So I've just been told...

[Riotheparrott]

I'm a handsome woman. That means manly doesn't it?

Erm no. It means you are attractive?

Butch is the termed coined for a manly woman

Well you need to provide more context to know whether or not it was appropriate. But in my view handsome women just have very chiselled features. Not feminine features, strong and quite striking in a way.

I've been likened to Jennifer Aniston is she handsome?!?

It means you are attractive but in a classical way, rather than a 'cute' sort of way.

Rio is take it as striking. Rather than wishy washy pretty. Any one can do ‘pretty’

Take it as a compliment

Handsome is not manly! Handsome is handsome. Okay not pretty or winsome but handsome is a vair acceptable compliment. Unless it was some jerk in which case eat my shorts weevil dick. HTH

My boyfriend often calls me handsome. I hate it, but he means well

Wouldn’t say it was manly more classic/striking beauty than pretty.

I think its quite an old fashioned use of the word but it definitely isn't manly. As pp have said, think striking and beautiful rather than just pretty.

I wonder when it became a word used mostly to describe males?

Someone called my 5yo DD ‘my handsome’ the other day. It’s regional dialect to where we are situated at the moment. I thought it was quite sweet actually and a lovely alternative to ‘pretty’.

I was told this too and I wasn't very keen on it either. It was an older man at work. He asked me how tall I was, then said "you're a very handsome woman"

I think it's an old fashioned polite term. Just modern day language means it's one more associated with men.

I'm only 5 foot 4

I'm five eight, hardly a giant 🤣

If it's someone from South West England it's quite the compliment apparently.

And a size ten to twelve so not built like a German shit house either 🤣

I associate a handsome woman with roman features so not a delicate prettiness but a strong defined attractiveness. More Julia Roberts than Meg Ryan (god I feel my age using those references!).

Not that I’m an artist but I (randomly) imagine it as much easier to capture in a painting.

Handsome is DEFINITELY a much better compliment the 'pretty'. Read any Austen novel and you will see women being described as handsome, in the way we would use 'stunning' today.

It means strikingly attractive rather than pretty.

It's a great compliment and certainly doesn't mean manly

I like it, it’s not so infantilising as many comments on a woman’s appearance.

I think it’s a compliment.

I always think it means you look like a Renaissance painting, not like a Disney princess( I know which I’d prefer)

I would definitely take it to mean manly!

I would definitely take it to mean manly!

That made me lol, just imagining someone saying "you're a very manly woman" 🤣🤣🤣

It’s a joke in Family Guy. Brian is teased for fancying Glenn Close and he says, ‘she’s a very handsome woman’ 😂

I would rather be called handsome than what I usually get, which is "cute". I'm in my thirties, far too old to be cute!