Masculinity

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Well if that’s the case, I must be floating around somewhere in outer space. A couple months back my roommates and I took this really detailed personality test (www.personaldna.com). We were bored, and it was quite entertaining. It gives you a whole bunch of stats at the end. The ones we found most interesting were where it gave adjectives and ranked you out of 100 how much you were like this adjective. I decided to take the test again today. Here are my stats:

• Confidence: 80
• Openness: 96
• Extroversion: 38
• Empathy: 66
• Trust in others: 6 (Okay, we gotta work on that)
• Agency: 94 (What does that even mean?)
• Masculinity: 98 (Hahahahahahaha)
• Femininity: 16 (Yup, apparently I’m a guy)
• Spontaneity: 48
• Attention to style: 16
• Authoritarianism: 88

Okay, so my results haven’t changed much in two months. What I wanted to address in today’s blog post was the masculine/feminine thing. I’m not a butch or a tomboy. In fact, as far as clothing style goes, I do dress quite feminine. I also try to look pretty. So when I first got these results, I was kind of upset. I didn’t really understand why the test thought I was so masculine. My roommates reminded me that it was talking about personality, and not outward appearance. That made me feel slightly better. Then they came up with a list of all the ways I was masculine and I started to think personaldna.com might be onto something. Here’s some things that were on that list:

1. Football (the American kind, for everyone else in the world). I love it. If I had a religion, it would be the NFL. My sect: The Philadelphia Eagles. I’m not like most girls who just love their team though. I love to talk football. I’ve got opinions on it all from Tebow, to Brady vs. Brees, to the rehiring of Norv Turner and Andy Reid.
2. Video games. I play and know those too. Right now my preferred platform is Xbox 360 but I have all the other ones too.
3. I’m extremely competitive.
4. I have a sky high libido. I don’t get warn out and the desire is always there.

Okay, so after this list I kind of accepted the fact that my personality is masculine. But where does that leave me as far as relationships are concerned? I’m certainly not going to be becoming a lesbian anytime soon. I also do not think I could handle a man with feminine qualities. I think we all need someone that balances us, and also completes us. I suppose I need to do some soul searching. Right now I have no idea what would balance or complete me. I’m not talking about picking out the qualities in a man that I need. I’m talking about realizing where my faults lie so I don’t end up with someone that has the same faults. Two negatives added together don’t make a positive. Everyone has fallacies. We can’t all be perfect.

I don’t see the masculinity as a fault though. It’s just a part of who I am. With men, I’ve found it can work for or against me. Some guys are impressed by a girl that will challenge their knowledge of football and not back down. Others don’t want to have to compete with a female. I find that rather chauvinistic, but that just means they aren’t right for me. I am surprised by the amount of men who don’t want women with strong personalities. They flock to girls like S, who titter like birds and will do whatever they want. I’m not bitter about this. I just think it’s a curious part of society. Because later you’ll here these men complaining about how their girlfriend has no personality and can’t make a decision for herself. Sorry dude, but you picked her.