Characteristics Of Hegemonic Femininity

Introduction The thought of masculinity often manifests various stereotypes; the image of the glorified white male is often formed. Hegemonic masculinity is often seen as the most dominant, defining form of masculinity. Characteristics of hegemonic masculinity are often presumed to be male, white characters that embody the naturalness of masculinity. A presumption is that masculinity and maleness are linked. Similarly but not to the same extent, femininity and the existence as a female are often linked. A society that is socialized to believe in the sharp distinctions between males and females creates norms of masculinity and its relation to gender and sexuality. Variations from the norm including that of homosexuality, transgenderism, and …show more content…
This rebellion is often classified as tomboyism or an “extended childhood of feminized masculinity” and is generally not categorized as abnormal or noteworthy (Halberstam 5). This tomboyism tends to be associated with a desire to pursue the freedoms and mobilities that boys have in comparison to girls. However, tomboyism is refuted after the security of childhood. Gender conformity often pushes girls out of tomboyism; “culture and social norms are believed to affect the acceptability of tomboyism” (Burn, O’ Neil, Nederend 420). The image of a tomboy “can only be accepted with the narrative of blossoming womanhood” and masculinized girls are not likely to remain after puberty and adolescence (Halberstam 7). In order to properly analyze feminized masculinities and their relationship to a generalized idea of masculinity is to refute the idea of tomboyism and instead focus on “differently gendered bodies and subjectivities (Halberstam …show more content…
Theories and ideas about feminized masculinity have manifested for decades. Robert Stoller, a psychoanalyst, understands feminized masculinity to be “psychological syndrome” (Gardiner 599). Stoller attributes female masculinity to feminized masculinity as a deviance from normal femininity stemming for the “anger and disappointment that all little girls experience when they recognize that their genitals are inferior to male genitals” (Gardiner 599). This “gender dysphonia” is tied directly to family dynamics and “nonconformist responses to sexism and homophobia” (Gardiner 601). Therefore, Stoller’s understanding of female masculinity is a masculinity created “as pathological aberrations from a natural heterosexual norm” (Gardiner 600). Stoller’s understanding of feminized masculinity has proven to be outdated and an understanding subsequent to a belief that masculinity for males and femininity for females is a natural