We live in a masculine world, where femininity is often seen as a weakness. We focus on goals, the future, security, and protection, when we should also live more in the moment (which is one of the feminine traits).
But femininity is powerful, when you dig into it you become more aware of your emotions, your body, and the world around you. It also makes it easier to connect with others and create more meaningful relationships.
Femininity VS Masculinity
First, let see the basics to understand the differences between masculine traits and feminine ones:
Masculinity is more about drive, focus, assertiveness, and confidence.
Femininity is more about empathy, connection, caring, and nurturing others. It is also being in touch with our emotions, which in society eyes makes feminine people “too sensitive” (which is in common beliefs a sign of weakness 😡).
Traditional Gender Stereotypes
It is getting a tad better now, but we still live in a society where our gender at birth determines which of those two traits we should have: if you are born as a female you should be feminine, and if you are born as a male you should be masculine, period.
This, combine with the description of those traits above, created stereotypes such as boys should always be strong, brave, and should show no signs of weakness. While girls should always take care of others first, and are expected to be fragile creatures who need protection.
But masculinity and femininity have nothing to do with genders as we ALL have both within us. It is a question of balance, like the yin and yang, salt and pepper, wine and cheese… The two go hand in hand!
Even though there is usually a dominant one, embracing both femininity and masculinity is absolutely possible. THERE ARE NO RULES! You can even switch which one is on top depending of a situation, your mood, people you are with…
Nasty Clichés Around Femininity
If you have been following us for a while, you know that we love to destroy common false beliefs. So today we want to demystify some clichés around femininity. Why? Because clichés stop people from personal growth. Following false common beliefs is the best way to stay stagnant in life, but since you are reading this, it is probably because you want to thrive instead right? 💪
Here are some of those nasty clichés (we had to make a Tiktok out of it!):
If you cannot watch it, here are the most common ones:
You have to be girly to be feminine. FALSE!
Femininity is an attitude, not a look.
Being feminine = being weak. FALSE!
You can be feminine and move freaking mountains.
You cannot be feminine and masculine. FALSE!
We all have a masculine and feminine side, we are just not used to show both.
If you are feminine, you won't be taken seriously. FALSE!
Being feminine doesn't undermine your skills.
Femininity is a way of being, you decide how to implement it in your life. And it is the same for masculinity.
To conclude: as usual you do you! Doesn't matter your gender, if you feel like being masculine on Mondays and feminine on Thursdays, then do it. Times are evolving, and we finally have the experience and knowledge to change those beliefs. We might as well start now!