What is femininity? What is masculinity?

This is where the projective versus receptive thing comes in.

I've never punched a man and I stopped hitting boys in elementary school.

I think Meaty Mushroom and Aerianne say what I was trying to say much more clearly than I did.

 

this is basically exactly what I would say to this. You seem to be one of the posters here who thinks the most like me. :sunny:

See I don't think that's quite true. Anti-essentialism is a pretty dangerous way of thinking. Saying that there's no core to our being is kind of like a nasty form of nihilism. To at least a certain degree your brain's predisposed patterns of thought are determined by your genetics (which are directly linked to your biology -- as XY XX or XXX XXY etc). That's not to say that the majority of the mind is not built of learned patterns, but there is a core to it. That's why children seperated from their parents will still grow up to think in some way similar to their mother/father. You have a lot of freedom to change your brain, but there is something at the core of it all; there is an essential self. I think that Jungian psychology helps explain it really well. He believes that there are many archetypes which are part of the collective unconscious (and these created or destroyed and are dependent on society), but he also believes in some core archetypes like the anima and the animus.

Your gender is pretty much a the core of who you are. It's a set of predispositions that comes with the brain, without any interpretation of society or culture, and, of course, there is a female archetype within the male mind and a male archetype within the female mind. To reject the essential self is to throw off the balance that is necessary for a balance to be achieved in humanity.

I know its fashionable today to be a postmodern anti-essentialist, but it isn't going to benefit humanity in the long run. I'm not telling you to believe in the soul. I'm saying that if you take off the layers upon layers of mind-grime get stuck to us while we walk through the clouds of society, there must be a nucleus to your being. Of course everybody's core is different and differnt kinds of nuclei hold within them different archetypes, differnet levels of influence of their animus and anima and attract different aspects of social culture. I guess what I'm really saying is, we are all different! If there was no essential self, then we would all be the same thing, at the heart of it all. But we're not. No matter the society, we are all different and that difference is what keeps the balance in the collective unconscious.

 

Backed up by the latter half of your post.. we iz gangstuh :2thumbsup:

 

Women menstruate.Men's ejaculate smells strong.Apart from that,not much difference.Women drive cars with their clitoris,just like men do with their penis.

 

yeah man I think that a good understanding of the presence of your anima in the nucleus of your mind is necessary to reconcile being an artist with being a scientist and being spiritual with being logical.

The science just makes your art grow and vice versa

 

I'll be honest with you honey, I sorta like a girl who'll get a bit rough with me. :biggrin:

 

Sorta like...but scared like a baby!

There's a difference between playing and abuse. I thought you were referring to abuse, which happens...but I'm not abusive and I think a lot of women who are in touch with their masculinity are not abusive...but some are.

For instance I fought with my brother, cousin and uncle when I was in middle school and high school, but it was for fun...I haven't fought a dude or female in anger since elementary school. Except when I was in martial arts and those tests where everyone fights you is kinda based in anger, as well as appeciation and accomplishment...or it was for me anyway.

At the same time, most guys in high school had no clue of my strength, they just assumed I was weak because I was small. Also, I was new to so much hands on attention and I just relented...in a very "feminine" way.

What I'm trying to get at is that we all have both feminine and masculine, but we have a comfort levels as to what we prefer to dominate and when.

 

delicateness vs ruggedeness

 

I'm pretty fucking rugged and I find that a lot of women I know are, but I might need a little more detail there. What do you mean by delicate versus rugged. I know I might look delicate, but I am not in actuality.

 

I meant play, sorry. I find actual violence wicked.

But I used to teach kickboxing, and I've honestly punched dozens of girls.

 

Yeah, I'm not delicate at all, but I'm very feminine.

 

I've oft wondered just how much of the stereotypical male/female diff is due not so to nature as selective breeding down through the eons.

 

Anything you can do I can do better.

I don't have much to contribute that hasn't been said but I will offer this: men are generally presumed to be more laid back but as one of the more laid back people out there, I happen to notice that this isn't true. Men can be really bitchy sometimes.

I also absolutely hate the irrational and illogical female stereotype because as a pretty calm and logical female I notice men getting really worked up over meaningless drama all the time.

I don't really think there are any completely true gender stereotypes. You can usually find not just one but countless exceptions to every rule.

 

When I think of logic, I think of mathematical type logic. I do think women are more in touch with intuition, which is really a lost art and very much lacks appreciation in this day and age. Doesn't mean women aren't logical at all, I know I struggle with being too logical sometimes. For me, it really is a struggle, because I am very intuitive as well. I think intuition is the opposite of logic and not "illogical". That's just derogatory in my opinion...but yeah, I think it's been scientifically proven.

For instance if you come to a man with a problem, he wants to figure out the logical explanation and in life, there isn't always a logical explanation for everything. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and be okay with things that don't make sense in the moment. Men have a harder time acting in that way. They act instinctually, but I think that is based on based desires: food, shelter, water, sex. Intuition is much more complex than that.

Now, of course I'm generalizing. But in general, men and women do think differently, of course we can alter our thought processes over time and think differently under different circumstances. I've found that logic can be a detriment, even though we are a logic-praising society, currently. So, it's not really an insult to me...although I think if you attended modern schooling, logic has been internalized as superior, and intuition has been beaten to death with several spiked clubs.

It's still there though...just a little harder for men, in my opinion. Because as women we've been conditioned to be or at least pretend to be logical, men are not having their intuition nurtured at all, and as it is second on the stick for them, it really should be, less they lose it.

Of course, they could later develop it if they wanted to. Or if they were lucky they were able to retain their intuition. With women, since it is a part of our society to prioritize logic, it's not as difficult for us to have both in more closely balanced positions.

But, yeah in my family, the men are quite bitchy, back-stabbing and gossipy sometimes. By sometimes I mean, often moreso than the women. I don't think that is something that is truly gender-based. I think that is more learned, than not. Some things about gender, I think are natural.

 

Womens ice hockey in the olympics. Its the one sport where maybe equality isnt needed.

I mean you have to be a cromag nutjob to be a male and want to play.

Any other sport, yeah sure, theres should be a chics comp. But ice bockey, geezuz