Femininity

Femininity

Femininity

Femininity is used to refer to characteristics, roles and behaviour that are identified with women and girls. Feminism has two-faced; it is both influenced by society and biologically. Some people think femininity in a biological sense is about the female biological, but this is far from it since even the males can exhibit inherent feminist traits. Some of the characteristics that are associated with femininity include empathy, gentleness and being sensitive among others according to influencers like cultural and social aspects. According to these factors, femininity has been defined in various ways. For example, through behaviour, characteristics, roles, and dressing, among others. This paper will expound more about femininity and opinions about the same from various studies.

One of the everyday things people use to define femininity in almost every society is allocation of roles on gender basis. Since the earlier days, the females have been identified with defined roles that the society thought are not meant for the males. For example, women have been identified with tasks such as child-rearing, household chores like cooking, and other jobs that are considered lighter. The society views women as the weaker gender and therefore are not expected to engage in jobs like construction, sports, careers like engineering and others that are considered masculine. It is not until recently that women are allowed some of these roles, including working in the corporate world and sports. For years the society has constructed these notions about femininity, a thing that has led to stereotypes and discrimination on gender even in the job place and school. The construction of gender roles on women starts at an early age and can influence someone’s life from the subjects to take in school to career choices. However, some of these believe no longer apply today as men also do the caregiving a role that was considered feminine (Kachel et al. 2016). The change in gender roles over time leaves one wondering whether the authenticity of femininity and masculinity as defined by gender roles.

Femininity has also been defined by behaviour and characteristics. Men and women differ in many ways, including in behaviour and traits where women tend to lack behaviour and character traits dominance in men. For example, while men are known as dominant, females are expected to be gentle, humble, submissive, caring, and display weakness, among others. Though these characterizations are consistent across various societies and cultures, it is essential to note that one can choose to develop the opposite gender traits and behaviours (Drydakis et al. 2017). For instance, the campaigns in the recent past on gender equality are a wakeup call to this fact. Furthermore, what is considered appropriate for women today is prone to change with time. .

In citizen, by Claudia Rankine, she speaks of the difficulty of raising a boy in American but still acknowledges that it is even harder to raise a girl. According to her, the black women are quietened and treated as if they are invisible. At one point she speaks of an account of black males who were murdered by police, but wonders why there are no records of black women who were murdered. She wonders when people rant black lives matters, and her question at this point is whether the black lives equals black women lives (Rankine, 2014).  Rankine wonders how women can uphold their value in a society that does not value them. Rankine uses this book to show femininity even in racism. According to the book, a woman is posed as passive and insignificant. I would say that society largely influences the notion of femininity. Whether a female or male with the right environment, one can perform any role and possess any traits without branding either as feminine or masculine.

References

Drydakis, N., Sidiropoulou, K., Patnaik, S., Selmanovic, S., &Bozani, V. (2017). Masculine vs Feminine Personality Traits and Women’s Employment Outcomes in Britain: A Field Experiment.

Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., &Niedlich, C. (2016). Traditional masculinity and femininity: Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 956.

Rankine, C. (2014). Citizen: an American lyric. Graywolf Press.