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Effeminacy is not necessarily related to a man's [[sexuality]], though effeminacy is associated with homosexuality in modern [[Western]] culture.<ref>''Why do gays fall for straights?'' The Advocate, Feb 17, 1998, 72 pages, No. 753, ISSN 0001-8996, Published by Here Publishing</ref><ref>Pezzote, Angelo ''Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love'', Kensington Publishing Corp., 2008, ISBN 0758219431, 9780758219435</ref> |
Effeminacy is not necessarily related to a man's [[sexuality]], though effeminacy is associated with homosexuality in modern [[Western]] culture.<ref>''Why do gays fall for straights?'' The Advocate, Feb 17, 1998, 72 pages, No. 753, ISSN 0001-8996, Published by Here Publishing</ref><ref>Pezzote, Angelo ''Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love'', Kensington Publishing Corp., 2008, ISBN 0758219431, 9780758219435</ref> |
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The terms ''femiphobia'', ''effeminiphobia'', and ''sissyphobia'' have been proposed to characterize the generally negative attitude displayed in many societies towards effeminate men.<ref>Fellows, Will, ''A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture'', Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2005, ISBN 0299196844, 9780299196844 </ref> |
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==Clothing and appearance== |
==Clothing and appearance== |
Revision as of 03:33, 27 May 2011
Femininity (also called femaleness or womanliness) is the set of female qualities associated with women and girls by a particular culture. The complement to femininity is masculinity.
Religion and mythology
In Taoism, the concept of yin represents the female half of yin and yang, and is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive.[1] In Hindu traditions, Shakti is the divine feminine creative power, the sacred force that moves through the entire universe.[2] She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents consciousness or discrimination, remains impotent and void. In Hinduism, the universal creative force Yoni is feminine, with inspiration being the life force of creation.
In Hebrew language, the divine presence of God, the Holy Spirit, the Shekhinah is feminine. In Kabbalah, Binah is the great mother, the feminine receiver of energy and giver of form.
Jungian psychology
In Carl Jung's school of analytical psychology, the concept of anima represents the female half of anima and animus. In Jungian psychology, archetypes are unlearned tendencies and a part of the collective unconscious[3] The main feminine archetypes originally introduced by Carl Jung and often adopted in literature[4] are patterns of behavior that follow the biological life cycle[5] of the woman and fall into the following roles:
Femininity in men
Men who behave in ways associated with femininity by a certain culture may be called effeminate. Men who use clothing associated with femininity are cross-dressers.[6] A drag queen is a man who wears feminine clothing and behaves in a feminine manner, usually for entertainment.
Effeminacy is not necessarily related to a man's sexuality, though effeminacy is associated with homosexuality in modern Western culture.[7][8]
Clothing and appearance
Cultural standards vary a great deal on what is considered feminine. For example, in 16th Century France, high heels were considered a masculine type of shoe, though they are currently considered feminine.[9]
Body modification
For centuries in Imperial China, smaller feet were considered more aristocratic and feminine, leading to the practice of foot binding, with painful consequences for the woman. [10]
In parts of Africa and Asia, neck rings are a form of body modification associated with feminine beauty.[11][12]
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In China until 1911, tiny, bound feet for women were considered aristocratic and beautiful
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The Kayan people of Burma (Myanmar) associate the wearing of neck rings with aristocratic femininity.
Feminism
Feminists such as Judith Butler contend that being female is not “natural” and that it appears natural only through repeated performances of gender; these performances in turn, reproduce and define the traditional categories of sex and/or gender.[13]
Many second-wave feminists reject what they regard as constricting standards of female beauty, created for the subordination and objectifying of women and self-perpetuated by reproductive competition and women's own aesthetics.[14]
Others, such as lipstick feminists, attempt to reclaim symbols of "feminine" identity such as make-up, suggestive clothing and having a sexual allure as valid and empowering personal choices.[15][16]
See also
- Feminine psychology
- Feminization (sociology)
- Gender studies
- Marianismo
- Mitochondrial Eve
- Nature versus nurture
- Sociology of gender
References
- ^ Osgood, Charles E. "From Yang and Yin to and or but." Language 49.2 (1973): 380–412 . JSTOR. 16 Nov. 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/search>.
- ^ Sacred Sanskrit words, p.111
- ^ http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html |Personality Theories
- ^ http://mrob.com/pub/std/archetypes.html |Archetypes in Literature
- ^ http://www.sandiegotherapists.com/threestages.html |The Three Stages Of A Woman's Life
- ^ cross-dress." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
- ^ Why do gays fall for straights? The Advocate, Feb 17, 1998, 72 pages, No. 753, ISSN 0001-8996, Published by Here Publishing
- ^ Pezzote, Angelo Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love, Kensington Publishing Corp., 2008, ISBN 0758219431, 9780758219435
- ^ Brown, William, Art of shoe making, Global Media, 2007, 8189940295, 9788189940294
- ^ Binding: Bone Breaking Beauty, August, 2009
- ^ http://www.houseofopium.com/longneckkaren.htm
- ^ http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2007/05/16/bound-by-tradition/
- ^ Butler, J. (1990). ‘’Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity.’’ New York; Routledge.
- ^ http://newhumanist.org.uk/1781
- ^ Scanlon, Jennifer, Bad girls go everywhere: the life of Helen Gurley Brown, Oxford University Press US, 2009, ISBN 0195342054, 9780195342055
- ^ Joanne Hollows; Rachel Moseley (17 February 2006). Feminism in popular culture. Berg Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 9781845202231. http://books.google.com/books?