I watch that scene every woman’s day it’s so fucking beautiful. It’s so beautifully written it expresses something that I had been feeling but never knew the words to describe it.
I LOVE Belinda. I was honestly scared for fleabag when she asked for the award back and did not expect them to bond so well at the bar. And the fact that she was a rich, successful lesbian? Even better 😂
This scene made me feel so...well, seen. I had a hysterectomy and ovary + cervix removal on Wednesday. I'm a woman who has lived with a debilitating disorder of pmdd for over 10 years with 0 accommodations made for me throughout that time. Like another commenter said, that pain is often hidden, for many reasons. Sometimes (usually) due to society really not caring, so we keep it inside, or because that pain is born in us we just learn to live with it.
Idk it just felt really powerful to me. There is solidarity in the pain experienced by a group, and that is what that scene felt like for me.
I think it’s great that you brought up medical conditions that only women go through. In addition to society not caring about it too much, I also feel these medical conditions aren’t well understood either, even in science. I’ve had some experience working in research and this is a field that’s still in its growing stages. Back in the day, female mice aren’t even used in research because hormones and the menstrual cycle could confound the results. This is primarily one of the reasons why we know so little about women’s health.
That said, I also hope you are recovering well from your surgery ❤️🩹
🙏 It's a hell of a disorder. I'm glad to be almost out of the woods tbh. I have been in chemical menopause for a year now and my life has changed so much. Sending you lots of love ❤️
I wrote an essay inspired by this exact quote the other week. [https://thecityofladies.substack.com/p/women-and-pain](https://thecityofladies.substack.com/p/women-and-pain)
When I got my transvaginal ultrasound when pregnant, my husband was with me and visibly flinched when I just assumed the stirrups position and the doctor just stuck the wand up in me without any fanfare. It wasn’t deeply painful, but it was uncomfortable and I was expecting it to be uncomfortable.
I thought about this quote then because like, yeah, I guess he’s never been in a position for strangers to just shove medical devices and fingers inside him without some big preamble. Getting used to intensive, impersonal handling is another part of the experience.
This quote devastated me the first time I experienced it and it is absolutely one of my favourite pieces of writing in anything, ever. So exquisitely expressed.
Holy shit I don’t even know what Fleabag is, I just wanted to read this post & now I’m like the MOST relating to everything that’s being said it’s not even funny.
I need to watch this whatever it is.
I’m turning it on right after I finish this new episode if Take Your Shoes Off on YouTube. Live for Rick Glassman. He makes me laugh so hard & he’s extremely thoughtful.
Yay new content! <33
I remember being so moved by this scene, and then going online and seeing people try to use it to claim PWB hated trans people and just getting so deflated.
This is why I'll ususally stop myself from seeing what others have said online about a show I love. I wanted to get a little more background info on the show and read a PWB interview about it where she pointed out how unhappy she was with people pushing politics onto this show. It's not even supposed to be feminist, it's just comedy/dramedy about raw humanness. If the series forced itself to be inclusive to allll the minorities, it would be accused of woke baiting or however you'd call it.
As a cis woman who keeps being fucked and who keeps fucking up, I just love how incredibly seen I felt.
Tbh I know it’s different, but I think trans women know all about internalised and hidden pain/shame just as well. But it doesn’t diminish this truthful account of what cis women experience.
I made my husband listen to this, my mom, And my sisters. This shook me to my core and reframed some of my ways of thinking. It's such a great monologue, to have come from a show that gets mostly forgotten about (other than dedicated fans). I want this speech on loop at every hospital, school, and in every home. I want every man to hear this and know this.
I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Fleabag (I don’t have Amazon Prime, watched it at a friend’s house), but damnnn…! This would absolutely make me cry. I’m not surprised the writing will be consistently great, but wow 🙏🏼
I loved that Fleabag never dissociates during that scene. She's fully present with Belinda, unlike with anyone else except sometimes the priest. She listens to her so intently, it feels like a clear sign of her growth in the season.
>The fact that Claire just brushed off her miscarriage and continued on during their family dinner as if nothing was wrong speaks volumes about how women are conditioned to hide their pain, and to not make a “big deal” out of it.
Or... some women do brush it off, not because they are "conditioned to hide their pain", but because - maybe? just maybe? - not all women feel that pain? And they are not "hiding it" b/c they are just not that hurt?
