Tag: men

Femininity Vs. Masculinity

Femininity, noun – ‘Behaviour or qualities regarded as characteristic of a woman; feminine quality or characteristics; womanliness.’ The word was first recorded circa 1405 but its usage was rare before the late 18th century.

Oxford English Dictionary

Masculinity, noun – ‘The state or fact of being masculine; the assemblage of qualities regarded as characteristic of men; maleness, manliness.’ The word was first recorded in 1748.

Oxford English Dictionary

If femininity and masculinity are considered to be the characteristics of women and men respectively, then to explore each term further it makes sense to look at what those characteristics might be. Looking at gender differences in psychology and the brain can be problematic because it raises the issue of nature versus nurture and what constitutes positive or negative societal influences. Instead in this blog article I want to explore how femininity and masculinity are rooted in the biological designs of women and men.

Masculinity and femininity are not the same as being male or female – I consider them as different energies with associated traits. These energies perhaps don’t correlate with gender all the time, however as they mostly do that is what I’ll be looking at here. As a disclaimer, I want to add that femininity and masculinity are not limited by biology into any kind of gender roles or requirements. Rather, I think they are more flexible energies that can be transferred into any activity, regardless of whether it has been traditionally associated with that gender stereotype or not.

Women’s Biology & Femininity

Biologically, women are defined by their amazing ability to grow and give birth to new life. After birth, they continue to nourish and nurture their baby through breastfeeding. Different stages of womanhood involve: menarche (usually between the ages of 10-16, with the average age being about 12 years old, when they’re still children but transitioning into becoming women); menstrual cycles; pregnancy; childbirth; breastfeeding; and menopause (usually between the ages of 45-55, with the average age being about 51 years old).

Women are typically shorter and less muscular than men. This is partly because they need to be able to feed their baby as well as themselves, so need a more manageable food requirement to start with. Women have a curved figure because they save fat reserves around their hips and thighs to help in case of pregnancy. A wider pelvis is also needed for child bearing. Women tend to walk with smaller steps and more pelvic movement. A curvy figure also indicates health, fertility, and that they are of a suitable age for childbearing, no longer being children or having passed menopause when fat reserves tend to shift elsewhere.

Women tend to have higher pitched voices, about an octave higher than men’s. They have less facial and body hair, higher eyebrows, fuller lips, a softer jawline, and a longer life expectancy of about six to eight years even in countries where both genders have equal access to health. Women have two XX chromosomes, which it’s been suggested perhaps contributes to their better health as if one is faulty it can be backed up by the other. Oestrogen is the primary female hormone. Women only have one tenth of the amount of testosterone as men, however they are more sensitive to it.

Women are biologically designed with the ability to be nurturing mothers. They are physically more vulnerable, especially during and following pregnancy or whilst nursing and caring for infants. Women are incredibly strong to be able to go through childbirth. Active labour takes an average of eight hours for first time mothers or five hours for previous mothers, although it can last many hours longer. Besides the pain of pushing out a whole new human, many mothers say it is more the intensity of repetitive, ongoing contractions that is unbearable rather than the individual contractions themselves. No one can say that women aren’t strong, yet they remain vulnerable to outside threats. If femininity is rooted in the characteristics of being a woman, it clearly has a different kind of inner strength to masculinity. I see the essence of healthy femininity as being strong in her gentleness.

Men’s Biology & Masculinity

Biologically, men are typically taller and more muscular than women, with broader shoulders and an expanded rib cage. They have a straighter body shape without as defined a waist or hips, because they tend to instead deposit fat around their waist and abdomen. Men have a metabolism that generally burns calories faster, using that energy for immediate activity rather than saving it as fat reserves for times when food may not be as available. Besides fertilising for the conception of a child, men usually have a greater physical strength that helped them protect and provide for families at times when women were pregnant or otherwise more vulnerable.

