"It takes a real woman to hunt for their dinner and not just pop into the grocery and buy a piece of meat"....

Whenever I hear someone talk about how a certain kind of person is a "real" woman or a "real" man, I shudder. In other places, I've been told that "real" women stay home and raise their children, grinding grain to bake bread and feed their "real" man when he comes home from a hard day's (paid) work. Or that a "real" woman has a uterus (so one is not a "real" woman after a hysterectomy, or if one is MTF transsexual.) And now, I'm hearing that a "real" woman goes out and hunts to put supper on the table.

How on earth can you say that one woman is more "real" than another? How can you say that I am not a "real" woman, though my gender identity is female, I have birthed two children into my own hands, breastfed them for years, and raised them to the best of my abilities as responsible, environmentally conscious citizens, on a life-long vegetarian diet? I am not "real" because I do not feed my children meat (from either a store or a hunt), and I eat a vegan diet?

You may not agree with the choices made by other women. But please, under no circumstances say that some women are more "real" than others because of the choices they make.

Whitehorse,
Yukon