To clarify, I'm not saying that we should not pursue appearance styles associated with females,and I'm all in favor of it- I love the soft huge smiles I see in the Boy/Girl Mode side by sides in Picture Gallery. GennyB makes the point, and I wish it was easier to do, to be honest.

Becky's point that life doesn't have to be simpler is a good one, but relaxing the binary rulebook would make it easier for all of us to be successful, wouldn't it? Setting up two teams and a rulebook about appearance and behavior doesn't speak to the fact that the basic nature of men and women is pretty similar, so the binary system [look like a 'boy' or 'girl'] just means everyone is working hard to try to conform to something, and restricting a lot of aspects of themselves in the process. It is further made difficult and often toxic by promoting ideals like the cover girl or the macho man, which are not good for us.


Maybe this cultural practice persists because most people think they can reasonably conform and succeed, and it is comforting to do that? We see occasionally the sentiment here that "we have succeeded at being men and now we want to succeed at being women." However, plenty of members say they feel depressed because they can't get even close to passing, i.e. acceptably ideal. Many women feel the same way- they are too big boned, too mannish a face, too square, etc. One help could be to expand the binary rulebook and open up the clubhouse so men and women can enjoy each other's world more freely. We all want to feel good more of the time!

The related benefit is making terminology more precise- but maybe saying we are womanly rather than women, is too fine a point and isn't going to matter, as Teresa points out. I think my wife is in this category- she can't distinguish feminine from female and it blows her fuses. It apparently is just too hard to rethink it all, as Lorileah has said. Ok- I'm a dreamer- it feels better!