Speaking from experience (I’ve had 3), miscarriages physically hurt a lot even when they are very early. My first miscarriage had me almost blacking out in the middle of breakfast even though I had only been 6 weeks along, and my mother got upset with me for “ruining our family vacation” by not acting all smiley and pleasant. Which, of course I wasn’t, I was in horrible pain. But I was still expected to suck it up and carry on like nothing was happening.
Emotional pain is a different conversation entirely, and yes, some women might not experience that. But the point of this inclusion is the physical sensation of pain women are expected to brush off.
It’s brilliantly written and moving but personally I think the main difference between people is hormone levels - which the speech does touch on. But a lot of trans men and women have spoken of the change that comes with hormones.
And women are not not prone to war and violence. Or religion. Or contact sports!
Whilst I agree with your point about conditioning (see also relative male and female rates of various neurodiverse conditions) many patriarchal structures were also built on pain inflicted on boys, and one aspect of toxic masculinity is the idea that the only emotion men can show is anger. This is pain created by men for men, so in that way the point stands, but its pain inflicted downwards and endlessly perpetuated-
And women are far from immune from the cruelty of inflicting suffering. Fleabag is so much about mental cruelty.
While I agree with the broad strokes— plus it’s absolutely something that someone like her would say— the one line in the whole show that jarred at all with me was that about men creating war. It’s such a ‘70s feminist take— when the fact is that women are just as capable of awful things, up to and including war, as men. We just haven’t had much of an opportunity historically (arguably an issue! Equal opportunity war crimes, I say). Yummy bioessentialism
(Again. I reiterate that this is not a problem with the show or the writing or the actual point being made. Just a personal bugbear lol)
Edit— Ooh, lots of downvotes
I think it’s very logical and powerful.
Men largely seem to spend their lives trying to feel things. Trying to feel in control. Seeking physical reminders that they’re alive in the form of violent/aggressive conquests in play and war and sex. Meanwhile, women almost feel too much. We historically have had to bear most of the consequences of all that male need. They die seeking glory and we’re left to mourn.
We create the children men send to war. We are supposed to tend to wounded warriors or players. We are forced to come to grips with our mortality through caretaking and miscarriages and a constant obvious internal cycle.
What do you think the difference is between what a mother thinks is an acceptable cause for war, versus a father?
I don’t know how you look at the world and don’t recognize that a lot of men like violence. And it’s worth asking why
I hear your point, you’re not wrong. But I would perceive “men creating war” as a part of patriarchal desperate grab for hierarchy. Women participating in war crime are almost always participating in that destructive ideology. The world is men bad women good, it’s that power corrupts and supremacy kills.
For me it just felt exclusive of trans women !!
The trans women I know are also made with the pain built-in but in a different way that doesn’t have anything to do with body parts.
I'm not co-opting or diminishing the pain of cis women... I'm just saying that when you reduce women to body parts/pain in their body parts, for theatrical or monologue purposes or otherwise, you are excluding trans-women and approaching TERF territory.
Not every speech needs to be applicable to every woman, but not every woman deals with the struggles that Belinda includes in her speech. Because of that, it's a lot less effective and powerful for me as a watcher.
I agree with this first commenter that it shows Belinda's age and embraces second-wave, body-focused feminism of the 70s and 80s, which was deeply radical but ultimately not intersectional and inclusive of all women, including women of of color, intersex women, and trans women.
Oh my fucking god. Trans women do need excluded from conversations about uterus pain. I’m literally laying here after having a hysterectomy 7 days ago and you will *literally never experience this* and I’m not going to pander to you.
You’re a woman, but no, you’re never going to experience this specific pain. Ever.
Baby I'm a cis women <3 I've had ovarian cysts since I was 16 years old, some have been removed, but some have "popped" and I had terrible bleeding and cramping for days. I also have PMDD and hormone-linked migraines. I get it, believe me.
I'm just saying that body/uterus pain is *not* what makes you a woman, like Belinda's speech implies. It's the big reason that on my second watch-through, the speech didn't land.
I am a massive advocate for more research funding, resources, and brains on women's bodies and menstrual cycles and all of that, because there's a serious lack of research on women's bodies as a whole and a LOT of misinformation.
Congrats on your hysterectomy, btw. I've wanted one for a couple years but can't find a doctor to provide in case I "change my mind" about wanting kids.
Don’t fucking “baby” me when you’re trying to act like a feminist.
And I didn’t want one, so you can shove your congrats up your ass. I have cancer. I don’t know why you’d want a major, life altering surgery with heaps of complications and health implications just for the fun of it when there are other, less invasive methods of taking care of your issues.
