Fellas, this is an article that may seem like it’s for the ladies, but you really need to pay attention; stop calling women masculine for exhibiting traits of a healthy and successful human being.
I have been called masculine since elementary school and it’s been a constant throughout my life. It became especially prevalent when I started competitive debate in high school because I tended to be more aggressive in cross-examination than my male opponents.
Men (and occasionally women) often feel the need to tell me I’m masculine whenever I act assertive, confident or take charge and it’s always bothered me. I am a woman and often feel incredibly feminine, yet I’m constantly labeled as masculine for displaying what are objectively good traits for human beings to have.
Our society has decided to control the traits for success, label them “men only” and tell women that if we want to be feminine, we must squish ourselves into a quiet and meek box and mind our manners. Screw that. More and more powerful women are rising through the ranks to run the world, and nothing about that is masculine. I would even argue that powerful women often bring an element of care to the table that many men lack.
Yet women in the status quo who are taking charge, such as Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, are often described as abrasive for their willingness to put male opponents and colleagues in their place. Both women have shown more emotion and care towards the general populace than their male counterparts, but that is all ignored as soon as they even try to assert themselves on a debate stage.
In the 2016 Presidential debates, President Donald Trump constantly interrupted and disrespected Clinton, and yet she was always the “abrasive” one. Vice President Mike Pence acted similarly toward Harris during this year’s vice presidential debate in what many political pundits called an overly calm performance from Harris, yet Harris was also labeled as “harsh” the next day by the media and general public. This was mainly due to her telling Pence not to interrupt her.
Not correcting our society’s ignorance in associating these successful traits with only being masculine can have serious consequences that we’ve already seen the effects of. According to FiveThirtyEight, women have to navigate a minefield of stereotypes when running for political office, because while the vast majority of Americans say they would vote for a woman, their idea of a politician is associated with stereotypically masculine traits, such as “competence, ambition, aggressiveness, confidence, toughness.”
This means that men are often automatically considered ideal candidates while women are not. FiveThirtyEight explains, “men are often assumed to be viable candidates from the get-go, while women must work to be taken seriously. ‘Men have a leg up in politics because there’s a basic assumption that they’re qualified to run,’ said Nichole Bauer, a professor at Louisiana State University who studies political psychology.”
It’s outrageous when a woman demanding respect and being good in their field of work is labeled “masculine” because these are things we should all strive for. It is important this attitude be squashed because it is one of the many mechanisms used to keep women out of places of power.
Women can embrace their womanhood and be powerful; they are not mutually exclusive. I will remind you of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s infamous words, "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception."