It doesn't take a genius to know that women and girls don't get taught everything we need to know at school or by our parents. A lot of us are out here just doing the best we can with what we've got and figuring it out along the way.
Many don't fully understand our own bodies, aren't fully comfortable with the politics of the workforce, and bless your heart if you're in a metropolitan area and nobody has taught you the official (and unofficial) rules of public transportation.
Don't stress. The sisterhood has your back.
Reddit user ej1273 asked:
"Women of Reddit, what’s something every girl should know but is rarely taught?"
Let's get our learning on, shall we?
Menopause?
Tv Land Crying GIF by Teachers on TV LandGiphy"Still waiting for someone to teach me about menopause."
- megablocklego
"Honestly don't know much about it either, but I do know this: If you start menopause and your period suddenly comes back, go see a doctor IMMEDIATELY."
- carinavet
"Going through it now."
"No one told me about the insomnia. The hot flashes drench my head. Oh and brain fog is real."
- tulipz10
"And no one seems to mention that it’s not a few months or maybe a year… I’ve been dealing with it for 4+ years."
"Absolutely ridiculous. I would like to speak to menopause’s manager!"
- megggie
Pockets
"Honestly, sewing and altering clothes- not for gendered reasons, but because our clothes often times fit irregularly."
"A size 12 in one brand will fit completely differently from a size 12 in a different brand."
"Also, you can learn to sew larger pockets into your pants."
- plvmeria
"Say no more. You had me at pockets."
- spamari
Discharge Discourse
"Your vaginal discharge is slightly acidic to help kill off bacteria."
"This is why your underwear may gradually get 'bleach' stains and little holes forming in the gusset."
- tinyspacewolves
"It causes light spots on dark fabric and dark spots on light fabric. Somehow, it knows."
- nameunconnected
"I get vaginal discharge every time my period is about to arrive."
"My ex thought I was unhygienic and went on Reddit about it. It hurt a lot knowing that I, at that time, was in love with him. Glad it’s over."
- craycrayanon
"It is COMPLETELY normal to have discharge."
"I was taught you should have no discharge. Ever. It made me feel disgusting every time I felt my undies get moist."
"I was reading today that some girls have harmed themselves over this because they think it means they are no longer clean or are impure."
"I make sure in all my sex Ed classes with high school girls to stress this fact."
- ShutterbugOwl
"I had no idea as a young teen that discharge was normal."
"So I assumed my underwear should be bone dry and spotless and something must be wrong with me that it wasn’t. This was likely connected to my then-recent discovery of masturbation, which I understood was a terrible sin and a disgusting thing for me to be doing."
"I saw an ad for Monistat that referred to discharge, and I decided I must have a yeast infection."
"So, being probably 12 years old, I shoplifted some home treatment because I assumed if I tried to buy it they’d tell my mom and she’d know why."
"And that’s how a total lack of decent sex ed led me to commit crimes and self-medicate imaginary yeast infections for a couple years."
- okschooner
Negotiation
Pay Me Stephen Colbert GIF by The Late Show With Stephen ColbertGiphy"How to negotiate a pay raise, higher salary, etc. Too many of us (girls and boys) are not taught how to advocate for ourselves and know our worth to employers."
- Pepperspray24
"THIS."
"Last time I was offered a promotion at a corporate job they were all 'oh boy! And you’ll get a $2 an hour raise!' ”
"I said I’d call them back shortly. Did the math. With the amount of commissions I got on top of my hourly they’d have to give me a $3 a raise just to match my average pay, not to mention the raise needed to cover my new responsibilities."
"I called back and told them as much, and said I’d take a $6 per hour raise to start and if the store numbers went up in the first month by 10% I’d take another $2 after 30 days, and we could renegotiate after 90 days of the promotion, depending on store numbers."
"They said they couldn’t do that, so I said I’d stay in my current position."
"They called back within five minutes and agreed. I said I’d wait on the paperwork confirming it and wouldn’t ya know it? It worked."
- ShinyTinker
A Second Opinion
"If a doctor quickly dismisses your extreme menstrual pain (or any type of pain for that matter) as being ‘normal’ or that you’re too ‘sensitive’, try to seek a second opinion."
"My ‘normal’ pain turned out to be endometriosis."
- BranwenTheRiveter
"My mom told me to suck it up, everyone hurts during their period. She thought taking ibuprofen kept my body from learning how to deal with discomfort."
"No, mom. It was stage 4 endometriosis. It was so bad my internal organs were fused together."
