"And what is essentially feminine?", Miss Angelie Multani questioned us in one of the lecture sessions of "Drama:Integration and Alienation", the last humanities course that I had attended in IITD.
I had no idea what to say. So I didn't say anything.
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Astrology says that cancer men have pronounced feminine traits since 1. moon, cancer's ruling planet, is a feminine planet, and 2. water, its element, is a feminine element.
If men can have feminine traits, and so can planets and elements, we can logically infer that femininity has little to do with female gender. What is femininity then, if it is not female sex? How is it defined? Is it defined as a set of values, which has been compiled by a poet to praise his muse or by a powerful patriarch to rule his mass?
According to the common definition, femininity implies receptivity, passivity, emotions, patience etc. The opposite values - aggression, activity, reason, energy etc constitute masculinity. Yin and Yang complement each other, and complete the Tao.
If femininity has little to do with female gender, what has it to do with women? Why must a woman exhibit feminine traits?
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People often say that it is a male-dominated world. But world can only be male-dominated, it can not be female dominated, because domination is a masculine trait.
Don't get me wrong here. Wait a while before you brand me MCP. I am not justifying male-domination. Moreover, male-domination does not always mean female-subjugation. A male can and does dominate another man in this male-dominated world. The more he dominates, the more masculine he becomes.
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Is Yin and Yang a cultural construct? Or there is any immutability in their definition? Is coyness is always feminine and ambition is always masculine? I am not sure.
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