Femininity Wikipedia. Fragment of a stone plaque from the temple of Inanna at Nippur showing a Sumerian goddess, possibly Inanna circa 2. BC. Inanna is symbolic of femininity. Femininity also called girlishness, womanliness or womanhood is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors. This makes it distinct from the definition of the biological female sex,56 as both males and females can exhibit feminine traits. Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' title='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' />Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity,789 though traits associated with femininity vary depending on location and context, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors. In some non English speaking cultures, certain concepts or inanimate objects are considered feminine or masculine the counterpart to feminine. IN-HOME+PROVIDERS+Home+Health+%E2%80%93+35.jpg' alt='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' title='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' />2017 Lancaster County Career Technology Center. Hans Herr Drive, Willow Street, PA 17584. All rights reserved. Information about Higher EducationAdult. Donna Jeannine Cotter born September 6, 1936 to Bob and Edna Dodson Cotter of Malta, Montana and later of Glasgow, Montana, peacefully passed away at Faith Lutheran. Johnson Alexander. Graveside services for lifelong Seminole resident Johnson Alexander are scheduled for 1 p. Saturday at the family cemetery with Paul Donnie Wolf. Methods.jpg' alt='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' title='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' />HistoryeditTara Williams has suggested that modern notions of femininity in English speaking society began during the English medieval period at the time of the bubonic plague in the 1. Women in the Early Middle Ages were referred to simply within their traditional roles of maiden, wife, or widow. 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. Prudence Allen has traced how the concept of woman changed during this period. The words femininity and womanhood are first recorded in Chaucer around 1. In 1. 94. 9, French intellectual. Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' title='Occupational License Wisconsin Homemaker' />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,1. Canadian American sociologist. Erving Goffman1. American philosopher. Judith Butler,2. 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. 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. Girls, second wave feminists said, were then socialized with toys, games, television and school into conforming to feminine values and behaviours. In her significant 1. The Feminine Mystique, American feminist Betty Friedan wrote that the key to womens subjugation lay in the social construction of femininity as childlike, passive and dependent,2. Behavior and personalityeditWhile the defining characteristics of femininity are not universally identical, some patterns exist gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, caring, sweetness, compassion, tolerance, nurturance, deference, and succorance are traits that have traditionally been cited as feminine. Femininity is sometimes linked with sexual objectification and sexual appeal. Sexual passiveness, or sexual receptivity, is sometimes considered feminine while sexual assertiveness and sexual desire is sometimes considered masculine. People who exhibit a combination of both masculine and feminine characteristics are considered androgynous, and feminist philosophers have argued that gender ambiguity may blur gender classification. Modern conceptualizations of femininity also rely not just upon social constructions, but upon the individualized choices made by women. Ann Oakleys sexgender dichotomy has had a considerable influence on sociologists defining masculine and feminine behavior as regulated, policed, and reproduced in our society, as well as the power structures relating to the concepts. An ongoing debate with regards to sex and psychology concerns the extent to which gender identity and gender specific behavior is due to socialization versus inborn factors. According to Diane F. Halpern, both factors play a role, but the relative importance of each must still be investigated. The nature versus nurture question, for example, is extensively debated and is continually revitalized by new research findings. Some hold that feminine identity is partly a given and partly a goal to be sought. In 1. 95. 9, researchers such as John Money and Anke Erhardt proposed the prenatal hormone theory. Their research argues that sexual organs bathe the embryo with hormones in the womb, resulting in the birth of an individual with a distinctively male or female brain this was suggested by some to predict future behavioral development in a masculine or feminine direction. This theory, however, has been criticized on theoretical and empirical grounds and remains controversial. In 2. 00. 5, scientific research investigating sex and psychology showed that gender expectations and stereotype threat affect behavior, and a persons gender identity can develop as early as three years of age. Money also argued that gender identity is formed during a childs first three years. Mary Vetterling Braggin argues that all characteristics associated with femininity arose from early human sexual encounters which were mainly male forced and female unwilling, because of male and female anatomical differences. Others, such as Carole Pateman, Ria Kloppenborg, and Wouter J. Hanegraaff, argue that the definition of femininity is the result of how females must behave in order to maintain a patriarchal social system. In his 1. 99. 8 book Masculinity and Femininity the Taboo Dimension of National Cultures, Dutch psychologist and researcher Geert Hofstede wrote that only behaviors directly connected with procreation can, strictly speaking, be described as feminine or masculine, and yet every society worldwide recognizes many additional behaviors as more suitable to females than males, and vice versa. He describes these as relatively arbitrary choices mediated by cultural norms and traditions, identifying masculinity versus femininity as one of five basic dimensions in his theory of cultural dimensions. Hofstede describes as feminine behaviors such as service, permissiveness, and benevolence, and describes as feminine those countries stressing equality, solidarity, quality of work life, and the resolution of conflicts by compromise and negotiation. Gx Developer Mitsubishi Plc. In Carl Jungs school of analytical psychology, the anima and animus are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind. The anima and animus are described by Jung as elements of his theory of the collective unconscious, a domain of the unconscious that transcends the personal psyche. In the unconscious of the male, it finds expression as a feminine inner personality anima equivalently, in the unconscious of the female, it is expressed as a masculine inner personality animus. Clothing and appearanceeditIn Western cultures, the ideal of feminine appearance has traditionally included long, flowing hair, clear skin, a narrow waist, and little or no body hair or facial hair. In other cultures, however, expectations are different. For example, in many parts of the world, underarm hair is not considered unfeminine. Alvernia University Course Catalog 2. Carey Manzolillo. Alvernia University Course Catalog 2. Published on Jul 2. Official Course Catalog of Alvernia University.