I Am Woman. No, Seriously Mom, I Am.

My mom recently asked me if I was a boy. Seriously. "Kristen, are you a boy?" I know I spend a lot of time with guys and not girls. When I say 'time' I mean: 90% of the time I leave the house I know no guy is going to approach me because one of those 5 dudes I'm with must be my boyfriend. Otherwise why would I be the only girl around all the time? (I suppose I should note here that none of them ever are my boyfriend? There just happen to be more males in my life than females.) So, I had come to terms with all the assumptions people surely make, but apparently, I spend enough time with just the male species that it compelled my mother, the woman who gave birth to me, to think perhaps I have actual male parts? That is kind of an extreme thing for my brain to manage.

As it turns out, I couldn't give her a really good answer one way or the other. Clearly, no, I am not a boy. But you know, if people (particularly your own mother) are asking you that, you can't help but feel some sort of confusion. This was not a 'I'm going to get an operation' kind of confused. Just you know, bamboozled confused. Thought that should be clear.

Well, I have decided that I am, unequivocally, a woman. How did I come to this realization? (Aside, from you know, the last 25 years of bras and heels and dresses and the want for an engagement ring not because I want to be married but because I want a really pretty piece of something sparkly.) Of course, New York Magazine comes through again. I read the following quote from an interview with Mad Men's Christina Hendricks:

"It is perhaps ironic then that Hendricks actually started out as a model - catalogues, mostly, but there was one season on the London runway that ended when her agent said, "Darling, did your boobs grow?" (One imagines that future season might see the question posed in the opposite direction.)"

Because, really, that question is so much better to be asked if you are a woman as opposed to being asked as a man. And trust me, I've been asked that question more than anyone.

Oh, and hopefully one day that question is posed in the opposite direction. And that'll be one point for the big girls.