The Villainization of Femininity and Second-Wave Feminism

I presume it is rather easy to encounter the degradation of feminine traits in the media. In Holywood movies, for example, we can see how the female characters that dress and act in feminine ways are villanized, or portrayed as dumb and shallow characters. Feminine characters in movies and young-adult romance books are generally treated as annoying and shallow villains that try to steal the main love interest of the protagonist. They mostly wear pink, wear lots of make-up, are boy-crazy, and don't engage in intellectual activities. We can give examples like the plastics in Mean Girls, and Sharpay Evans in The High School Musical.

On the opposite side of these feminine characters, we have the tomboyish and not like other girls characters that despise feminine acts and clothing. They are the better type of women, so to speak, and are seen as one of the boys. Bella Swan from Twilight or stronger female characters such as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and Sarah Connor from The Terminator are some examples. If you want to be a strong, likable, and smart female character, you need to adopt more masculine traits and avoid acting feminine. But where did this come from? Why are even some women participating in villainizing femininity?

The origins of this behavior come from the second-wave feminist movement that started in the 1960s and lasted until the 1980s. During World War 2, a great number of men abandoned the workplace to join the war, which resulted in women participating in various areas of the workforce. However, after the war ended, men came back to claim the workplaces again and forced women to retreat to their original traditional roles of being housewives.

Women started to object to being restricted in domestic labor after being independent of a man's financial aid and support. They questioned and rejected traditional gender roles, and wanted to be seen as equal with men in the workplace. They sought to adopt more masculine traits to be taken more seriously and rejected feminine characteristics that were imposed by men. In a way, if you wanted to be a feminist, you needed to abandon being feminine.

While some feminists advocated for the complete rejection of femininity and traditional gender norms, others sought to reclaim and redefine femininity in empowering ways. Third-wave and later feminist movements embraced a more inclusive approach, and didn't seek the answer by restricting women's choices and ways of expressing themselves by reconstructing gender stereotypes.

Resources:

https://www.loudwomencommunity.org/post/hollywood-s-demonization-of-ultra-femininity

https://feminisminindia.com/2018/04/25/summary-second-wave-of-feminism/