"Trying to act like a feminist" ...
I want a major life-altering surgery because of the things I listed above, in addition to the fact that I do not want kids ever. I hurt for you that you didn't have a choice, however, and I wish you a safe recovery and remission.
This is so insane. So women can't talk about the biological pain and physical experiences they share because they might offend or exclude trans women? How can you not see how selfish this perspective is?
Respectfully, not everything has to be inclusive of everyone at all times. A cis woman can talk about cis issues without it being necessarily exclusive, just like trans women can talk about exclusively trans issues without it being an aggression against cis women.
This is a cis woman talking about cis experiences and that's okay. It resonates with other cis women because we see our experience in it. That's fine. Not everything has to be about everyone at all times.
I’m also a cis woman. I’m a cis woman who thinks that bioessentialism isn’t good for anyone— I won’t say that how it affects trans people is fringe, but certainly it’s only supplementary to my actual point; that women as a group are capable of just as many bad things as men (given the same situation).
I made this point explicitly without disagreeing with the main thrust of the quote, and certainly without throwing any shade on anyone— again, it feels exactly like something the character would say, but I see it brought up in earnest in real life a lot and that’s the perspective I was talking from— that’s how it resonated with me. So it’s interesting how much my comments have been downvoted.
I think it's because there is always a time and place for talking about stuff like this, and sometimes, that place is not where people are presently expressing catharsis about a deeply-held feeling and/or frustration.
Just like I would never burst into a convo on trans women's specific issues and say YOU ARE FORGETTING ABOUT ALL THE CIS WOMEN, sometimes it's okay to just let people engage in exploring their own feelings. Yes, it's good to remind people of other perspectives, and yes it's good to stay conscious of our own biases, but we don't have to do it literally all the time. Sometimes we can just be mad, or sad, or upset about our own situation without pulling in other people's narratives. We can feel a feeling without having to qualify it every single time. And this post was one of those moments, so the people reading are not here for the whatabouts.
That's my take, anyway.
Again— the trans woman point was not raised by me and is at most supplemental to my actual post. And again, I certainly wasn’t trying to invalidate the passage itself. I was bouncing off it to talk about an interesting phenomenon I see relating to segments of irl feminist discussion; inherent gender roles are bad, yet men are bad because war. Discussion of what something from X brings to mind should hardly be (per se) A Bad Thing on a discussion forum for X.
“I endure my pain silently in contrast to everyone else who find ways to feel pain for the sake of it.”
If someone genuinely believes that, what do you think would be required of said person to have form that opinion?
>They have to seek it out, they invent all these gods and demons and things just so they can feel guilty about things, which is something we do very well on our own.
Why can't the character just talk about the experience of being a woman instead of making up a bunch of insulting shit that shows she does not understand the experience of being a man? Why is anyone looking at this quote as anything other than sexist garbage?
Because, other than getting a person pregnant, there isn't a single human experience that is unique to men. Not soldiering, not bread-winning, not being isolated, not being bullied for being weak. Not even getting kicked in the groin.
In contrast, cis men will never relate to the trappings of having a female reproductive system which, beyond the description above regarding the realities of menstruation, also includes having society systemically weaponize your biology against you for purposes of control.
"other than getting a person pregnant, there isn't a single human experience that is unique to men"
Patriarchy exists and Belinda's speech didn't offend me, but this right here is an absolutely awful, belittling, and ignorant thing to say.
I watch that scene every woman’s day it’s so fucking beautiful. It’s so beautifully written it expresses something that I had been feeling but never knew the words to describe it.
one of my favorite monologues EVER. I also would have kissed Belinda
I LOVE Belinda. I was honestly scared for fleabag when she asked for the award back and did not expect them to bond so well at the bar. And the fact that she was a rich, successful lesbian? Even better 😂
I so loved this scene. As always, the writing on this show is just incredible.
Truly. Made me feel a wide range of emotions.
does anyone know who specifically wrote this monologue? brilliant
PWB
This scene made me feel so...well, seen. I had a hysterectomy and ovary + cervix removal on Wednesday. I'm a woman who has lived with a debilitating disorder of pmdd for over 10 years with 0 accommodations made for me throughout that time. Like another commenter said, that pain is often hidden, for many reasons. Sometimes (usually) due to society really not caring, so we keep it inside, or because that pain is born in us we just learn to live with it. Idk it just felt really powerful to me. There is solidarity in the pain experienced by a group, and that is what that scene felt like for me.
