miniwrecks29245:

i really wish people would remember that like… being a woman is 100% a damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-dont scenario, always. like, as a basic example: women who do not adhere to cultural markers of femininity wrt to their physical appearance are socially punished for it, women who adhere to cultural markers of femininity are socially rewarded for it but adhering to cultural markers of femininity is not some sort of easy walk in the park either. because they are oppressive and time-consuming and at times physically damaging (eg high healed shoes). and while it is understandable as a response to the dumb “femmephobia” “red lipstick is empowering me” shit and also just the personal and often painful experiences of gnc women being scorned and ostracized by feminine women, it’s sort of essential if youre gonna do real feminist analysis not write these women off as vapid handmaiden enforcers of the patriarchy and to understand that the woman who is scared to leave her house without wearing makeup is suffering the same forced and systemic oppression as the woman who loses out on a job because she didnt wear makeup to the interview (which is an actual documented phenomenon, in case you were wondering)

this is, like i said, a basic example and also the way individual women experience this sort of thing will be heavily informed by race and class and sexuality but my main point is that trying to enforce a sort of privilege/oppression dynamic around women who confirm to gender roles/women who dont is shallow, single-faceted and frankly, requires a large amount of cognitive dissonance to make sense.