(01-06-2016, 03:19 AM)earth_spirit Wrote:(01-06-2016, 03:07 AM)Aion Wrote: If you ask me, you perhaps have a very imbalanced view of what 'masculine' and 'feminine' is. It seems you kind of have them lumped in to two extremes, one of emotion/mental and one of physical. This doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me outside of the 'standardized' images that have been projected upon men and women.
Men have sat on their butts and concocted this "masculinity / femininity" to impose on the rest of us.
What is femininity if it is not defined by men?
I guess so, that still seems like another attempt to play the blame game and point fingers.
I would say that masculinity and femininity are to a great degree subjective labels that involve the identification of certain ideas with certain images. My girlfriend, for example, is very much a 'girly girl' by her own preference. She identifies many traditional 'feminine' attributes as being empowering for her as a woman, however she is also ambitious, business-minded and sometimes very blunt in her approach. However, I know other girls who have a completely different concept of what constitutes femininity.
I think it's a little insulting to suggest that every view of femininity comes from men, just like many views of masculinity have not come from women. It's a diverse world and I think any attempt to 'lay blame' is ultimately skewed and fruitless.
I'm also not one of those people who thinks everyone is gender-fluid and that no gender does or should exist. I think there are many preferences chosen all across the spectrum and it is more fruitful to try to see the spectrum than to try and fit everyone in to one part of it.