Just what is feminine?

Well? You hear the expressions 'that's not very ladylike', 'that's not suitable for a woman is it?' and the classic, 'that's not really very feminine now is it?'. The last one normally follows a woman swearing, at least in my experience (as someone who perhaps swears slightly more than is good for them!).

Putting the following into Google (www.google.co.uk), 'Define:feminine' throws up some fantastic and bizarre results. The definition search on Google is a great resource and the results here show why there seems to be such confusion

'Adjective: Having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, esp. delicacy and prettiness.
Noun: The female sex or gender.'

*The source for Google definitions is: Oxford American College Dictionary, as referenced here.

The first problem is that sex and gender are being used interchangeably here. The second problem is the fact that the adjective definition believes that there are qualities and physical elements that can be seen to be associated with women. What does that mean? The presence of breasts for example? This is obviously hugely flawed as there are women who for many often painful reasons have had to have mastectomies and may be waiting for re-constructive surgery or may have decided that they do not want to go down that route. There may be women who are in the process of transitioning and who have not yet had the breast augmentation operation, again they may not choose to. They are all still women, irrespective of some arbitrary physical feature. This notion of appearance is also flawed in the sense that it seems to suggest that women are one homogeneous group who all share the same qualities and physical attributes.

I also hate the notion of delicacy as being feminine and associated with women. As a Doc Marten wearing clumsy woman I in no way meet this aspect of the criteria. But, wait I have labelled myself a woman in my sentence! Finally, the notion of prettiness. What does this mean? The idea of prettiness is both cultural and subjective. What one person finds pretty or beautiful may repulse another. It also suggests that once again there is centrally held belief about what is pretty, which is possibly quite western-centric. If we stop and consider the majority of women who are chosen/selected/audition to model clothes they are normally very tall and slender. The use of such women to model clothes, make-up and lifestyles may suggest that they are the pretty ideal that is held by our society. I have blogged before about body image, young girls and the prevalence of eating disorders and I think it is this focus on pretty that should be seen to play a role.

So, If I were to conclude I would suggest that this notion of feminine seems to be culturally created and is conforming to a large number of stereotypes. The use of this word can then be used to criticise women who are deemed not to conform. If we contrast the definition of feminine with the definition of masculine (same dictionary source as before) we see the associated words are; 'virile, strength and aggressiveness'. The words associated with feminine suggest a level of passiveness and that there place is to look good on the arms of these strong hunters. A bizarre and outdated notion, so is time we scrap the word feminine as a means of labelling or criticising people or is time we reclaim it?