What do you love about being a woman (or what do you love about women)?

Daily | December 2nd, 2008 by Danielle LaPorte

“When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman” - Betty Friedan

Carrie says: I love that woman understand what it’s like to be a woman. Love the duality of being a woman: strong and vulnerable, ruthless and compassionate. I love the openness, and that we have to be our whole self.

Danielle says: Reading minds, making babies, knowing the moon, high heeled boots, deep power, and that knowing laugh that only women laugh. If I come back again, I’ll most definitely choose to be female…or a butterfly.

Viewing 27 Comments

Sarah Salway 12/02/2008 12:49 AM 1 point
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I love the way women can look at each other sometimes and laugh together - without having to explain - even when we're strangers. And I love how many amazing women there are out there to enjoy as role models. (And I love this question!)

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lifecoachsandy 12/02/2008 04:41 AM 1 point
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I agree with Carrie about the duality of women, and the appeal of that for me is that we can be so whole. I refuse to be a Stepford wife, and take pride in choosing to be financially savvy, an independent entrepreneur, a loving and responsibility-generating mom, and an artist. People expect artists, and especially female artists, to be air heads and irresponsible. I love proving them wrong!

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Jess 12/02/2008 04:48 AM 1 point
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Our bodies look nicer naked (everyone knows it's true haha). We can just relate to each other so easily and that's amazing.
We're all so powerful, physically, mentally and emotionally. We can have BIRTH! And while I've never experienced that, I realize how friggin' HUGE that is!

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fabuleuxparis 12/02/2008 05:38 AM 1 point
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Everything! I love being a woman. Feminine clothes, perfume, hair. The color pink! Being able to be super smart and giggle too! Being emotionally strong, but still allowed to cry or feel things. Women have common bonds amongst eachother that men often do not. I love being a woman and I love being around other women. Sisterhood is powerful.

Hugs to all the other women. You are all beautiful in my eyes!

Fashionable Fun

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JulieG 12/02/2008 05:44 AM 1 point
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I love that there are no social pressures to hide our emotions. Men, I think, have a hard time when they want to display anything but "mandated, manly" emotions. As women, no one bats an eye if I feel a need to shed a tear now and then. (Well, except maybe at work.)

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Suzyn 12/02/2008 06:26 AM 1 point
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Sorry - can't say I agree with you there. Did you see the brou-ha-ha when Hillary Clinton DARED to shed a tear on the campaign trail???

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JulieG 12/02/2008 09:56 AM 1 point
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Admittedly, there's something of a double-standard when it comes to a) public figures, and b) work. But I think, on the whole, women are more comfortable and socially permitted to express emotion than man. Little boys are taught very early on that "men don't cry." Little girls are rarely told "women don't cry."

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DanielleLaPorte 12/02/2008 09:31 AM 1 point
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there is definitely a strange standard here. Emotionality is okay accept in terms of work. Tho' for men and work, anger - one of the strongest emotions there is - is often a.o.k.

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JulieG 12/02/2008 09:54 AM 1 point
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True, though anger is often seen as a "manly man's" emotion.

I think work in general is supposed to be a more emotionless state (though this doesn't always happen in practice).

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Linda Borland-Fitzgerald 12/02/2008 09:56 AM 1 point
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The double standard is alive and well AND that anger thing being the status quo for men in the work place?.. what do you suppose the label would be for women who rage at the office or in the board room? Yup, that's right!

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freestyle 05/14/2009 11:05 PM 1 point
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Hi Danielle, this is Emma, I truly agree with you here, even i have observed that many a times.

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kim 12/02/2008 06:01 AM 1 point
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I love that my body is called by the moon and connected to ocean tides. I love that I can take care of others and be taken care of, and I love the grace that radiates from so many women despite the attempts of others and life itself to pull them apart limb by limb!

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textimage 12/02/2008 06:24 AM 1 point
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The intimacy in the relationships we make. As a woman, I feel like I can safely, spiritedly, vulnerably, dive-in... and really get into it with "my girls". This is probably a result of societal mores, but these shared understandings about behaviour I believe are inspired by what is essential: our desire to cultivate connection.

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Traci 12/02/2008 09:24 AM 1 point
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I completely agree. The best thing about being a woman is the connection with other women. Not to discount my relationships with men...there's just something different and spiritual about a deep female-female connection. I can't explain it, which is part of its beauty.

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Suzyn 12/02/2008 06:25 AM 1 point
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I love the fact that this body carried my babies.

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Tabitha 12/02/2008 06:45 AM 1 point
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Our intuition and our willingness to follow our hearts. The world would be a colder, harsher place if not for us.

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Linda Borland-Fitzgerald 12/02/2008 10:08 AM 1 point
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Our creativity, softness, intuition, feistiness, our ability to create life and the vulnerability that belies the strength beneath

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Storyteller 12/02/2008 10:10 AM 1 point
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I am shelter. I am able to invite my lover inside of me where it is warm. I am home. I have life within me, I can make milk for newborns. This amazes me. I am curves and poetry and five senses plus six. I am a creator like my Creator. Being a woman is the greatest gift God has given me and I am so thankful.

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Kristen 12/02/2008 08:26 PM 1 point
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This is so beautiful.....we were God given such an amazing purpose....I think we neglect this sometimes.

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Alison 12/02/2008 09:01 PM 1 point
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Too right. Its sad, it seems that many of us feel ashamed, even when we shouldn't.

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Steve Harvey 12/02/2008 10:47 AM 1 point
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I like the fact women know things we (men) don't...something instinctual we can't pick up on...keeps us in a state of mystery - something the ego needs for balance. And yes to Carrie's words - the dichotomy of ruthlessness and compassion, that's never boring!

I like to be schooled sometimes (sometimes I said!) and some women have my number, every time. I like that. Adds to my humility.

And yes D...werd on high heel boots!

Skin. Legs. Grace. Elegance. Intuition. The walk and way of a woman on a mission.

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candylee 12/02/2008 10:57 AM 1 point
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Our sense of intuition, makeup, allowance to be frivolous, and a girls night out with friends, full of dessert, gossip, laughter, and cocktails!

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Natasha L 12/02/2008 01:38 PM 1 point
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So much has already been said. Overall what I love is this feeling that you hold some great secret. Hard to explain. A twinkle in the eye.
I love how capable women are. I recognize this especially in women older than myself (being 28). I'm always in awe of how older women - mother's generation, grandmother's generation - can do the biggest tasks (what may seem big to my generation) with such ease and speed - whipping up a batch of soup, packing up a house, cleaning anything...they've just got it down and it's no. big. thing. (insert finger snaps here). They don't complain they just get it done and do it well.

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Cobby 12/02/2008 06:32 PM 1 point
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Maya Angelou said it best in her poem Phenomenal Woman:

PHENOMENAL WOMAN
by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies.
I say
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips
The stride of my steps
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please
And to a man
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees
Then they swarm around me
A hive of honey bees.
I say
It's the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth
The swing of my waist
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say
It's in the arch of my back
The sun of my smile
The ride of my breasts
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say
It's in the click of my heels
The bend of my hair
The palm of my hand
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

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Kristen 12/02/2008 08:32 PM 1 point
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I love how we can change the world by nurturing each child who comes in to our lives.

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Ameda 02/06/2009 07:22 AM 1 point
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I love being called Mom! only a women has this God given name so that's the best part being a woman!

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Übergrössen Mode 04/23/2009 12:16 AM 1 point
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your blog post is really inspiring

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