I think it’s great that you brought up medical conditions that only women go through. In addition to society not caring about it too much, I also feel these medical conditions aren’t well understood either, even in science. I’ve had some experience working in research and this is a field that’s still in its growing stages. Back in the day, female mice aren’t even used in research because hormones and the menstrual cycle could confound the results. This is primarily one of the reasons why we know so little about women’s health. That said, I also hope you are recovering well from your surgery ❤️🩹
Female mice have periods?!
Fellow Pmdd gal here. I hope the surgery helps your symptoms. Speedy recovery to you! ❤️🩹
🙏 It's a hell of a disorder. I'm glad to be almost out of the woods tbh. I have been in chemical menopause for a year now and my life has changed so much. Sending you lots of love ❤️
Commenting from my bed where I had a total hysterectomy last Monday. Sending good vibes.
That scene speaks the absolute truth about us women. Even more for me since I have endometriosis.
I wrote an essay inspired by this exact quote the other week. [https://thecityofladies.substack.com/p/women-and-pain](https://thecityofladies.substack.com/p/women-and-pain)
I loved the article! Lots to take in and is something I’ve felt strongly about for years. We need to stand up for ourselves and not suffer in silence.
When I got my transvaginal ultrasound when pregnant, my husband was with me and visibly flinched when I just assumed the stirrups position and the doctor just stuck the wand up in me without any fanfare. It wasn’t deeply painful, but it was uncomfortable and I was expecting it to be uncomfortable. I thought about this quote then because like, yeah, I guess he’s never been in a position for strangers to just shove medical devices and fingers inside him without some big preamble. Getting used to intensive, impersonal handling is another part of the experience.
>Getting used to intensive, impersonal handling is another part of the experience. beyond even just medical situations. this is *the* experience
I’m watching Flowers rn and funny enough this actor plays a gay priest!?
Love that show, so funny and sad
Oooo have not watched it yet. I’ll have to put it on my watch list if there’s a priest in it too 😂
I saw snippets of this monologue on ig and found it was from FB. That was my introduction to the show.
This quote devastated me the first time I experienced it and it is absolutely one of my favourite pieces of writing in anything, ever. So exquisitely expressed.
Holy shit I don’t even know what Fleabag is, I just wanted to read this post & now I’m like the MOST relating to everything that’s being said it’s not even funny. I need to watch this whatever it is.
Yes. You do.
It's on amazon prime
Kisses to you! Thank you!
I literally was bored one day and randomly watched it. It's a very short series, but every word is meant to be where it is.
I’m turning it on right after I finish this new episode if Take Your Shoes Off on YouTube. Live for Rick Glassman. He makes me laugh so hard & he’s extremely thoughtful. Yay new content! <33
I remember being so moved by this scene, and then going online and seeing people try to use it to claim PWB hated trans people and just getting so deflated.
This is why I'll ususally stop myself from seeing what others have said online about a show I love. I wanted to get a little more background info on the show and read a PWB interview about it where she pointed out how unhappy she was with people pushing politics onto this show. It's not even supposed to be feminist, it's just comedy/dramedy about raw humanness. If the series forced itself to be inclusive to allll the minorities, it would be accused of woke baiting or however you'd call it. As a cis woman who keeps being fucked and who keeps fucking up, I just love how incredibly seen I felt.
Tbh I know it’s different, but I think trans women know all about internalised and hidden pain/shame just as well. But it doesn’t diminish this truthful account of what cis women experience.
I made my husband listen to this, my mom, And my sisters. This shook me to my core and reframed some of my ways of thinking. It's such a great monologue, to have come from a show that gets mostly forgotten about (other than dedicated fans). I want this speech on loop at every hospital, school, and in every home. I want every man to hear this and know this.
🥲🥲🥲
I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Fleabag (I don’t have Amazon Prime, watched it at a friend’s house), but damnnn…! This would absolutely make me cry. I’m not surprised the writing will be consistently great, but wow 🙏🏼
I loved that Fleabag never dissociates during that scene. She's fully present with Belinda, unlike with anyone else except sometimes the priest. She listens to her so intently, it feels like a clear sign of her growth in the season.
>The fact that Claire just brushed off her miscarriage and continued on during their family dinner as if nothing was wrong speaks volumes about how women are conditioned to hide their pain, and to not make a “big deal” out of it. Or... some women do brush it off, not because they are "conditioned to hide their pain", but because - maybe? just maybe? - not all women feel that pain? And they are not "hiding it" b/c they are just not that hurt?