- reluctantsub
"Way back in dinosaur times, a doctor told my sister that period pain is God's punishment for women committing Original Sin, and there was nothing he could do to help her."
- NeutralFrog
Houseplants
"Thousands of companies exist with the sole purpose of making you feel insecure about some bullsh*t non-issue, then selling you a made-up 'solution'."
"Don't give these people your money. Acquire more houseplants instead."
- Articulated
"This here is solid gold."
"My houseplants make me so much happier than trying to conform to random bullsh*t standards for women ever did."
- Foxclaws42
A Plan, Not A Man
"Financial planning."
"You can’t and shouldn’t depend on Prince Charming to rescue you."
- macaronsforeveryone
"My grandma told me 'You don’t need a man to take care of you. You also don’t need a man you have to take care of.' ”
- erishilton
"As a Father to a daughter, I really tried to encourage my daughter to be financially independent and smart with her money."
- nadvargas
Lumps Aren't Always Cancer
"Lumps in your breasts are not always cancer!"
"Of course get them checked out, but it is COMMON to find cysts in your breasts! Some people also have naturally fibrous and kind of lumpy feeling breast tissue."
"Source: found a lump in my breast, freaked out, searched Google, freaked out more, stewed for months, booked an appointment with my Obgyn only for him to tell me 'yeah its a cyst, stop messing with it. It's common.' "
"Don't do that to yourself. Don't freak out. Don't stew for months."
- Jenyweny09
"It bothers me tons that there is no treatment other than 'live with it' as they become very painful."
"However, I really want to stress here, if you do find lumps in your breasts, go have them checked immediately, but don't freak out about it. It could be something, it could be nothing."
- yourMomDoesTricks
A Watering Can
"Lactating women do not have just one stream of breast milk that comes out of the middle part of the areola."
- Egg_Cellent
"Yup. It all looks a bit more like a watering can. You have multiple ducts where milk is released."
"Adding on to this, people need to understand a bit lore about the basics of human lactation. How it works, what is normal/abnormal, and where to reach out for help, and to do so the second you have questions."
"Lactation issues are much easier to correct the sooner you get help."
- nursepineapple
"I thought this when my son was born."
"He was four weeks premature and I was crying after the birth because my nipples didn’t have their hole yet. I was convinced it was because he was early and I wouldn’t be able to breast feed."
- ComprehensiveFlan638
"What the F!!!! I am 35, no kids (yet) and you are telling me my nipple turns into a WATERING CAN!!!???"
- holdingpotato
Do You Even Lift?
"Weightlifting and strength training is good for you, and more women should lift."
- kschin1
"No one accidentally wins Mr. Universe. The heavy weights aren't going to turn you into a hulk. You're not going to look 'manly' by accident."
- heili
"ADHD lady who loves weight lifting. Can confirm."
"Your brain goes quiet and you have such a sense of accomplishment being able to lift something you never thought was possible."
- infiniteambivalence
"It also won’t make you 'bulky'."
"It’s damn hard to build actual muscle, women don’t build muscle as quickly or as naturally as men do. For a woman to build a large amount of muscle takes time and precision with diet and progressive load training."
- RunRenee
"Exactly!! As a guy I’ve never understood this, women are something like 4 times more likely to develop osteoporosis or something because of bone density."
"So literally women have very good reason to lift more."
- GeneralKenobi4321
Now that you've heard from the lovely ladies of Reddit, it's your turn to talk.
What is something you think younger women and girls need to know as they grow up?
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Even the person who seems to be the calmest has that moment when their patience has run thin, and all it takes is a little more prodding and antagonizing to set them off.
Curious to hear examples of when strangers online were surprised by what they witnessed, Redditor Specktakles88 asked:
"Have you ever seen a normally calm person completely lose their sh*t? What happened?"
A triggering moment unleashed wild behavior.
The Dude Who Had It Coming
"I was chilling at a friend’s house as a kid. His dad was the chillest, nicest guy. That day, my friend’s mom (also super nice) was across the street talking to the neighbor about something that I can no longer recall. Neighbor was one of those guys who never respected common etiquette: music blaring, parking his sh**ty boat in front of other people’s house, cars parked on the lawn. The neighbor started screaming at the mom and we all went out on the stoop to see what was happening. As soon as we got outside, the guy called my friend’s mom a c*nt. Well, my friend’s dad heard that and went full Hulk mode. He ran SCREAMING across the street and just f'king decked the guy and crouched over him shouting warnings and threats. Took a while for his wife to calm him down. I don’t think any of them had ever seen him react to something in that way, maybe even the dad himself."
