I, for one, am uncharacteristically not angry, I’m disappointed. People don’t even try to think past the crap they read in glossy magazines.
Being female means nothing other than having a female body. Being male means nothing other than having a male body. Consequently, “pure femininity” is pure, undiluted comfort with one’s female body entirely irrespective of one’s aggression, etc or lack thereof. “Pure masculinity” is pure, undiluted comfort with one’s male body entirely irrespective of one’s aggression, etc or lack thereof.
An extremely angry, domineering woman will be perceived as ultra-feminine by everyone if she is clearly comfortable with her body. An extremely passive, weak woman will be perceived as very unfeminine if she’s visibly uncomfortable with her body. And it’s exactly the same for men. We can all think of a million and one examples of this.
The reason why people so often slip into the language of personal characteristics when discussing physiological realities is their puritanical fear of the body. They observe and react to bodies but can’t admit this. As a result, they try to push the purely physiological into the realm of the ideological. This is nothing but the tired old belief in the mind / body split that should have be abandoned a long time ago.
As you can see, pure femininity and pure masculinity are not “opposites of one another”, as the linked author states. They are exactly the same in nature. All that is needed to recognize this is to lose the fear of the word “body.” We are not female or male in the head. We are female or male much lower down. Which is precisely the reason why transgender people never seek brain surgery and the intersex are people with unusual genitals, not unusual brains.
Clarissa's Blog 
This is nothing but the tired old belief in the mind / body split that should have be abandoned a long time ago.
You’d abandon cogito ergo sum? 🙂
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It’s cute and all but even a simple toothache can easily wipe out any desire or capacity to think.
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“……Being female means nothing other than having a female body. Being male means nothing other than having a male body…….”
I’m glad you mentioned our many intersex friends. I did a 6 month rotation at a well known ‘clinic’ that deals in these sorts of things
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Complete or Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
5-Alpha Reductase Deficiency
And my personal favourite, Swyyer Syndrome. I’ve oft’ toyed with the idea of writing a “CSI” episode where the bad guy(?) is a person with diagnosed and managed Swyer Syndrome who is also 8 months pregnant with an implanted embryo. This bad guy(?) leaves its DNA all over the crime scene. Accordingly, the CSI folks are looking for a man. Who would suspect a pregnant ‘woman’ in her 8th month possessor of these male XY genes?
This gender thingy is also complicated by the gender specific aspect of English Language pronouns. There is no ‘neuter’ case that is not somehow insulting. For instance if you want to tell a new mother that her new baby is cute but you do not know the sex/gender of the child, you can’t say, “Isn’t it cute” without insulting them now can you? My Mother tongue has neuter pronouns.
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Too late — by posting it here, you just put your plot idea in the public domain, and anybody can now rip it off!
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Oh dear!
What was I thinking?
I’m such a silly bunny!
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You look more like Bat Broad to me.
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