Hyper Feminine Quotes

Guys, you don't have to act "manly" to be considered a man; you are a man, so just be yourself. You don't have to prove your masculinity to anyone.

Masculinity is simply a conglomeration of the personality traits necessary for the patriarchal soldier-rapist: physically strong, emotionally cauterized, rational, domineering, cruel. All of this is supposed to add up to "handsome" as well. Likewise femininity is ultimately a description of the personality that results from trauma and powerlessness: weak, passive, yielding, emotional, hyper-vigilant to the needs of the dominators and desperate for the dominator's attention.

In Somali culture hyper-masculinity is the most desired attribute in men. Femininity signifies softness, a lightness of touch: qualities that are aggressively pressed onto young girls and women. When a woman does not possess feminine traits, it is considered an act of mild social resistance. This applies equally to men who are not overtly masculine but the stakes are considerably amplified. If a Somali man is considered feminine he is deemed weak, helpless, pitiful: The underlying message being that femininity is inherently inferior to masculinity.

The desire for this land/woman is constructed as a hyper-masculine desire; the desire to possess it, take pride in it, love it, protect it and even die fighting for it against invaders. A logical corollary of this construction is that women's bodies are treated as territories to be conquered, claimed or marked by the assailant. When the feminine self comes to signify the nation, communal, regional, national and international conflicts are then played out on women's bodies, which become arenas of violent struggle. Women are humiliated, tortured, raped and murdered as part of the process by which the sense of being a nation is created and reinforced.