– Corporation_tshirt
Hot Kitchen
"I worked as a line cook with a chef who I became really good friends with. Really chill dude, easy going, and actually super fun to cook with. He taught me most of what I know about cooking and I owe him a lot for my success. Never really saw him get mad until one day, we were getting slammed during busy night and one of the servers said something that really ticked him off, not sure if I ever heard what it was, but next thing I knew he had sent the deep fryer basket flying at Mach 1 across the kitchen, nearly missing the dish kid and shattering a light bulb. He stormed off and 5 minutes later after a smoke break, came back and casually continued cooking as if nothing had happened."
"He apologized about it the next day and we never talked about it again. The restaurant industry is a stressful place."
– Nexteri
Thing About Grandpa
"When I was in my late teens I was financially irresponsible and borrowed money from my grandparents to move out of my mom's house. We made a plan on how I would pay it back in installments and I only missed two payments, with each one I called my granddad and asked if it was okay. He was always cool about it. One day I got a call from him and he was LIVID. Screaming at me on the phone and I could hear my grandmother crying in the background. He was the angriest I’ve ever heard anyone in my life and I was terrified. He wanted to know why I hadn’t made the payment that month, but I was sure I had. It turns out I had accidentally set the automated payment to be drawn from the wrong account and it hadn’t done it. It was an honest mistake on my part, and I explained that to him. I transferred the money immediately and he instantly calmed down. I later found out he had become an alcoholic after he quit smoking, and he would talk to my grandmother like that regularly when no one was around."
– kamaikaja
Awakening The Beast
"This is not my story but my dads. Growing up his best friend Leif was a quiet, shy guy that was a bit socially awkward. In school he wasn't physically bullied but this one kid teased him constantly. This would have been late 50's, early 60's so kids were expected to just tough it out. My dad would usually confront the kid but one day a girl runs up to him and says that Leif and the kid are fighting."
"My dad runs over to save Leif but when he breaks through the circle he finds the bully flat on his back, Leif sitting on his chest, holding him by the ears and smashing his head into the pavement over and over. My dad tackles him, wrestles him to the ground and screams at him, asking what he's doing. The thing that stayed with me from that story was how he described it, 'it was like there was nothing in there, I felt like I could see the back of his skull through his eyes.'"
"Luckily they were kids so the damage was serious but limited, the bully escaped with stitches and a concussion and Leif had to talk to the school psychologist. My dad and Leif stayed best friends and when I met him as an adult he was still quiet but less shy and awkward."
– Kenail_Rintoon
Work-related stresses really brought out the fury in these people.
The Beginning
"I had a friend who was in his 60's, a functioning alcoholic but he was the most calm and composed guy I have ever known. He never used to raise his voice or swear. Everything was done with meticulous precision."
"He once explained to me that if you use vulgar language and shout all the time, then you will have nowhere to go when you really do get angry."
"I had worked with him for about 3 years, never heard him raise his voice or swear before. The week before he had been shafted on his pay and the manager promised to get it sorted by Friday. Friday rolled around and it had not been sorted. So when my friend walked up to the manager in the open office and declared loudly 'Where the f'k is my money? You promised this would be resolved.' The whole office went silent and the look of dread on the manager's face was haunting. The money was in his account by the end of the day."
"That was him losing his sh*t."
– LinktoApop
Parting Words
"I used to see this woman in my building every day. Very friendly. We always checked on each other’s lives. We had lunch a few times over the years. It was friendly to a certain degree. A couple years passed. She was much older than me. One day, riding the elevator, she told me that she was saying goodbye. I said I was sorry to see her go and asked why. She said she was retiring that day. I asked if her office was throwing a party or if she was celebrated. She turned to me and her face contorted into an image of rage. She clenched her teeth and said she didn’t tell anyone in her office, including her bosses. She only told the HR person last week. This was her last day and she was never returning to see or talk to anyone in her office again."
– darthsnakeeyes
The Gentle Giant
"I used to do seasonal work sorting tax returns. Like, 500 people in a warehouse size room sorting through returns, stacking them in boxes, etc. This one guy on my team, huge dude, a gentle giant, really nice. Suddenly one day he smashes the table he's working at, then flips a big box full of paperwork. It flew over my head and twenty feet away. He threw the table out of his way them stormed out. Turns out he was getting his paycheck garnished for something or other."
– TheBelhade
Rambunctious behavior really set these people off, but it also restored peace.
