What makes a women feminine ?

[Netball01]

I was reading another thread and someone commented that feminine women are few and far between nowadays. It got me thinking, what would you class as a feminine women ?

For me, I think of women in the 50’s with their dresses & hair always done etc

Well yes. But how is being good company feminine?

It's my opinion, if you don't agree, you can share yours.

I consider how someone carries themselves, their manners, their openness and friendliness to be part of femininity.

I don’t agree, no. I don’t think those things are anything to do with femininity. They are to do with being a decent person. Femininity is a load of bollocks to make women conform to some sort of stereotype. It’s about hair and make up and clothes and not asserting yourself. Utter shit.

years ago, someone said I was the most feminine person they knew. I was offended, since I didn’t want to be “feminine” (which sounded wet to me).

But I was: petite, very slim, delicately boned, long hair, pretty, and …smiley.

make of that what you will.

Ok, fine. Considering you don't agree with feminist, you wouldn't agree with anything I said anyway, so...?

Bingo!

But you can still be feminine with the exaggerated makeup (no I don’t have any), it’s just it’s not “mainstream femininity” and lots of women (me included) look down on it.

If you really wanted to be pedantic about femininity you’d say heels, skirts/dresses but I personally think that’s outdated femininity looks. Two friends of mine both don’t wear skirts or dresses or heels much (they do though) and still look feminine.

This.

Male/female is down to biology.

Masculine/feminine are cultural constructs.

You can be a feminine man (long hair, makeup, nail polish, skirt, ballet dancing, embroidery) or a masculine woman (crew cut, army boots, HGV driving, pipe smoking).

It just depends on the assumptions and associations of your culture at a given time. None of those things is inherently male or female, and all of them should be options open to men and to women. But traditionally they are seen as feminine or masculine traits.

Personally I would be happy to see the stereotypes deconstructed, but they do currently exist.

Femininity = being born without a Y chromosome.

This is really tiresome.

Femininity has two meanings. One relates to sex and the other to the expression of the female sex.

It is MY opinion, fucking hell

Yes this. A combination of xx chromosomes, having a vagina, a uterus, ovaries , breasts and a shed load of oestrogen whizzing round your system.

How you dress this adult human body and present it to the world is a matter of personal preference, but ultimately, underneath the clothes, it is a female/ feminine body.

Skirts, dresses, heels and makeup is a very western view of what “femininity” is. In other cultures being feminine does not depend on dresses, high heels and makeup, but adult human females in all cultures are still female, and have femininity, so femininity is intrinsic to being a member of the female sex, not how you dress or present yourself.

But not now she's older??

What changed?

Being ‘friendly and approachable and ‘being good company’ is not a gendered trait.

Well deal with it because I can have whatever opinion I want 😇

All for feminism until a woman has a different opinion than you, apparently, then you need to be flogged into submission.

Her chromosomes. HTH.

sigh. I wasn’t responding for women all
over the world or trying to be PC. I know what an F’ing woman is like, biologically so don’t patronise me.

Does being middle aged make Catherine ZJ unfeminine then??

I have literally never thought of a woman "She is very feminine". I suspect for men it is about the perception that a woman is striving to make herself appealing to men, and that is why they like it.

Wel my XX chromosomes make me female, so I'm somewhat feminine.

Or did you mean the stereotype? I read a thread the other day where a poster said men were attracted to their "mysterious feminity" and when asked to elaborate explained something to do with being agreeable, floaty, fragrant and submissive.

Not patronising you, just trying to expand the discussion.

You can write fucking on here, we are adults and don’t need to be infantilised. Now I am patronising you. Oops. 🙂.

So your ‘opinion’ is that men are never friendly, approachable or good company?

SO BORING. Is this what people mean when they say gender crocs people are annoying? This isn't even interesting enough to continue a debate over. Have a nice day👍

Gender critical*

Heavy on the critical. Really dull. Waiting around lie vultures for someone to say something you don't quite agree with to start an argument.

So glad I don't use this label for myself.