This is something that has struck me a few times. Whilst extremely femme men are often said to be "just like women", and vice versa for butch women, one surprising thing that I have noticed is that femme men are often still more masculine than many women, and butch women are often more feminine than many men. And if you could say, transform a feminine man overnight into a woman, they would probably stick out as a slightly "butch woman" still due to their mannerisms. I think perhaps the experiences of living in a certain physical gender (i.e. the physiology, shape of the body, hormones, bodily functions) probably have an impact on this, but I find it interesting that it goes to show things aren't as black and white as made out. I'd probably guess there it would be like a sliding scale a bit like this: More femme Extremely Femme Women Typically Femme Women Extremely Femme Men Butch Women Androgynous men/women Femme Men Extremely butch Women Typically butch Men Extremely Butch Men More butch
Do you mean that femme men/butch women consciously or subconsciously retain an element of butch/femme expression respectively to try not to stray too much from cultural norms? I guess that could make sense, although I'd argue when you get to those extremes that requires a massive amount of confidence, and so many norms are already broken that I'd argue the bind of cultural norms are significantly weakened (the individual gets to the point where they can ignore them).
I don't agree. I personally believe that anyone can be anywhere on the 'scale' regardless of physical sex. I mean, a lot of 'femme' women still have masculine traits but a 'femme' guy will usually be femme through and through. But this ain't always the case, which is why I say that anyone can be anywhere.
Hmm... am I missing something here? An extremely feminine man who physically turns into a woman would be a trans man, not a butch woman... What's the point in comparing an extremely feminine man to an extremely feminine woman. Men obviously express femininity differently than women because they are men, not women and as such the behaviors are incomparable on a scale. When you see a man act in a way that you perceive to be feminine they are not actually acting like women, instead they are men who are acting like men. Whether or not some might perceive the behavior to be feminine is irrelevant. ---------- Post added 10th Nov 2015 at 11:56 PM ---------- To elaborate a bit on my point. To people who misgender me and see me as a man, I am not in the slightest bit feminine, none of my behavior is considered to be highly feminine in context of being male. What's weird is that I am considered to be a highly feminine woman... the reason is that what is considered to be feminine male behavior has nothing to do with feminine gender expression in women.
