Attraction: What traits do you define as feminine or masculine?

Thinking more in terms of personality and behavior than physical appearance. The reason I've been wondering about this recently is I've always considered myself to be attracted to femininity: I like women who look and behave more femme and I'm not really drawn to butch girls at all. Even the few rare occasions when I've been attracted to men have been guys that were very androgynous/feminine until I'm reminded that they are still males which puts me right off.

But having said this it recently occurred to me that all the women I've ever had crushes on have been what I would consider very confident, strong women with charisma and independence that SOME people might consider to be more masculine traits. Personally I've never understood why these qualities are more commonly attributed to men than women other than the obvious sexism in society that seems to confuse macho attitudes with genuine confidence. There are also certain characteristics that are considered to be more feminine even though they are equally likely to be present in either males and females, like someone who overreacts emotionally for example.

If I met a woman who was societies stereotypical definition -particularly passive with no personality other than an inclination to fuss over the colour of the curtains matching that of the cushions :lol: -I would find her as dull as a brick and wouldn't be attracted to her beyond the physical.

Perhaps it is partly to do with the fact I've never been able to understand gender roles and related behavior anyway and am pretty much genderqueer myself. Or perhaps it is just that society misrepresents gender characteristics so badly. Is there even such a thing as a 'masculine' or 'feminine' quality?

So my question to you is this: What do YOU consider to be masculine/feminine/both characteristics, if anything at all? What gender-related qualities attract you to a person?

 

I think a lot of societies ideas of how genders behave becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Kids are raised to think: if you are a boy you will act like this, if you're a girl you will wear this etc, and they then associate the behavior with the gender they identify as.

Ha ha my mum is sweet, kind and generous but she absolutely will never stop talking :lol: !
Lots of characteristics present differently in either gender I think, like a girl who is bit of a backstabber putting someone down with disguised insults vs the guy who is always taking the piss out of someone and playing it off as a joke, or the girl who asks a friend how they're feeling when they're down vs the guy who buys his friend a drink to cheer him up.