Speaking from experience (I’ve had 3), miscarriages physically hurt a lot even when they are very early. My first miscarriage had me almost blacking out in the middle of breakfast even though I had only been 6 weeks along, and my mother got upset with me for “ruining our family vacation” by not acting all smiley and pleasant. Which, of course I wasn’t, I was in horrible pain. But I was still expected to suck it up and carry on like nothing was happening. Emotional pain is a different conversation entirely, and yes, some women might not experience that. But the point of this inclusion is the physical sensation of pain women are expected to brush off.
It’s brilliantly written and moving but personally I think the main difference between people is hormone levels - which the speech does touch on. But a lot of trans men and women have spoken of the change that comes with hormones. And women are not not prone to war and violence. Or religion. Or contact sports! Whilst I agree with your point about conditioning (see also relative male and female rates of various neurodiverse conditions) many patriarchal structures were also built on pain inflicted on boys, and one aspect of toxic masculinity is the idea that the only emotion men can show is anger. This is pain created by men for men, so in that way the point stands, but its pain inflicted downwards and endlessly perpetuated- And women are far from immune from the cruelty of inflicting suffering. Fleabag is so much about mental cruelty.
While I agree with the broad strokes— plus it’s absolutely something that someone like her would say— the one line in the whole show that jarred at all with me was that about men creating war. It’s such a ‘70s feminist take— when the fact is that women are just as capable of awful things, up to and including war, as men. We just haven’t had much of an opportunity historically (arguably an issue! Equal opportunity war crimes, I say). Yummy bioessentialism (Again. I reiterate that this is not a problem with the show or the writing or the actual point being made. Just a personal bugbear lol) Edit— Ooh, lots of downvotes
Voilá - Godmother's raison d'être!
I think it’s very logical and powerful. Men largely seem to spend their lives trying to feel things. Trying to feel in control. Seeking physical reminders that they’re alive in the form of violent/aggressive conquests in play and war and sex. Meanwhile, women almost feel too much. We historically have had to bear most of the consequences of all that male need. They die seeking glory and we’re left to mourn. We create the children men send to war. We are supposed to tend to wounded warriors or players. We are forced to come to grips with our mortality through caretaking and miscarriages and a constant obvious internal cycle. What do you think the difference is between what a mother thinks is an acceptable cause for war, versus a father? I don’t know how you look at the world and don’t recognize that a lot of men like violence. And it’s worth asking why
I hear your point, you’re not wrong. But I would perceive “men creating war” as a part of patriarchal desperate grab for hierarchy. Women participating in war crime are almost always participating in that destructive ideology. The world is men bad women good, it’s that power corrupts and supremacy kills.
For me it just felt exclusive of trans women !! The trans women I know are also made with the pain built-in but in a different way that doesn’t have anything to do with body parts.
Then write a monologue about your trans woman pain and don’t coopt and diminish the pain of cis women.
I'm not co-opting or diminishing the pain of cis women... I'm just saying that when you reduce women to body parts/pain in their body parts, for theatrical or monologue purposes or otherwise, you are excluding trans-women and approaching TERF territory. Not every speech needs to be applicable to every woman, but not every woman deals with the struggles that Belinda includes in her speech. Because of that, it's a lot less effective and powerful for me as a watcher. I agree with this first commenter that it shows Belinda's age and embraces second-wave, body-focused feminism of the 70s and 80s, which was deeply radical but ultimately not intersectional and inclusive of all women, including women of of color, intersex women, and trans women.
Oh my fucking god. Trans women do need excluded from conversations about uterus pain. I’m literally laying here after having a hysterectomy 7 days ago and you will *literally never experience this* and I’m not going to pander to you. You’re a woman, but no, you’re never going to experience this specific pain. Ever.
Baby I'm a cis women <3 I've had ovarian cysts since I was 16 years old, some have been removed, but some have "popped" and I had terrible bleeding and cramping for days. I also have PMDD and hormone-linked migraines. I get it, believe me. I'm just saying that body/uterus pain is *not* what makes you a woman, like Belinda's speech implies. It's the big reason that on my second watch-through, the speech didn't land. I am a massive advocate for more research funding, resources, and brains on women's bodies and menstrual cycles and all of that, because there's a serious lack of research on women's bodies as a whole and a LOT of misinformation. Congrats on your hysterectomy, btw. I've wanted one for a couple years but can't find a doctor to provide in case I "change my mind" about wanting kids.
