“What is femininity?”

[bloom]

There are no rules - your answer can be short, long, metaphorical, literal, poetic, sarcastic, whatever.

(This is for someone else's blog/school project).

[kiahzero]

1. It's a socially constructed pattern.

"Femininity" no more exists absent societal definition than "masculinity."

[bananas]

3. And you have the Sacred Chao for your avatar?

Shame on you!

[kiahzero]

4. That's it, you're excommunicated!

My view is consistent with the psycho-metaphysics described in the Principia, so :P.

I'm glad to see someone recognizes my avatar; you're the second since I've had it (about eight months).

[Kelly Rupert]

2. The quality or condition of being feminine,

which is itself defined as having qualities generally attributed to females. I go no further, as I have a mild distaste for feminist theory and criticism, and I do not want to go out on any sort of limb whatsoever.

[PassingFair]

5. Make-up, hair-dye and girdles.

Oh, and high heels.

I think.

:sarcasm:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

6. The qualities of being "feminine."

Should I have said high heels instead?

[Vox Acerbus]

7. Feminine energy, as I define it...

All of this is IMHO and my experience (do not be fooled by my generic handle, I'm a woman) ...

Concepts I associate with feminine energy =
Creativity
Flow
Multi-tasking
Nurturing

Not that I took a class on this or anything, but I did, for a weekend. In my opinion, the most powerful women out there are the ones who don't try to hide from their femininity, but rather embrace it and seek to use it in harmony with the world. BTW, men can have feminine energy and women can have masculine energy, and it has nothing to do with their sexuality.

Someone once described feminine and masculine energy to me thusly:

A ship going from point to point across the ocean is masculine energy. The water that carries that ship is boundless and flowing, with no single direction, think of that as feminine energy. While the ship may do obviously important things, that are easy to categorize, it can't move without the currents of the water.

Vox
PS: Interestingly enough I have always considered myself a very "masculine" guy-oriented tomboy of a woman, but after going to a seminar on the whole thing and learning to stop turning my back on being feminine (and to stop dismissing it as nothing more than makeup-wearing, shopping poofiness) I've started being more creative and doing more "feminine" things and I find it very comforting.

PPS: On editing, I realize all the other answers are "smartass" style answers, which is fine. I take the concepts seriously, as trying to be "un-feminine" for most of my life has made me quite miserable. I think there's nothing sexist at all with saying that women are totally different than men, that we have different strengths and weaknesses, but that as people we are all 100% equal and deserve to be treated as such.

[kiahzero]

8. Why are those things masculine or feminine? (n/t)

[Vox Acerbus]

9. Because of the origins and history of the species...

I'm not going to go into the whole weekend's worth of discussions here, and I don't have time to argue for one or the other, and I already know that you hold the whole concept of the question in low esteem, but in essence here's what I'll say:

Based on human history, men have been hunters and gatherers. They are very focused, because if they weren't in the early days, they'd be killed. Women reared and nurtured, tended to the family, and in general got all the scattered items of their home life in order.

Before anyone cries foul and sexist and oh geesh, comes to crucicfy me: I'm a working woman, no children, don't want children, and one of the most femininist women you'll ever meet. But I do not deny that throughout history, women have excelled and evolved as one type of the species and men as the other. Computers and easily obtainable food are new things to our species, and I totally buy that we are still very much, at our core, a product of the millenia of history that got us here.

That's all I'm going to say on the matter, except via PM, as I can see flamewars-galore getting started here based on the early responses to this question.

[kiahzero]

10. Well, that view can be consistent with what I said.

That would, in fact, seem to support what I was saying: gender is socially constructed. You see those things as masculine / feminine because they have historically been perceived that way (if I'm reading you correctly).

[bloom]

11. thanks for the answers so far...

kick

[Tsiyu]

12. Femininity is

whatever a female is doing.

If a female is running a chainsaw, she is doing what feminine people do.

If she is painting her toenails, she is being feminine.

If she is a female bear, and she attacks a threat to her babies, she is being feminine.

If she is a mother who lost a son in the Iraq mess, and she is protesting that "War" she is being feminine.

A female is feminine when she is plowing a field, driving the kids to school, sleeping or just breathing.

Why? Because "feminine" only means "what females do" and females do a whole lot of things.

[Scout]

13. read the book by Susan Brownmiller

"Femininity" is a good read, I thought.