The Teacher Who Had Enough
"One of my teachers in high school was THE calmest dude. Never yelled, never told kids off, would just laugh and smile and wait for us all to calm down and then continue with his teaching. One day we must have been particularly rowdy and we weren’t calming down like we usually did. He couldn’t get a word in edge ways. I could see him getting increasingly frustrated and eventually he just bellowed SHUUUUTTT UPPPPP And the entire class was shocked into silence. He never had to do it again lmao"
– shyaussiegirl26
Too Angry To Hold A Knife
"It takes a lot to make my mom yell. On the rare occasion she did yell, it still felt like she had self control. Like she yelled on purpose, because there was a reason to yell (like she needed to be that loud for us to hear us, or one of the kids needed to learn to never run into traffic again.)"
"But one morning when we were teenagers, my brother was being really, really difficult."
"And my very sweet, soft-spoken mother yelled 'GOD DAMN IT SHAWN' and threw a butter knife down so hard it stuck, 1/4 inch deep, in oak hardwood floor. Against the grain. I can still hear the noise it made."
"We were all very, very well behaved for the rest of the day."
"I did eventually ask my mom why she did that. Her explanation was that she felt she was too angry to hold a knife, even a butter knife, and was trying to get it out of her hand before she did something stupid."
– _Green_Kyanite_
Granny's Mean Streak
"Man my grandma has a similar thing. This boy was a couple years older than she was and he was constantly picking on her. He's riding his bike home from school one day and he rides past her and he's shouting at her and she knocks him right off his bike and beat the sh*t out of him. My sweet lil granny. The neighbor that saw it said he was proud as sh*t that she beat the snot out of this shitty kid lol. I think it was the start of my grandma's bad b*tch streak because not much later, she started street racing. She was allegedly a sweet little girl, but man I think she must have had a mean streak in her."
– Unsd
"Jerry Springer Christmas"
"My mom. We had what we now refer to as the 'Jerry Springer Christmas' when I was 7 or so. One aunt hated her sister in law and started screaming at her, then shoving started, husband's got involved, then it just continued to devolve from there. My mom went straight into mediator mode and tried to calm everyone down but it wasn't working. She decided to come check on us kids and found my cousin and me holding each other and sobbing because we were scared. The next thing I hear is her scary mom voice screaming over everyone 'listen here you motherf'kers. My kid is in there crying on Christmas because her family can't keep their sh*t together for one the one day a year we all see each other. You're gonna march your a**es into that room single file and apologize to each kid individually, then you're going to shut the hell up until I get them out of here. We're going to go find look at lights and this family better be the picture of goddam Christmas joy by the time we get back.' My mom never really cussed in front of me and only ever used gd when things were really bad. That side of the family didn't celebrate Christmas for a few years after that."
"Edit: thank you for the awards and kind words! Ma is tickled pink at all of the comments about how wonderful she is. I tell her every day how lucky I am to have her."
– thatspookyb*tch
Rage is something that exists in all of us.
Some people are good at letting small things run off their back, while others have no patience for the smallest of grievances.
The lesson to be learned here is, never underestimate the calmest people. They might be the ones to really look out for. You don't want to be the reason for them to break their patience streak and unleash all of their built-up fury on you.
Be kind to others, and just don't be a prick.
Whether that applies or doesn't apply in our own lives, we listen to the songs conveying these experiences to take us back so we may relive these affirmative moments from the past.
Curious to hear what's on the moody playlist of strangers online, Redditor udontknowmegurl asked:
"What is the saddest song you've ever heard?"
These iconic artists really touched the hearts of many people through their music.
Dolly's Love Anthem
"I will Always Love You by Dolly Parton, you can really tell she f'king lived that song."
– scruntyboon
When Mom Went To Heaven
"The night my mama died, my dad sang Elvis' Can't Help Falling in Love to her in the back seat of the car on the way to the ER. She died of fully metastitized pancreatic cancer 18 days after diagnosis."
– AmazonEllie
It Gets Deeper With Age
“'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac I find that the older I get, the more meaning this song has."
– Rare_Matter
Leave it to Disney to have us reaching for the tissue box.
Touching Score
"That song from UP makes me cry every time and it doesn’t even have lyrics."
– TheDaughterOfFlynn
When She Loved Me
"That one Jesse sings in Toy Story 2"
– TheWholeEffinJoe
And let's not forget these emotional tunes that resonated with many Redditors.
Irish Folk Song
"‘Danny boy’ at a friends funeral 10 years ago. He, his sister and his gf all passed away in a house fire all in their early 20s. It was an Irish wake and the mix of grief and whiskey joy was something else."