Men tend to have deeper pitched voices, about an octave lower than women’s. They also have larger Adam’s apples for this reason, because their deeper voices require a larger voice box. Men have more body and facial hair, more angular jawlines, stronger brows, a lower life expectancy of about six to eight years, and tend to walk with larger steps and less pelvic movement than women. They have XY chromosomes and testosterone is the primary male hormone. Men have ten times more testosterone than women, which means they are generally more aggressive and competitive.

It is undeniable that men are physically stronger than women on average. They are biologically designed to be protective husbands and fathers, who are gentle enough to care for their family yet strong enough to keep their family safe when necessary. If masculinity is rooted in the characteristics of being a man, it would appear to have a different though complementary emphasis to femininity. I see the essence of healthy masculinity as being gentle in his strength.

Partnership of Femininity & Masculinity

Both men and women, femininity and masculinity, are more similar than they are different, even though they each have their own emphasis. Both are intended to work in an equal partnership together as a family and a community supporting each other, helping each other to thrive. A man’s masculinity is gentleness in his strength. A woman’s femininity is strength in her gentleness. More important than these differences is that both are called to be good, kind, balanced people who contribute positively to this wonderful yet broken world that we’ve been trusted to look after.

Humans: Man & Woman

Humans. We’re one species and yet two distinct types of people. Every society throughout the world and throughout history has acknowledged this two-in-one nature of humanity. It structures our interactions and relations with each other. On one level it’s simple, yet at the same time it’s an amazing, complex mystery. Nowadays gender may be more fluid, understood by many people as a spectrum rather than a strict binary, yet most humans still identify as either male or female.

Despite this universal recognition, we often struggle to clarify exactly what it means to be a man or a woman beyond basic biology. Is anatomy all there is to it? Or are we different on the inside too, at an emotional or spiritual level? We have been shaped by our cultures and socialisation, but surely there’s more to gender than just learnt differences? As humans we are more alike than we are different, but we are distinct too – and when those differences work together it is something beautiful.

In our present-day society in the West, we often turn to science for answers. Science, we think, can rationally and logically categorise distinctions. It can explain things in a way that makes sense. There’s much value in that, yet science is imperfect. For years it was received wisdom that men’s and women’s brains functioned in separate ways, however recent research has revealed that many of those studies were in fact unknowingly biased. Human brains have a plasticity that means they are very flexible to the influences of upbringing. Society socialises girls and boys differently – whether for good or for ill – and since that begins to shape their brains from a very young age it is hard to say what is society and what is nature. It’s the old and perhaps outdated debate of nature versus nurture. Where can we draw the line?

As a Christian, I try to root my worldview in God’s word. At the very beginning of the Bible in the stories of creation, this is how humans are introduced:

‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.’

Genesis 1:26-27

Here the name ‘man’ is used to refer to mankind, to humanity. God ‘created he him’ – humans as a singular species – and ‘male and female created he them’ at the same time. We’re the same and yet distinctive, a creation that is two-in-one. This is shown in the claim that we are made in the ‘image’ of God.

Being the image of God doesn’t refer to physical appearance because God is spirit not physical. What it refers to is the role and purpose of humans on earth. We are made to be God’s representatives and ‘have dominion’ to rule over the earth by taking care of it, continuing God’s work in creation of bringing about goodness. We are endowed with portions of God’s qualities and characteristics, and humans are called to represent God’s love in the world. Understanding that all humans are made in the image of God is of vital importance in Christianity because it means we believe that everyone is immensely valuable and deserves love, dignity, and equality. Men and women are each made in the image of God, yet a distinction is made between them that marks each as distinct and equally valuable.

While creating the world, God designed it beautifully with order. He separated light from dark, heaven from earth, land from sea, day from night, and animals into different habitats. His final crowning creation was humanity, whom He separated into male and female. As men and women, we are a part of God’s beautifully ordered plan. Separate and yet the same. Sharing in God’s image and purpose together as equal partners.

An understanding of our shared humanity must be the basis of any attempts to differentiate what it means to be men/boys or women/girls. What specifically those differences are I’ll consider in another blog post.

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