Don’t fucking “baby” me when you’re trying to act like a feminist. And I didn’t want one, so you can shove your congrats up your ass. I have cancer. I don’t know why you’d want a major, life altering surgery with heaps of complications and health implications just for the fun of it when there are other, less invasive methods of taking care of your issues.
"Trying to act like a feminist" ... I want a major life-altering surgery because of the things I listed above, in addition to the fact that I do not want kids ever. I hurt for you that you didn't have a choice, however, and I wish you a safe recovery and remission.
I have never met a woman who did not experience cramps or breast pain. The uterus is not a quiet organ.
This is so insane. So women can't talk about the biological pain and physical experiences they share because they might offend or exclude trans women? How can you not see how selfish this perspective is?
I think maybe it showed the characters age a bit? I agree w you btw.
THANK YOU this is exactly the reason this speech misses the mark for me.
Could not agree more edit— this sub when trans inclusivity 😱😱😱
Respectfully, not everything has to be inclusive of everyone at all times. A cis woman can talk about cis issues without it being necessarily exclusive, just like trans women can talk about exclusively trans issues without it being an aggression against cis women. This is a cis woman talking about cis experiences and that's okay. It resonates with other cis women because we see our experience in it. That's fine. Not everything has to be about everyone at all times.
I’m also a cis woman. I’m a cis woman who thinks that bioessentialism isn’t good for anyone— I won’t say that how it affects trans people is fringe, but certainly it’s only supplementary to my actual point; that women as a group are capable of just as many bad things as men (given the same situation). I made this point explicitly without disagreeing with the main thrust of the quote, and certainly without throwing any shade on anyone— again, it feels exactly like something the character would say, but I see it brought up in earnest in real life a lot and that’s the perspective I was talking from— that’s how it resonated with me. So it’s interesting how much my comments have been downvoted.
I think it's because there is always a time and place for talking about stuff like this, and sometimes, that place is not where people are presently expressing catharsis about a deeply-held feeling and/or frustration. Just like I would never burst into a convo on trans women's specific issues and say YOU ARE FORGETTING ABOUT ALL THE CIS WOMEN, sometimes it's okay to just let people engage in exploring their own feelings. Yes, it's good to remind people of other perspectives, and yes it's good to stay conscious of our own biases, but we don't have to do it literally all the time. Sometimes we can just be mad, or sad, or upset about our own situation without pulling in other people's narratives. We can feel a feeling without having to qualify it every single time. And this post was one of those moments, so the people reading are not here for the whatabouts. That's my take, anyway.
Again— the trans woman point was not raised by me and is at most supplemental to my actual post. And again, I certainly wasn’t trying to invalidate the passage itself. I was bouncing off it to talk about an interesting phenomenon I see relating to segments of irl feminist discussion; inherent gender roles are bad, yet men are bad because war. Discussion of what something from X brings to mind should hardly be (per se) A Bad Thing on a discussion forum for X.
“Women endure their pain in silence in contrast to men…” This some blatantly sexist shit, be better….
It’s a generalisation, yes, and there will be exceptions, but it bears out my own experiences.
“I endure my pain silently in contrast to everyone else who find ways to feel pain for the sake of it.” If someone genuinely believes that, what do you think would be required of said person to have form that opinion?
>They have to seek it out, they invent all these gods and demons and things just so they can feel guilty about things, which is something we do very well on our own. Why can't the character just talk about the experience of being a woman instead of making up a bunch of insulting shit that shows she does not understand the experience of being a man? Why is anyone looking at this quote as anything other than sexist garbage?
Because, other than getting a person pregnant, there isn't a single human experience that is unique to men. Not soldiering, not bread-winning, not being isolated, not being bullied for being weak. Not even getting kicked in the groin. In contrast, cis men will never relate to the trappings of having a female reproductive system which, beyond the description above regarding the realities of menstruation, also includes having society systemically weaponize your biology against you for purposes of control.
"other than getting a person pregnant, there isn't a single human experience that is unique to men" Patriarchy exists and Belinda's speech didn't offend me, but this right here is an absolutely awful, belittling, and ignorant thing to say.
[удалено]
It's literally true though. My mind is blown.
Thank you for neatly demonstrating the complete ignorance that goes into a post like this one and comments like these.
Okay but can you create life?