i think masculinity and femininity are derivative from characteristic traits that may exist freely, but do presents itseld as part of biology. conceptual wise, masculinity is just the sequence of
all the things that make male humans not female.
part of what everyone thinks of masculinity is cultural. there are few assessments that make male humans not female, and they are not the use of cologne and aftershave.
the existence of testosterone, which precedes the development of genitals in a fetus, would probably be the correlation male and masculinity.
behaviors associated with masculinity from a biological standpoint:
- social dominance
- risk taking
- sexual dominance
- more fight, less flight, as a fear response
- spatial awareness and sense of direction
- positive response to female hormone (assuming they are straight)
femininity is not undoubtedly "passive", just active in different ways. femininity is more often associated with
- caution
- social cooperation
- more flight, less fight
- verbal fluency and strong empathy
- ability or preference for questioning approaches
- positive response to male hormone (assuming the girl is straight)
- fascination with people over things
in correlation to masculinity, femininity seems passive. but my perspective is that it is more of a "that is your thing and this is my thing". the female lack of concern in those "male things" are probably what makes them "masculine", and this is rooted in biology (i am talking about the lists, not about gender roles).
for the most part men are masculine and women are feminine.
i think that its not something that needs to be taught to individuals, or policed. so if a male is masculine, he will not need to play basketball or take a job as a brick mason to be masculine. the main discrepancy are those seen in daily interactions, which are mainly based on how they measure things. a paralegic who cannot fight is not less masculine because he is physically unable to act out that particular part of masculinity. but his brain will respond in such a way to threats that he would probably get "amped up" and check out or answer that threat.
the problem that individual have are the fusion of gender roles with masculinity and femininity, and the strict attachment to "either or" according to whats between the legs.
you will have masculine women, and feminine men. and these have relatively little to do directly with how they look. realizing my definition for masculinity seems to contradict this, i want to add that i am basing this on the brain gender.
