The utter isolation & divisions between women can be found in the weirdest shit. I was an adult before I knew that a large minority of women won't sit on a public toilet seat & that men rarely have this belief- yet this practice is transmitted between mothers & daughters...

I also didn't know until I was an adult that there's another big minority of women who think it's basic hygiene to always wear a pantyliner (despite this often causing vaginal issues). It was a "secret society" totally outside my view, even though women around me did it ...

Many doctors are often ignorant about women's female-specific hygiene practices, whether they're various cultural practices with specific harms or benefits, practices done out of common ignorance, or recent developments. Menstrual cups are one often ignored...

I'll never forget an ultrasound I needed to get when I was on my period. I put in a cup. The imaging results read that they detected "an unknown device inside the vagina". I felt so humiliated- if they didn't know what it was, what were they thinking of me?

When I was studying cognitive science I got fascinated with synesthesia. One thing striking to me was how ppl often didn't know they had it- even the most obvious forms, like seeing colored letters & words- they thought everyone must read language that way...

Our experiences in our female bodies are simultaneously so "obvious" we never think to ask any other woman about them but also completely hidden. We often don't know what's normal or not. There are adults who don't realize the urethra is different from the vaginal canal...

I don't think we often think of how weirdly alone we are at all times, even though female people make up half the population. Basic facts about our bodies and how to take care of them become "obvious" through shame...

How do we expect people with gender dysphoria to "realize" there are other experiences of the female body when most women don't even know about common experiences other than their own? When you're not supposed to ask? When the type of woman you might be is far, far away?