Femininity Essay

A common way that women are defined, is based upon how feminine they are, or how they portray femininity. As a westernized culture, we see femininity in the way a woman portrays herself or more specifically how she displays her body. When you critically start to examine this form of femininity, or what it means to embody femininity, we start to understand that there is more than one factor effecting women. This is called cultural reproduction of femininity, essentially it is how society creates specific cultural factors that determine the femininity in women. From the start of womanhood all the way to a woman’s post-menopausal stage, there are certain ways that women are expected to act, look and be like to be considered feminine. These constructions of femininity are determined by the stage in which a woman has reached in her life. For example

As a disease there were certain symptoms that would be used to determine if indeed the woman was undergoing menopause. Of course during the 1950-60’s there were doctoral instructional videos that could assist in the treatment of menopause, anywhere from hormone therapy, radiation and estrogen pills; all which claimed to aid in restoring the woman to her previous state. This was a way of thinking that aided in continuing the fear of aging and “the menopause”, as it was called in the short instructional 1953 film shown in lecture. This fear of aging and becoming useless and repulsive is still present today. Women from young ages are constantly reminded that it is up to them to follow the right schedule of healthy eating and exercise but to also buy the proper products to aid them in maintaining their youth. Such shame towards aging in our western culture has creating the increase and acceptance of cosmetic surgeries. Books like “My Beautiful Mommy” embody just how far we have come to try to obtain our cultural femininity. The idea