“To the "masculists" of both sexes, "femininity" implies all that men have built into the female image in the past few centuries: weakness, imbecility, dependence, masochism, unreliability, and a certain "babydoll" sexuality that is actually only a projection of male dreams. To the "feminist" of both sexes, femininity is synonymous with the eternal female principle, connoting strength, integrity, wisdom, justice, dependability, and a psychic power foreign and therefore dangerous to the plodding masculists of both sexes.” MenDreamPastCertainSexJusticePrinciplesCenturyDangerousIntegrityEternalWeaknessBuiltFemaleMalesFeministSexualityDependencePsychicsFemininityProjectionMasochismImbecilityDependabilityUnreliability Author:Elizabeth Gould Davis
“Femininity and masculinity are social constructs. Female and male are biological. We don't have to learn to be men or women but we do have to learn to be ladies and gentlemen.” MenSocialFemaleMalesGentlemanConstructsMasculinityFemininityBe A ManLadies And GentlemenFemales And Males Book:Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser Source: Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser
“After centuries of conditioning of the female into the condition of perpetual girlishness called femininity, we cannot remember what femaleness is.” RememberWomenConditionsCenturyFemalePerpetualFemininityConditioning Author:Germaine Greer
“What we ought to see in the agonies of puberty is the result of the conditioning that maims the female personality in creating the feminine.” ResultsPersonalityOughtCreatingFemaleFeminineAgonyFemininityConditioningPuberty Book:the female eunuch Source: the female eunuch
“It is important that the female develops a reality that honors and nurtures her femininity and has an identity and creativity of her own. It is equally important that the male in the relationship endorses that creativity.” ImportantRealityCreativityIdentityHonorFemaleMalesNurtureFemininity Author:Stuart Wilde
“You cannot call a poem female just because it is written by a woman. Nevertheless, I think attempts to find femininity in female bodies, life, and thinking, attempts to find a way for women to speak, will improve widely in Korea.” ThinkingWayBodySpeakWrittenFemaleNeverthelessFemininityKoreaFemale Body Author:Kim Hyesoon
“"Summer Sisters" was actually was a huge influence on "Girls" because it was the first thing I ever consumed that sort of looked at the way that female friendship can be glorious and can be complicated and can be so like a worse betrayal than something romantic and it just showed these archetypes of femininity than totally sort of individuated them and exploded them.” WayFirstsGirlInfluenceHugeSummerFemaleComplicatedBetrayalGloriousFemininityConsumedArchetypeFemale Friendship Author:Judy Blume
“The construction of femininity is a construction, yes, but also it can be twisted and turned around in such a way that doesn't necessarily mean it is pointing to the female body or male body in such a binary fashion. The culture is already there and has always been, but not as equal citizens. I think there is more progress to come.” ThinkingMeanCultureProgressFashionEqualFemaleConstructionFemininityPointingTwistedBinaryFemale Body Author:Lorna Simpson
“Very often I hear talk about female literature, or femininity in literature. It's a categorization I am not sure about. Maybe there are a few elements that distinguish women's observations from men's, like the ability to notice some fine details.” LiteratureAbilityFemaleObservationNot SureFemininity Author:Luljeta Lleshanaku
“Fashion has been collected and exhibited for many years. People were picking up clothing of famous individuals, like Marie Antoinette's shoe or Napoleon's hat. That part of the resistance to having fashion in museums had to do with it being associated with femininity, and with the female body. Yet, as early as the 18th century, some people were recognizing that just as you collected art, you, might think about collecting fashion for museums, because it would provide insight into the way people thought about their lives and, and the way they envisioned themselves.” PeopleThinkingArtIndividualFashionFemaleInsightFemininity18th CenturyFemale Body Author:Valerie Steele
“A hijra is someone who has transitioned from male to female, but we don't consider ourselves female because culturally we belong to a completely different section of society. Many hijras are castrated, but it's not compulsory. They say it's the soul which is hijra. We feel we are neither man nor woman, but we enjoy femininity. I enjoy womanhood, but I am not a woman. It's very confusing.” MenDifferentSoulEnjoyFemaleWomanhoodFemininityConfusing Author:Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
“A woman must wait for her ovaries to die before she can get her rightful personality back. Post-menstrual is the same as pre-menstrual; I am once again what I was before the age of twelve: a female human being who knows that a month has thirty day, not twenty-five, and who can spend every one of them free of the shackles of that defect of body and mind known as femininity.” KnowsMindHumansBodyAgeDiesWaitingHuman BeingsKnownFiveMonthsPersonalityFemaleTwentiesPostsThirtyTwelveDefectsFemininityMind And BodyTwenty FiveShacklesOvaries Author:Florence King
“On one hand the eternal attraction of man towards femininity (cf. Gn. 2:23) frees in him-or perhaps it should free-a gamut of spiritual-corporal desires of an especially personal and "sharing" nature (cf. analysis of the "beginning"), to which a proportionate pyramid of values corresponds. On the other hand, "lust" limits this gamut, obscuring the pyramid of values that marks the perennial attraction of male and female.” MenShouldHandsSpiritualDesireValuesLimitsEternalFemaleMarkMalesAttractionLustAnalysisFemininityPyramidsCfs Author:Pope John Paul II
“I tend to like strong female characters. It just interests me dramatically. A strong male character isn't interesting because it has been done and it's so cliched. A weak male character is interesting: somebody else hasn't done it a hundred times. A strong female character is still interesting to me because it hasn't been done all that much, finding the balance of femininity and strength. [From a 1986 Fangoria interview]” Has BeensStillsDoneCharacterStrongInterestInterestingBalanceFindingsHundredFemaleWeakMalesInterviewsFemininityFemale CharactersStrong Female CharactersStrong Female Author:James Cameron
“The simplest and most basic meaning of the symbol of the Goddess is the acknowledgment of the legitimacy of female power as a beneficent and independent power.” FemaleIndependentSymbolsFeminineGoddessFemininitySimplestLegitimacyIndependent WomenAcknowledgmentBeneficenceFemale Power Author:Carol P. Christ
“Unlike femininity, relaxed masculinity is at bottom empty, a limp nullity. While the female body is full of internal potentiality, the male is internally barren. Manhood at the most basic level can be validated and expressed only in action.” BodyActionLevelsFemaleEmptyMalesBottomInternalsFeminineManhoodMasculinityRelaxedFemininityBarrenFemale Body Author:George Gilder