I also think that the strength gap is at least partially manufactured women would in fact be stronger overall if little girls were encouraged to do physically taxing games and activities and eat their fill while they’re growing vs having to constantly diet and be sedentary indoors (or god forbid do intense cardio while under-eating). The amount of adult women honestly afraid to lift weights bc they think they’ll get bulky as though bulking isn’t a full time job that athletes have to spend all their time on and anyone on earth gets shredded from just using their adult muscles for their intended purpose, girl your bone density 🥀
if you say women are intentionally nerfed from birth in 2026 people look at you like you’re insane and start condescendingly telling you about how women are just better at different things (but not during their periods haha) but this was a completely basic feminist talking point I grew up with like “girls can do it too! [shot of little girls climbing and running with boys]” nickelodeon commercial tier base level I hate it how is everyone suddenly dumber than the average 7 year old
Well. I am thinking, now. I despised & avoided[*l the situations that confined me but not my amab sibs; I hated being still. Furthermore, I had one of those constantly-starving skeletal metabolisms so I guess I lucked out of a lot of pressure to diet. I was a horse girl, carrying feed bags and hay bales, walking fencelines and repairing shelters, wrassling thousand pound animals to do my bidding. When I couldn't go to the barn, I got on my bike and rode for hours[**].
I discovered at university that indeed, I was stronger than most of the people I knew, of any gender.
At the time I assumed it was the activity, that anyone who pursued active hobbies would be as strong. I hadn't considered it, but this makes a lot of sense: For an afab, I did have an unusual, solid foundation of nutrition and exercise, going all the way back to my toddler times.
[*] "You can't climb or swing in your nice dress, they might see your underwear!" Next time I wore shorts underneath. "You can't get your nice dress dirty or torn!" Next time I brought a change of clothes. I was *all* about the loopholes and I. did. not. want. to. sit. still.
[**] The stuff about GenX parenting is true, folks, my mother never even asked where I had been. Nobody had cell phones. I doubt a 12-yr-old can manage this now. And good gravy, was I lucky.
