Crossword clues for femininity
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Femininity \Fem`i*nin"i*ty\, n.
The quality or nature of the female sex; womanliness.
-
The female form. [Obs.]
O serpent under femininitee.
--Chaucer.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., "feminine quality, womanliness, female nature," femynynytee, from feminine + -ity. From 1832 as "women collectively;" from 1853 as "character or state of being state of being a woman."
Wiktionary
n. The sum of all attributes that are feminine or convey womanhood.
WordNet
n. the trait of behaving in ways considered typical for women [syn: muliebrity] [ant: masculinity]
Wikipedia
Femininity (also called feminity, girlishness, marianismo, womanliness or womanhood) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is made up of both socially-defined and biologically-created factors. This makes it distinct from the definition of the biological female sex, as both males and females can exhibit feminine traits. 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
Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity, 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).
Usage examples of "femininity".
If men and women are to be truly equal, should masculinity and femininity merge into one androgynous, indivisible form of gender, or should we seek to remove the sexual connotation from gender altogether?
At first the idea of merging masculinity and femininity in order to create an androgynous society recalls the bland, androgynous Chinese society of Maozedong.
This woman of the baggy corduroy lacks and baggier sweater, who hid her femininity like a guilty secret.
He had to admit that Layne Hamilton was indeed a woman of substance: a dangerous mixture of femininity, vulnerability and elegance nicely rolled into one very appealing package.
Her nipples hardened, her femininity moistened, and her knees turned to jelly.
Her sense of style was deficient: prudishness and femininity were awkwardly at odds in the high-necked dress, which concealed her throat but made provocative mounds of her small breasts.
The sleeping-car attendant sighed deeply at so much opulent femininity and philosophically returned to his roomette, and I went on up the train into the next car, where my own bed lay.
The malleable femininity that had first attracted him to Bunny was stripped away, exposing a woman who was older than he had originally assumed and worlds harder.
She was very much a heterosexual woman in love with a strong, handsome man, and yet her mannishness intensified and her voice, if anything, seemed even deeper, with all traces of femininity in her vanishing as things had gone on.
Or, to reverse tacks: does this scene along with the other examples of female masochism underscore the alignment Freud makes between femininity and masochism that Silverman critiques?
But the Goose does not represent the exaggerated and parodic femininity of Widow Twankey.
But suggestions that the novel exhibits a pathological structure go only part of the way: the structure reflects a pathology in Russian society that links femininity, even sacralized femininity, with degradation.
And beneath her sensible work outfit, pure femininity that swirled and eddied around him like an unescapable mist.
Each new self-portrait is yet another stylization of fetishized femininity, one more prosthetic proxy for an unpresentable self.
Seeing her now, with her breasts firm and lush cupped lovingly by their satin curtain, her lusciously long legs peeking out of her transparent skirt, and her femininity barely covered by a teasing scrap of scarlet had made him reel under an onslaught of pure animalistic lust.