Imagine if you could step into the opposite gender’s shoes for a day and experience reality from their eyes. We bet it would be the single most educational day of your life. Such an experience cannot easily be explained with words. But that’s exactly what we’d like to do here. How do you convey the intricacies of how a woman experiences the world around her? And what exactly makes a woman’s experience of the world so dramatically different from a man’s? What is it really like to be a woman? Most men will look at a woman’s morning routine and complain that it takes so long for her to get ready, or wonder why she makes such a big deal about going out alone at night. Let us give you a front row seat and answer some of these pressing questions. Let’s jump right in?
Makeup is Both a Blessing and a Curse
No woman on earth naturally looks like the image above (unless of course she’s 10 years old, and maybe not even then). But we’ve gotten so used to seeing women in this polished “clean” made-up state that it has become the new norm. For most women makeup is practically a requirement. If a woman decides to forgoe the makeup for a day and goes to work or out with friends aux naturalle everyone will point it out (“whoa you look tired today” or “are you sick?” or “did you accidentally sleep in?”).
Women love makeup because it’s an amazing tool, but they definitely don’t love feeling like they don’t have much of a choice about wearing it.
The new normal is called no-makeup-makeup, and it’s a safe bet that whenever you see a woman looking “natural” she’s probably wearing a lot of face paint, she just blended really well. And though it may look effortless, it likely took some time. In fact, if a woman were to apply an average life-time of makeup in one back-to-back session, she’d be standing there for 474 days. We love makeup, it’s an amazing tool that helps you look better. But we definitely don’t love feeling like we don’t have much of a choice about wearing it.
The Reality of Cat Calling
Here’s the scenario: Imagine you are walking home in the evening, it’s dark outside and there are few people on the street. You are alone. Ahead of you a small group of guys is walking towards you in the opposite direction. For a woman, no matter how brave she is or how confident, instinctively she will be afraid. To any guy out there who has ever tried to give a girl a compliment while she’s walking home by herself in the evening, you’re totally insane, she’s terrified of you and will NEVER give you her number.
Even if you’re just a nice guy, the small chance that you might be threatening is enough to scare women if they happen to be walking alone.
Even if you’re just a nice guy, the small chance that you might be threatening is enough to scare women if they happen to be walking alone. From a woman’s perspective, it is impossible to tell the difference between a compliment from a “nice guy” and someone who could be a potential threat to her safety. As far as she’s concerned, you’re a stranger that also happens to be bigger than she is. There’s no reason she should trust you.
For all intents and purposes, unless you’re dealing with a highly insecure female who needs the attention, women do not like to be cat called. If you could put yourself into a woman’s shoes for a second. We have less muscle mass, we’re frequently shorter than you and likely wearing something constricting (tight clothing and high heels) that make it hard to fight or run. Even if you’re just a nice guy, the small chance that you might be threatening is enough to scare us. In a woman’s experience, there is little difference between a compliment from a nice guy and a douchebag.
Women Are Almost in a Perpetual State of Discomfort
If you’ve ever wondered why women are able to handle minor scrapes and colds better than men, it’s basically because women live their lives in discomfort. We’re so far down the rabbit hole that women’s perception of “comfort” is totally skewed. Nowhere is this more apparent than on online shoe reviews.
For most women, fashion is an important part of their lives. Where men’s approach to clothing is largely practical and utilitarian, for women comfort and functionality are usually forgoed in favor of style. And we quote, the sneakers are “very uncomfortable (or impossible) to wear” but the 6 inch stilettos are “so unbelievably comfortable.” Honestly, there should be on day in the year when all men are forced to wear 6 inch heels all day. Also, men and women live on polar opposites in the fashion world. When a man puts effort into his appearance, everyone notices. On the other hand, when a woman doesn’t put an effort in, everyone notices. And so if you’ve ever wondered why women shop so much, well it’s because whether they notice it or not, there is a constant subconscious current of pressure being put on women to look nice.
Those Beautiful Long Nails
If we’re honest with ourselves, those elegant long fingernails are kind of a handicap. These things get caught on everything, your zipper every time you go to the restroom, and let’s not ever talk about the hell of taking out your contact lenses (those of us who wear contacts are literally scratching our eyes out every time). It’s harder to type, harder to press elevator buttons, or to just button a shirt (any kind of button really).
If you’ve ever wondered how women do anything with those long nails, rest assured, a woman’s ability to adapt to uncomfortable situations goes above and beyond reason.
Not surprisingly, women had to adapt by no longer typing with their fingers like most people, but with the tips of their nails, giving rise to products like Typing Mate below, rubber extensions that you plug over your nail so typing feels more natural. Despite all this, you’ll never hear a woman complain. Beauty, whether it’s on your fingers on on top of a mountain takes effort and sacrifice to get there.
Women are Emotional Geniuses
Studies at Cambridge University have shown that a women on average are better at empathy than men. Women tend to stay with another person’s feelings for a longer time, while men only momentarily tune into another person’s feelings before switching into problem-solving mode.
There are many amazing perks to being a woman. But perhaps the most important one is that, unlike men, it is more socially acceptable for women to be emotional. And so we talk. A lot. We talk about everyone and everything, we talk about our feelings, and we speculate about the feelings of strangers we’ve never met. By the time a woman reaches her late 20s, she’s pretty much an expert in human emotion. Every girlfriend is basically an uncertified therapist. So what likely sounds like gossip or meaningless over-analyzation to many men, is actually the equivalent of any expert geeking out about what they know best. What has been called “women’s intuition” stems from this basic but masterful ability to read the emotional environment around her. This also means that women are incredibly adept at fostering deep connections.
Bras are TIGHT
Most guys assume that bras are just like regular underwear, as comfortable as their boxer-briefs, only strapped to your chest rather than your ass cheeks. They remain blissfully unaware of just how much of a pain they can be. Most women are counting the minutes until they get to go home and take it off.
As pretty as they look, bras are generally not comfortable. As women, we live in our bras from the age of 14 onwards, so we get used to the feeling. But used to it or not, the fact remains that as women we go around with something tight and constricting strapped to our chests everyday forever and ever. Think about it.
The Gift of Motherhood
As a man, there is nothing more important for you to realize than how much of a physical and emotional sacrifice having children is for a woman. It’s like going to war. We sincerely believe that if we remove all the flowery bits about motherhood, and talk the real, raw, honest, bloody truth about giving birth women would simply stop reproducing.
As a man, there is nothing more important for you to realize than how much of a physical and emotional sacrifice having children is for a woman. It’s like going to war. We sincerely believe that if we remove all the flowery bits about motherhood, and talk the real, raw, honest truth about giving birth women would simply stop reproducing. The gory details will haunt your dreams. People like to think that birth is one of the most natural and beautiful experiences in life, but that’s simply not true. There’s a reason why giving birth is still the number one cause of death for women in third world countries. Squeezing a football through a golfball sized opening just doesn’t work, so most women tear. Badly. Chainsaw Massacre badly. To prevent this from happening, the very considerate doctors just go ahead and slice this area preemptively. Also, no matter how much women love their children, it’s frustrating to be the walking-talking human equivalent of a hamster feeder (the actual physical pain of breast-feeding does’t help either). We could go on and on, but you get the basic picture. Motherhood is an amazing life experience, but one that ravages a woman’s body.
To Women, It Appears That Men Are Too Easily Intimidated
It’s a well known fact that men prefer women who are delicate and feminine. And so, any kind of strength is instinctively perceived as unfeminine in a woman. A powerful woman, with confidence, a strong intellect, and a rocking career might as well look like Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson as far as men are concerned.
To a woman it seems like men are easily intimidated. It doesn’t matter whether it’s because a woman happens to be taller, smarter, more educated, make more money, or even if we’re just very direct, men will often interpret these things in an aggressive light. Recent studies show that, though men might say that they’d like to date an intelligent woman on paper, in reality they find intelligent women less attractive. A smart confident woman gets turned into an overly opinionated bitch too easily in our culture, especially in a professional setting. In fact, the more intelligent a woman is, the more likely she is to be single (see article about it here). Society just isn’t used to female leaders of any kind. This has the unfortunate effect of forcing women to downplay their intelligence and competitiveness in the office in order to not be perceived as cold or aggressive. So please try to understand, there is nothing to be intimidated by. A confident intelligent woman and a confident intelligent man act the exact same way, it’s just you perceive them differently because one is usually prettier than the other.
Women Feel Like They’re Public Performers
Most boys are raised to believe that it’s their job to chase girls, and that all girls are just waiting to be picked like ripened fruit. Those boys grow up to be men who believe that women exist for their consumption. On the stage of life all men are spectators and all women unwitting entertainers for their amusement. And so it becomes natural for men to cheer, boo and hackled women as they see fit without a moment’s thought that we might not like it.
Sometimes being a woman is like being a public performer: We might as well be wearing clown suits while walking down the street, and a “touch me” sign around our necks. We don’t have any official stats on this, but we’ll bet that most men don’t regularly have their asses grabbed at the club, or have random girls grope them on the bus, or scream inappropriate “compliments” from across the street so the whole neighborhood hears.
Because of #2 Above, This is How Women Feel When You Complain About a Cold
