General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Growing up female [View all]Amaril
(1,267 posts)Things I remember:
*Family gatherings -- women would cook all day while the men watched TV or drank beer in the garage. After dinner, the women would clean up while the men sat in the livingroom, talking and demanding that someone bring them coffee. One the hardest slaps I ever got from my Mom was when I told my Dad to get his own damn coffee because the women were BUSY.
*Wanting to play baseball with the boys at recess and them letting me play.......but only if I agreed to be all-time pitcher..........AND when I started getting good, then I wasn't allowed to play anymore because I was a "girl".
*Packing the night before I was to leave for college and hearing my Dad tell my Mom that he didn't understand why *I* needed to go to college since I was only going to married in a couple years and start having babies, and that it was a big waste of money on a "girl". (shouldn't have surprised me -- the man completely rejected me from birth because I was a girl........pretty damn sad, considering I was his only child).
*Being told by my mother to not think that I was anything special because I was "just a girl, after all"
*Being completely pissed off when my breasts started growing. Girls were "lesser than" and having breasts made me one of them. I spent my entire childhood trying to act like a boy (in a vain attempt to win my Dad's affection), and sincerely felt like my body was betraying me.
*Overhearing one of my aunts tell my Mom what a shame it was that I wasn't "pretty" because I would probably never find a husband, but at least I was smart enough to be able to get a job, so she should count herself lucky that at least they wouldn't have to support me for life.
Ugh! Enough! Pulling all of that out of the mental filing cabinet just set my head on fire.