This is going to piss some people off. That goes without saying. But these are my opinions, formed from what the world has taught me through the bulk of my interactions with the opposite sex. I don’t think I’m the only one who holds these beliefs, either. Far from it actually. In my 25 years of living, it’s become jarringly apparent that the blanket statement I’m declaring here is unflinching in its truth.
And that blanket statement is that women are, on a whole , the stronger of the sexes.
Because we are expected to be everything.
We are expected to be career women, because the stay at home mom or “home maker” is often frowned upon as lazy and weak. As a user or mooch.
We are expected to be mothers, because the very existence of our wombs translates to an obligation to contribute to the growth of human population. Regardless of personal goals or desires, genetic ability, or financial capability, if we choose not to have children its almost always deemed as selfish and/or a “phase.”
“Oh, you’ll change your mind, believe me.” People say.
Particularly older men.
Which inspires me to point out that, despite this expectation so many men hold, there are more single mothers than single fathers in this world. Don’t argue with me on that, because its simple fact. Out of every 2 million single parent families, only 17% of these single parents are Dads (fatherhood.gov). The rest are mothers. And the strength of the single parent, again most of which being female, is bottomless and astounding in its resiliency and purity.
Women are expected to be pleasant. We are met with “smile, baby!” and “you catch more bees with honey,” more often than we should when interacting with the opposite sex. If we respond to a male advance in any way that’s interpreted (by the man) as less-than gracious, we are bitches. We are suddenly unworthy of that advance. And in some instances, we are subject to violence because of the interpreted slight against the male ego.
We are expected to be gentle, but not so much that it’s interpreted by an interested male as maternal. Because that’s a turn off, donchaknow.
We are expected to be confident, but only to the point where it’s sexy. Anything beyond that bleeds into cocky and bitchy, which is obviously undesirable in a woman.
I swear to god if I am faced with one more “she was beautiful but didn’t know it, and that made her even more stimulating” character cliche I’m going to quit books and TV all together.
We are expected to be human, but only in the ways that are attractive. Its ingrained in us by society to hide things like tampons away, bringing our bags to the restroom when we need one instead of just carrying it out in the open because god forbid a set of poor male eyes be subject to the concept of female blood. We are expected to shave the parts of ourselves that men expect to be hairless, and ridiculed if we don’t. We are expected to wear makeup, but not too much. To eat, but only enough to earn that perplexing “compliment” of,
“I like a girl that can eat.”
We are expected to have curves in the right places. Forget the fact that the human body is rarely this conventionally attractive shape naturally (or healthily) — with a flat stomach and thin arms, yet soft hips and a big (toned) rear end. With nice breasts too, of course. Not too big, not too small.
However, its important to remember that a great set of tits and a juicy ass don’t count on a fat woman.
Thats what I’ve heard too many men say, anyways. Both online and in my day to day life.
We are expected to bear pain, both physical and emotional, in silence. Because emotion, any emotion, regardless of how justified it may be, automatically labels us “hormonal” or “hysterical.”
We are expected to break our backs to meet all societal expectations placed on us. These expectations being set and driven by the male ego.

The same male egos that shatter if a woman rejects them on the street. The ones that sit at their computer desks, pattering away on keyboards sticky with Cheeto-dust, arguing online over the parts of one female compared to the parts of another.
That fragile fucking male ego runs the world we live in.
I don’t know if its happening as a result of more social media, so the abuse the female gender endures is being uncovered (finally), or of its just a rise in long overdue rage. But women are starting to fight back against the male driven expectations that have become the norm in our society. We are calling out entitled, violent behavior toward women, both in our day to day lives when we are faced with it and through outcries like the MeToo movement. We are fighting for necessary feminine products to be viewed as just what they are — necessary. Not gross, not “extra” and therefore taxable. We are fighting for the ownership of our own bodies and for respect. We are fighting for equality in the work place and the home, on the streets, as people and not mere furnishings to a man’s life.
We fight for the equal right to be human, every day, in a way that men will never have to.
So I ask: Who really is the weaker sex? The one who has to battle to be treated as the living, coherent beings we are? Or the one who expects to be placated and catered to, the gender that is groomed from the start to view the opposite as weaker and in existence merely for their pleasure?
The answer seems pretty clear to me.
