Before moving forward, it might prove useful to analyze where you are in your perception of femininity. How has the word femininity been defined in your experience? Whether you have thought about the essence of womanhood extensively, or not at all, take a moment to free write on what it means to be a woman. Allow your answer to surprise you. Instead of editing yourself, surface everything in your heart even if you find yourself voicing concepts that upon writing, you recognize as false. If nothing initially comes to mind, listing the words that mean about the same thing to you as the word ‘feminine’, often reveals what you strongly associate with it. Ask yourself what images or people have been defining examples of femininity in your life.
Once you have a thoroughly sketched your experience with this concept, analyze what is written. When I poured all my ideas and presumptions into black and white, I realized that one very important question needed to be asked to clarify my pre-conceived notions. The question that plagued me was: “how much can femininity change from what I just defined it as, and still be God-glorifying womanhood?” In other words, how big is your definition? Could it assimilate into another culture or time period? The final definition needs to be deep and specific, but also encompass all women.
Is your definition too narrow?
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