Femininity
The term Femininity is quite familiar. Most of us have participated in the conversations about being feminine, or showing the (stereotypical) characteristics of a female in everyday life and it is also more or less a social norm that many people use the word ‘feminine’ to describe themselves and attributes of others. People are usually found to equate femininity with what is sterotypically called being a woman, with the embodied characteristics like being nurturing, demure, sensitive, or sweet. But, here it should be demarcated and made clear that femininity cannot be understood as a fixed set of essential traits that are necessary characteristics of all women. As an independent concept, femininity can and does carry diverse meanings with large number of interpretations. Even within the realm of heterosexual relationships, the performances of femininity can employ different scripts or meanings. These scripts are like the guidelines for individual behavior and also that of social interaction. These set structures are learned at an early age with social interaction and reinforced throughout the course of life.