I FEEL LEAST FEMININE WHEN...

Well, thankyou, Karen!  You just catapulted my brain into the realm of feminity again.  Somehow I think I'd lost this part of myself in recent months.  And I just decided why.

I've been sitting around the house in my happy-pants (over-sized comfortable flannel pajama bottoms).  I've only put on makeup to go to church.  I sit behind this computer between times I'm cooking, cleaning, and caring for my hubby and don't much care about the feminine side of me.  I know.  What in the world does that mean?  What is the feminine side of me?

It's that part of me that cannot be like the masculine side of me.  And yes.  I think there are definitely estrogenic and testosteronic sides to we females.  (Doubt a male would confess such.)

I think the femine side is the nurturing, pamper-me, relax-and-smell-the-roses romantic portion of my personality.  It's the part that plays with my hair, trying different styles to see which will most help me look like thirty instead of nearly sixty.  It's that part of me that takes time to manicure my nails, even though they are chewed off from watching too many quadruple over-time football games.  (Had to love Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats, yesterday!)

But when a female spends too much time in the man's-world, they lose some of that feminity, if not all.  Look at Hillary.  Pant-suits and brashness.  (My opinion folks.  Yours is just as valid and you are entitled to be wrong in America.)  Living in a male-dominated environment tends to bring out the dormant testosterone in a lady.  And when she hangs there too long, she all but loses the feminine side of herself trying to overcompensate for it to maintain leverage in the environment of her choosing.

Before all the ladies in America who are well-balanced women and feel I've been dipping into some historic waterhole, get irrate, let me add.  Not all women who live in a male dominated environment lose their feminity or have it diminished in any way.  But they are anomalies.   Many women must take on the mindset of compartmentalized thinking in order to survive the jungle of lions, tigers and bears.  And even when they don their spikes, adorn themselves in wardrobes that bespeak their gender, their words betray their hearts and minds.  They can't seem to shake off the motor-oil and gym-smells.

So where does that leave me?  I don't know.  Just thinking outloud about being female.  And the neat part about that?  I don't have to make sense if I don't want to.  What a divine gender I enjoy.  selahV 

Comments

[Karen]

Well, I agree about dear Hillary! I also believe that society forces women to act outside of their God-given gender roles. The push to make money, the hunger to be successful in male dominated careers, the revolting thought of being the little woman that stays home and cooks for the hubby and cleans up the puke when the kids are sick. Do not all of these things wear on females in our world today? But, then...there are some of us who care very little about money, who don't give a hoot about holding down a male oriented job, who would love to show off by cooking for our husband, and who would be honored to clean up puke. I, for one, will leave the pantsuits and the politics to someone else.

I attended a baby shower yesterday where everything was the absolute epitome of all things feminine. The mommy-to-be is expecting a girl in early February. The pink and ruffles and satins and bows abounded yesterday. But, have you ever been to a baby shower where everything is just yellow or just mint green or just white? It's like people are nervous about making their darling daughters too feminine. Oh, how I could go on! Thanks for stimulating me today!

[Trish]

Having spent most of my adult life in male dominated environments, you have given me some food for thought and I will feed on it in a few days when this Greek paper is completed and turned in. I am really struggling with this paper...

Seriously, you have given me stuff to ponder and see if it answers some questions I have been asking myself lately, and seriously it has to wait a few days before I can toss it around in my head, turn it over, look at it, and see what's really there.

Blessings,
Trish

[selahV]

Oh dear Karen, how I wonder why the Lord places us in situations we are in sometimes. I see your absolute feminity in your life. Your family, your students, your friends.

You are right about the pink versus neutrals. Doesn't happen at our house though. My granddaughters are all pinks and purples, lace and satins. And it is their choosings. They prefer the softer-sides of things---the lighter side of life, too.

My son had a pink shirt and he absolutely loved it! Must have been that feminines side of him, huh?

Hey...you needed the stimuli, I think. Maybe it will spawn another post from you on Tried and True, hmmmmn? selahV

[selahV]

TRISH...eeeeoooh. I'm glad it is you and not me. I hate tests and all that stuff that makes one have to use their brain for grades. Not fun. I will keep you in my prayers, my sister. I want you to grasp this so you can help me understand English! selahV

[marie]

Hey SelahV! Thanks for letting me know about this site. What fun!

I grew up with FIVE brothers! I was picked on, teased beyond sanity and, yet, I never felt unfeminine (although I was a tomboy somewhat). It might have been all the pink, frilly dresses I wore when I was small. I LOVED them! Plus, my Daddy made sure we (my sister and I) were treated differently. Protected.

The only bad? thing that has carried through to my grown-up years is that I am more comfortable around men like my brothers. Good old guys that like to pick at you and let you be yourself. (I don't seem to make women friends very easily for some reason).
Oh, and the makeup thing - only the bare minimum.

So, is that too much info?

I had never thought of Hillary as being unfeminine, but now that you mention it...

Mnay blessings, SelahV!