– Flamingoez88
When Love Moves On
"Into Dust by Mazzy Star gets me."
– d*ckem52
When You Want To "Disappear"
"How to disappear completely by Radiohead. Haunting instrumental, depression dripping through everyline of lyrics 'im not here, this isnt happening.'"
– Bradyceneme
Ray Of Light In The Darkness
"You Are My Sunshine"
"Everything but the chorus is heartbreaking. Few people know anything but the chorus though."
– lolly_lolly_lolly
From A Powerful Album
"Sylvia - The Antlers"
"Actually that whole album, Hospice, breaks me but this song in particular just leaves me in a mess every time."
– recoverelapse
When Love Fades
"The Night We Met by Lord Huron."
"No matter where I am, if I’m happy, who I’m with, etc. I’ll bawl my eyes out if that song plays. It’s so painful and true because one day they’re there and they’re your everything and then they start slipping until they’re gone and you wished you could go back to before you met them so you wouldn’t have to go through the pain of losing them. Just the lyrics 'I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you' hit this. People falling out of love in relationships, growing apart with friends, family members passing, etc. is what this hits for me and it hits hard."
– beepbeepboopbop2
One of the saddest songs I've heard is not connected to a personal experience, but the story being told is heartbreaking.
It's called "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. The song is basically about a lonely, repressed virgin queen who keeps her heart closely guarded.
When a soldier enters her domain and challenges her internalized emotions, it's too much for her and has the soldier executed.
The song has continued haunting me ever since I first heard it.
Maybe rethink alternative words for "awesome"...
"I called a taco 'the Shizznit' a few days ago."
"I instantly felt 90 years old."- fattydad075
Not as "radical" as it once was...
"Rad."- AvatarofBro
Colors Flashing GIFLanguage is eternal!
"None of MY slang is outdated, it's today's youth that are wrong!"- hotasphalt
How long have you got?
"I say things are the bees knees on the regular."
"Is 'on the regular' dated?"
"I also call the ocean 'the drink' for whatever reason."
"Picked that up at some point."- Paradigm6790
"This sub is making me extremely paranoid about my words now bc I say pretty much all of these words still."- jjjjjjj30
season 10 friends GIFGiphyCharming once, vulgar now...
"HAULIN’ A**."- f*ck_korean_air
Nah, come closer.
"Far out."- PaulClifford
A bit off
"Right on."- bombaderogato
Does anyone still even eat popsicles?
"When I'm ready to leave I say 'Let's blow this Popsicle stand."
"To be honest I'm not even sure what a posicle stand is."- B-Sdetector69
Popsicle Freezer Pop GIFGiphyIt's hard not to feel self conscious around the younger generations who might laugh at your dated vocabulary.
But one should just remember, in 10 years or so, they'll likely find themselves in the exact same position.
And won't feel as "groovy" as they once did.
And not on your foot, one imagines...
"Nothing but a tube sock."- Sanguiniutron
Reverse Psychology
"Dress normally, because if the theme is to dress inappropriately, and you dress appropriately, technically you're the one being inappropriate for the occasion."- GoAwayImHereForMemes
"I've actually been in a completely opposite situation."
"Was invited to a art exhibition, came in well dressed. It was basically porn but the person I went with forgot to mention that."
"I felt very malplace standing around people wearing next to nothing."
"So I would probably do that again because what's more inappropriate than being appropriate at an inappropriate event?"- cccantyousee
"I mean, if dressing inappropriately is the appropriate attire, then dressing appropriately would be inappropriate for the party, thus, making it appropriate."
"Now that I think about it, it's an unsolvable paradox."
"You could never appropriately dress inappropriately."- MUNKIESS
Getting Ready Jimmy Fallon GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonGiphyIt's all in the details
"A suit."
"With the pants cuffs rolled up, wearing tevas with gym socks."- BitPoet
And they say you can only wear it once...
"Bridal gown."- fromhelley
Depends on your surroundings...
"Imma wear a parka."
"In South Texas."
"In August."- Ahshalon_Tenisk
Parka GIF by moodmanGiphyThe question is, what aren't you wearing...
"Nothing I'd just show up in lingerie."- cloboehobo
Wrong on so many levels...
"A two sizes to small wrestling singlet, and crocs."- thirdtimer_2020
I Like Swimsuit GIF by MOODMANGiphyThere's little more fun than facing the challenge of dressing to impress.
Or, in this instance, un-dressing to impress.
And if you are greeted by a round of shocked expressions, you know your choice of outfit was a success.