Going nowhere

I started this entry, but it seemed to die in my arms. I'll just post what I have, instead of deleting it. It seems a waste of a paragraph.

I have been a girl all my life. It seems a silly statement, but I am attempting to establish my credentials. I want it known that I have almost 30 years of experience being a girl. And I don’t say woman and I don’t say female, because they never seem to conjure the right image in my mind: the former seems a political distinction, the latter a biological one. Girl always seemed to encompass everything, the politics, the biology, and the cultural of receiving two X chromosomes. I also like “girl” because it is so mutable. Yes, girl means young woman, but there is so much more to it. We tack it on to every conceivable personality and hobby – rock girl, glamour girl, shy girl, drama girl, popular girl, nerdy girl – and while each of these are gendered, but it is more than that. It becomes a way to identify the tribes, so to speak. Girl lets you try on different hats, be all the other girls you want to be. It is a very liberating term because you are free to interpret it as you wish. There is a problem with girl, though.