To Woman Up

Once upon a time, there was a ginger prince whose granny couldn’t cry. Her problem was so well-known that there was a TV series about the issue. The habit was inherent in the family up to the point that, when the prince’s mother died, he didn’t weep; at least not in public. 

So, as long as there wasn’t a teary prince, things appeared to be well. Crying is for sissies and real men don’t cry. What men do is to man up. Men are so tough that they even have their own verb. A verb plus a preposition; just in case a lonely, drifting verb wasn’t enough. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘to man up’ as to ‘be brave or tough enough to deal with a difficult or unpleasant situation.’ The verb is ugly and sexist and, in the long term, damaging. ‘To woman up’ doesn’t exist. And it should. By default, it would be the opposite: to be brave or tough enough to retrieve yourself from a difficult or unpleasant situation.