Femininity

Femininity refers to a set of attitudes, characteristics, and behaviors that are considered typical of or appropriate to the female sex in a given culture. These traits are generally labeled as opposite and complementary to others attributed to the male sex within broader dichotomic conceptualizations. Nonetheless, the meanings of femininity and masculinity vary greatly [Page 597]from one society to another, within any society over time, within each individual over time, and among different individuals in one group at one point in time. It is fair to say that in Western culture, femininity has been traditionally associated with qualities such as nurturing, understanding, submission, sensitivity, creativity, intuition, and passion, whereas aggressiveness, rationality, dominance, competitiveness, and objectivity have been conversely attributed to the typical or the appropriate ...