my being a woman without feeling like I'm going to be judged or criticised.
I've been sitting on this post for a while now, a few months in fact, and I think that's part of the problem.
I wish I could say that I feel free to talk to any of my female friends about anything. I wish I didn't have to sift through my friends contacts every time I have a problem wondering which one I can talk to and actually receive the support that I need.
You probably remember a while ago I wrote a post about Mooncup UK. Well my eyes and ears tell me that some of you had an issue with that post and don't seem to think that I should be putting things like that on the internet.
And here is my issue.
The Mooncup post was a risk that I took on a product that I thought could change lives for the better. I debated posting that as much as I debated posting this I also feel that they're both important in different ways.
It annoys me that I can't express my feelings and thoughts about various parts of being female without that kind of feedback. I think we've come a long way from a time when this was an offensive swimsuit:
We've come to normalise the appearance of the female body - and I think that's great. The next step will be when we can normalise the things that the female body does.
To the people that found the Mooncup post offensive - I specifically wrote a word of warning for you. I won't be doing that again because obviously there was no point.
I don't enjoy living in a world where any advertisements you see that are for feminine hygiene products basically say "Unless you use our product you will never enjoy a period again because they are horrible and disgusting and made to ruin your life!"
I don't want my friends and relatives to not feel comfortable talking to their female friends about any issues they have with their bodies or bodily functions. I'd love to be able to pick one of my female friends at random and say "here's my problem, can you give me any advice?" Without the risk of them telling me that I'm disgusting and have no place trying to talk to them about that sort of stuff.
The good news is that by putting that post and myself out there, I had quite a lot of feedback from friends that I don't often speak to, asking for advice or more information.
That's the kind of attitude towards women's bodies that I'd love to be the norm. I really hope that some day women will be allowed to be comfortable and proud of their bodies and all the gross things they do.
One day, I hope that we spend more time celebrating our young women's first periods instead of teaching them to be hateful and terrified of them.
One day, I hope that we can talk openly about these things with our sisters with no fear of repercussions.
One day, I hope that women everywhere can write things like this without having to worry what their friends might think.
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