User:Prich080/sandbox

Body alteration:

Nowadays, due to the fifth vague of feminism and different trends we observe a shift in what is considered feminine. Depending on your culture, femininity has a different definition. In Europe, natural beauty is appreciated in the US/North America, there is an allure to glamour. Celebrities and Stars all want to get surgery to get a specific shape that was initially mocked by the European. Saartje Baartman, who was a slave and brought around the world to display her body had a specific figure and now many women around the world are getting that exact figure. She had a very small upper body with a very big lower body, her body shape had an hourglass figure. It has had an influence on women back in La Renaissance where women would wear corsets to get the trendy silhouette. What was once rare is now more common because our society's expectations have changed. BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift) is a type of surgery to get the permanent shape, it is the deadliest and the most popular surgery in Latin America, the US, the UK and Turkey.

Traditional Roles:

Femininity is represented across the world differently, but one thing that comes out often is hypergamy or high financial status. Hypergamy is marrying someone who has a higher-class status or similar class status to maintain a certain lifestyle. Traditionally, in African culture there is a debt/dot that the husband has to provide before the family approves the marriage. The reason why this tradition has been installed is to assure that the wife is provided for even if she has to carry children and cannot work. It is security expected, especially if the woman is educated, she is seen as traditional, and there are high expectations on the way she should be treated.

Judeo-Christian theology:

In the Bible, we see a lot of feminine examples like Esther, Ruth, and Rebekah. We quickly notice the importance of femininity as we discover the Book of Esther. Esther had to bathe in expensive oil and Myrrh so she would attract the King. Her preparation for her union lasted for almost a year. The reason why she was picked to marry King Xerxes was because of her unique femininity. Ruth was a young woman who married into a good family. Her husband died and her mother-in-law Naomi told her that she was young, feminine, and she had no kids so she freed her because she did not have another son, she would be able to marry. However, Ruth was highly loyal to her mother-in-law, she decided to follow her and leave her gods behind. She did everything she could to help Naomi. Once they arrived at their promised land, Ruth caught a lot of attention by Boaz and his people because of her work ethic, despite the loss of her husband. She came from humble beginnings and had the choice to pick someone else, but she decided to nurture her in-law and that feminine quality made her special. Rebekah was predestined for Isaac, she was the perfect wife for Isaac and she is depicted as kind, loving, caring, etc.

In the Book of Life, men worked very hard to get a feminine wife. In Proverbs 31:10-31, there is a description of what is expected in a wife. Let's look at the love story between Jacob and Rachel, who are the parents of Joseph and Benjamin. Jacob worked for Rachel's dad for years in hopes that one day he will be able to marry her. They eventually got married and had a few children, but once she died, he cherished his sons even more because that was the only thing left from her. Overall, femininity in the Bible is very important because a woman's beauty is amplified when a woman takes care of herself.

In Men:

There is a pressure on men to be masculine and heterosexual. Feminine men are assumed to be gay or queer depending on the way they perform their gender. This assumption limits the way one is allowed to express one's gender and sexuality. In various cultures around the world, people are quite familiar with the fact that gender is a spectrum. In the Hawaiian culture, there are Mahu which is a person embraces two genders, usually woman and man. It goes above a name it is also spiritual.