Anonymous #1 12w

I think I agree with a combination of these ideas, giving women traditionally masc traits as a way to make them “worthy” in society’s eyes is in fact sexist, but that’s only because we as a society associate certain traits with masculinity/femininity and good/bad by default. The concept of what we think of as masculine may change, but the sentiment behind masculine women being “better” or feminine men being “worse” will remain because the sexism was always the point

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Anonymous #2 12w

I also think it’s important for women AND men to be able to have a mix of “masculine” and “feminine” characteristics without that changing their actual perceived gender by those around them. It’s a problem that we can’t pick and choose characteristics separate of society’s gendered expectations without it being some sort of statement.

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Anonymous #2 12w

this would be true if masculine women were actually treated any better. do you think butch women are thought of as ‘better’? the only form of masculinity that’s seen as ‘good’ in women is still very very very feminine & doesn’t push the boundaries for what’s expected from women in any significant way. they’re still oppressed just like any other woman & receive none of the benefits of patriarchy that men get

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Anonymous #1 12w

I agree with that, but I do think that in a lot of ways women that have those “masculine” traits like assertiveness are seen as more valid than more soft spoken women, especially in media. There’s always a fine line to walk with that though, because too assertive means they’re a bitch, even when a man would get away with 10x more in the same situation. Butch women are excluded from that because they’re *too* masculine, they begin to threaten the male hierarchy

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Anonymous #2 12w

There’s a specific character type that I think OP was referencing of “masculine enough to get girlboss points without actually challenging gender norms in any meaningful way so the men can still jerk off to pictures of her without feeling like less of a man”

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Anonymous #2 12w

Yea, the “girlboss i’m no princess” type. The “im no princess” vibes are implicitly anti-femininity, because it connects princess to the feminine then rejects it. Rapunzel was a much better healthy femininity, or the original Mulan. She didnt say “all this marriage and makeup is stupid and bad”, she did the soldier thing out of love for her family. Thats a universal virtue, it wasnt her rejecting femininity that gave her strength, but real love.

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