Well-behaved women never made history

When sitting in the backseat of my mother’s Micra listening to ‘I am a Passenger’ (lol, seriously) my eye came across the new Christian Bale and Mark Walberg boxing film poster. Being me I automatically started analysing how ‘Fight Club’ portrays our increasingly flaccid idea of ‘masculinity’. This then lead me to question ‘femininity’... Et voilà!

‘Gender’ and ‘sex’, I think, are generally considered synonymous. We assume a woman is feminine, and a man is masculine – and anyone defying these social norms is defying their inherent biological design. But that is exactly the point: on the one hand there are the social constructs designed to inform us what it means to be ‘feminine’, and on the other is our biology – which needs no explanation if your Year 6 teacher did their job properly.

This gives rise to the question: do we WANT to be feminine? Do we want to become another stereotype, another product of what is expected of us rather than what we want to be? Society holds women back enough. Being ambitious makes you masculine, being promiscuous makes you a slut and being opinionated makes you a ‘fucking feminist’.

Before people get confused and starting thinking I am a feminist, I’m not. Well I am to the extent where I think we should be given equal rights etc. but not one of those ‘male dominance is undercutting us’ types - like that woman in ‘Legally Blonde’ who was petitioning for the next term to be called ‘winter ovester’...WHAT IS THAT!? Nevertheless, even though I understand why Elle is Elle, I do cringe when I see her just constantly decked out in pink like a fluffy 8 year old.

A lot of people associate the colour pink with girls and femininity but this is only a very recent fabrication. Up until the 1940s pink was attributed to men because of the ‘masculinity’ of red, and the fact that pink was closer to it. On the other hand, blue (Virgin Mary’s colour) was for girls because it was considered more refined. The fact that Ross Geller would have not even needed to defend his 'salmon pink' shirt back when Queen Victoria was rocking, and the ability to completely overhaul symbolism, is just more evidence that the notion of femininity is man-made (in the larger, non-feminist sense).

The fundamental ideas of feminism's death though the increase in figurative and literal trouser-wearing, votes and political correctness has led to a decrease in birth-rates because 1) women are focusing on their careers, which they (OMG!) can now have 2) this ultimately means they have less time on their 'biological clock' and so 3) have fewer children than a woman of the same age in India, who got married when she was like 18. Considering the traditional notion of femininity is being ignored, it seems as though the modern age’s advancements has led to a gradual deconstruction of masculinity too – based on the growing number of self-proclaimed ‘metrosexuals’.

Suddenly it is okay to be a man who is aesthetically feminine. It’s okay to go on the sun beds and even get eyelash tints like some postman I saw the other day on ‘Take Me Out’ (though he didn’t actually get any dates). Femininity is definitely not about your sex, it’s about expectations.

Oddly though, there still remains the desire to APPEAR feminine. Women will pay too much for plastic surgery, haircuts, feet-crippling heels, Bambi eyelashes and/or ACT as the submissive, stupid and vulnerable '50-Cent-bitches' in relationships but NOT in the workplace. In the workplace they want to be taken seriously. Basically women are aspiring for a balance between Miss Trunchbull’s personality and Miss Honey’s looks. Or Hilary Clinton - though even she seems to be riding a little on the fact that her husband was once in office, riding Monica Lewinsky.

I’m bored of myself now so to conclude: I have no real purpose for this blog post. It is simply the result of a very long and boring car journey to Kingsbury.



Jasper, the metrosexual guinea pig.