What does it mean to be a woman??

So I am sitting here wondering what exactly it means to be a natural woman. Aretha and co. sing and suggest that "you make me feel like a natural woman" but what does that really mean?? Does this mean that a female has to go through certain intitiations before she can be considered a woman? Does she have to marry and bare children? Only then, would you consider her a natural woman? Should she be able to cook, clean and be a perfect housewife? Is it a feeling that another individual imparts? Does she have to have sex first? What intitiations make a woman feel like a natural one? And would that mean that the childless lady is not the epitome of "natural womanliness"? Does that mean that the 30 something young lady who decides not to have sex until she is married, is she not a natural woman? Must a lady fall in love and be broken?? Should a lady follow certain laws of society for her to become a woman? The lady who decides to study, get a degree and get a beneficial career, is she not a natural woman?? What exactly does this term mean?

I heard an aged lady tell a 35 year old that unless she has lived as a woman, she would not be able to understand certain things. Huh?? That's like Ronald Reagan's "What would this country be, without this wonderful land of ours?" huh??? What age does a female graduate into this "natural womanliness"? So does that mean that some females, are not yet women? Natural women? Then perhaps i will never graduate into natural womanliness since I don't see marriage as a possibilty or bearing children as another. If these are the criteria for graduation, I will continuously fail.

But, if it is as Aretha sings and it is a feeling, when will I know that I am a natural woman?? Do i wake up and feel different??? How will I know?? Most of the women singing appear to have past the period of menstruation and I read somewhere that a girl becomes a woman after menstruation or is it after menopause??? :-) I hope someone will be generous enough to inform me, that indeed, now Malica, you are a natural woman!!! Ah well, sing on, the song is truly lovely and it may mean something different to us all. I remember Murphy Brown singing that song when she had just given birth, so perhaps its that for mothers! I heard another sing it after marriage, perhaps it is that for wives! I heard a young lady singing it, after she'd fallen in love. So perhaps its that for young lovers. I wonder, when will I sing it? Not on my wedding day!! What man is worth it? :-) Not on the day i give birth!!! What child is worth the pain??? :-) Seriously!!!!

All right now guys, I will bid you Adieu! Sayonara! Arriverderci!! Adios! Addio!!