...women started adopting masculine traits so as to still be sexually attractive to the men who'd otherwise prefer to spend time in the company of their male friends.
I don't know if that's really what's going on, so much as the fact that women are adopting more and more behaviors that are signals of self-empowerment and agency -- and these are behaviors that have traditionally been defined as "masculine". So, sure, from an outsider's POV, it may appear that women are becoming more and more "masculine" in general, but I'd say that instead, the behaviors related to empowerment and agency are becoming more egalitarian. Those behaviors -- making decisions for oneself, managing one's own money, expecting (and demanding when you don't get it) that mechanics and doctors and teachers take the time to explain it to you instead of brushing you off as an airheaded woman not worth the explanation, refusing to be a doormat for jerks, taking ownership of (and pride in) one's sexuality and sexual experiences, and on and on and on: these were once things we'd say were masculine, but it's not that women are becoming more masculine, so much that (I hope) we're becoming persons accorded all the rights and honors as any other person, and by "person" I mean heterosexual, cis-sex, cis-gender, anglo-saxon, christian, male.
no subject
Date: 6 Mar 2010 05:09 am (UTC)I don't know if that's really what's going on, so much as the fact that women are adopting more and more behaviors that are signals of self-empowerment and agency -- and these are behaviors that have traditionally been defined as "masculine". So, sure, from an outsider's POV, it may appear that women are becoming more and more "masculine" in general, but I'd say that instead, the behaviors related to empowerment and agency are becoming more egalitarian. Those behaviors -- making decisions for oneself, managing one's own money, expecting (and demanding when you don't get it) that mechanics and doctors and teachers take the time to explain it to you instead of brushing you off as an airheaded woman not worth the explanation, refusing to be a doormat for jerks, taking ownership of (and pride in) one's sexuality and sexual experiences, and on and on and on: these were once things we'd say were masculine, but it's not that women are becoming more masculine, so much that (I hope) we're becoming persons accorded all the rights and honors as any other person, and by "person" I mean heterosexual, cis-sex, cis-gender, anglo-saxon, christian, male.