: 29 Social and biological influences are thought to be mutually interacting during development. Scholars have debated the extent to which gender identity and gender-specific behaviors are due to socialization versus biological factors. Sexual passiveness, or sexual receptivity, is sometimes considered feminine while sexual assertiveness and sexual desire are sometimes considered masculine. Femininity is sometimes linked with sexual objectification. The relationship between feminine socialization and heterosexual relationships has been studied by scholars, as femininity is related to women's and girls' sexual appeal to men and boys. Young Woman Drawing (1801, Metropolitan Museum of Art) painted by Marie-Denise Villers (possibly a self-portrait) depicts an independent feminine spirit. In her significant 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, American feminist Betty Friedan wrote that the key to women's subjugation lay in the social construction of femininity as childlike, passive, and dependent, and called for a "drastic reshaping of the cultural image of femininity." Behavior and personality Girls, second-wave feminists said, were then socialized with toys, games, television, and school into conforming to feminine values and behaviors. Second-wave feminists, influenced by de Beauvoir, believed that although biological differences between females and males were innate, the concepts of femininity and masculinity had been culturally constructed, with traits such as passivity and tenderness assigned to women and aggression and intelligence assigned to men. Using such tests, researchers found that the two dimensions varied independently of one another, casting doubt on the earlier view of femininity and masculinity as opposing qualities. The Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire were developed to measure femininity and masculinity on separate scales. Īlongside the women's movement of the 1970s, researchers began to move away from the M–F model, developing an interest in androgyny. The model posited that femininity and masculinity were innate and enduring qualities, not easily measured, opposite to one another, and that imbalances between them led to mental disorders. Their M–F model was adopted by other researchers and psychologists. Scientific efforts to measure femininity and masculinity were pioneered by psychologists Lewis Terman and Catherine Cox Miles in the 1930s. Goffman argued that women are socialized to present themselves as "precious, ornamental and fragile, uninstructed in and ill-suited for anything requiring muscular exertion" and to project "shyness, reserve and a display of frailty, fear and incompetence". The idea was picked up in 1959 by Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman and in 1990 by American philosopher Judith Butler, who theorized that gender is not fixed or inherent but is rather a socially defined set of practices and traits that have, over time, grown to become labelled as feminine or masculine. In 1949, French intellectual Simone de Beauvoir wrote that "no biological, psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society" and "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". The words femininity and womanhood are first recorded in Chaucer around 1380. : 4 After the Black Death in England wiped out approximately half the population, traditional gender roles of wife and mother changed, and opportunities opened up for women in society. Women in the Early Middle Ages were referred to simply within their traditional roles of maiden, wife, or widow. Professor of English Tara Williams has suggested that modern notions of femininity in English-speaking society began during the medieval period at the time of the bubonic plague in the 1300s. : 5 Among scholars, the concept of femininity has varying meanings. Venus was a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty and fertility.ĭespite the terms femininity and masculinity being in common usage, there is little scientific agreement about what femininity and masculinity are. The Birth of Venus (1486, Uffizi) is a classic representation of femininity painted by Sandro Botticelli.
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