Examples of traits that are traditionally associated with femininity include empathy, sensitivity, gentleness, and gracefulness.
Toxic femininity refers to the adherence to the gender binary for receive conditional value in patriarchal societies.
Womanhood in this instance is defined in a very shallow manner that objectifies and harms women.
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What Does Toxic Femininity Mean?
These social constructs reinforce women’s submissive behavior and enable men by claiming thatviolenceis to be accepted.
Like toxic masculinity, toxic femininity is made up of a myriad of culture-specific rules.
They are used as a reactionary argument against feminist discussions of toxic masculinity.
Most behaviors given as examples of toxic femininity are actually examples of misogyny or internalized misogyny.
For example, some may believe wearing heels to work is essential.
Others stay away from drinking beer because it is masculine.
This means that the womens grooming habits accounted for almost all of the salary differences in this research pool.
Whereas for the men in the study, their grooming habits accounted for roughly half.
In essence, the rules don’t matter as much as the insecurity that they provoke.
It is their rigidity and contradiction that make women so desperate to keep up.
Within this desperation, women become easier to control and exploit.
Furthermore, these issues also go beyond the home.
These vast and varied presentations of femininity steer clear of rigid rules and center on autonomy and individuality.
Taking a more expansive and accepting view of gender can promote healthy femininity and masculinity.
Like toxic masculinity, toxic femininity limits the ways that people feel comfortable expressing themselves.
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Medium.Toxic femininity holds us all back.
