Femininity and Strength

In the last post I talked about the outer aspects of femininity, personal style, clothes, colors, etc. In this post, I want to talk about the inner aspects of femininity, such as character traits, and other attributes that aren't noticeable from the outside right away. Being a feminine girl is not just a superficial thing, it's multilayered, and touches every aspect of our lives. I want to talk about the strength in femininity.

I want to start off by saying that femininity is not weak or passive, there's strength and resilience in it. I think that in recent years society has made being masculine the goal. It's the reason why in movies and books the strong female characters are portrayed in masculine forms or with masculine traits. For example, Tris in the Divergent series (movies and books) is what's considered a strong female character. In both the books and the movies, Tris cuts her long hair into (a pixie cut in the movie, chin length in the book) a shorter hairstyle. Now, there is nothing wrong with women preferring shorter haircuts, the problem is the message movies and books send with having the strong female leads cut their hair. Shorter hair is more associated with masculinity rather than femininity, so when characters that are portrayed as strong women cut off their long hair, the message being sent is that in order for a woman to be strong, she has to act or appear more masculine. Tris is not the only strong female character that has the whole cut or shave off the long hair moment. Juliette from the Shatter Me series does the same thing, Arya from Game of Thrones, among others. 

I probably will make a whole other post focused on the message that having strong female characters that take on masculine traits or aspects sends, but for now, the gist of it is this: you don't have to take on masculine traits or a masculine appearance in order to be strong, because being strong should not be inherently linked to masculinity, the same way being soft and gentle should not be inherently connected to femininity. If you choose to be, you can have long hair, wear pretty clothes, paint your nails, and be a strong, feminine woman. You can also choose to be a short haired feminine woman, because you don't need to look a certain way in order to be strong or appear masculine to be considered strong. 

There's strength in being gentle with the world around you, in seeing and feeling the world in a way that only you can. There's strength in being a feminine woman in a society that makes being masculine the standard.