Attractive masculinity/femininity

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I'm curious - if you could sum it up in a nutshell of the gender of your preference; in two or three concepts or less (the less the better), what would you define as the minimal core components of attractive masculinity or attractive femininity?

omg, a short thread by techstepgenr8tion, I've seen everything now.

Long hair, a nice voice, friendliness.

Sums it up for me. I don't like overly-feminine girls, but I'm not that much into tomboys either.

- A cute voice
- Curves
- Large eyes

Hmm, true. I probably should add another condition - looks and physical features aside, looking more at style, expressive traits and personality traits - what makes a guy attractively masculine or a woman attractively feminine?

I guess overall I'd like to steer the more toward being a thread where people can see things mentioned by other posters that they already 'kinda' have and could take farther rather than 'describe your ideal partner'.

The right ego balance
Smart but does not put less intelligent people down
Striking looks
Tuned in.

Hmmm to me masculinity =
Strong calves, broad shoulders that set a frame for trapizoid shaped torso, a firmer face. (As opposed to the softer, plump face of woman.)

-temperament (good (progressive, privilege conscious)politics, good behavior, quiet self assurance, openness, humor)

-physical presence (tall and broad shouldered, good posture, comfortable body language, clean, age appropriate clothing)

-mind (whip smart, well read, interesting, ambitious, supportive, isn't threatened by the intelligence of others)

Okay, so femininity... :

--Petite
--Indy girl or womanly dress sense
--Friendly voice

For me, I'd say the core concepts would be strength and the ability to make me feel safe and protected. When I say this, I mean in an emotional sense, more than a literal one. I'm independent and have always made my own way in life, but still want someone I feel I can trust will 'be there' for me.

Well if it has to be non physical traits.
Protectiveness. In a sweet way not a controlling one.

Appriciation of a "womanly woman" like a Marilyn Monroe type that he can grab and u know. Not a stick that might break if he's rough w/ it.

Enough confidence in his manhood that he wouldn't be afraid to wear something feminine, like a dress, if he needed to.

femininity~
shy/timid
senstive
dressed cute; non-slutty/more modest/conservative

I think 'pensive' is the right term for these two since it can imply sensuality but doesn't necessarily need to come with being a floor mat.

I've known girls of all walks from traditional and modest to 'tough' girls who had 'it' in this sense. I also had a friend in our group where she'd been super-shy up through her teen years, felt like a pushover, did a 180 u-turn personalitywise but found out that guys had no interest in her. I don't know how to describe it but she'd swung too far to acting like 'one of the guys' to where it came off a bit macho - we were throwing advice back and forth once and the best I could tell her is that the way she'd flirt came off as a bit saccharine and bitter (more like she was lampooning a flirt), she didn't want to come off as docile or frail, I tried to explain how even a lot of the souljahetts (sorry - term somewhat of my own invention - ask me for an explanation if you need it) I knew had that other side to their expressiveness that evened the score - I wasn't armed with the right term but I think 'pensiveness' or at least expressing it intermittently seems to nail it on the mark.

Last edited by techstepgenr8tion on 30 May 2012, 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Such a hard question to answer, for me masculine and feminine traits don't entirely match up with gender, more of a personality thing. Some masculine traits don't work for me in women, but many do. And yet very feminine women can be appealing too. A nice mix is best.

For the feminine traits ... a kind of impishness is really appealing. Mischevious in a good natured, light hearted sort of way.

If I were to talk about what attracts me I'd probably be getting to individualized for a proper answer to my own post but just to throw it out there: I tend to like the girls that seem balanced, on-point, have a knack for taking people for who they are, and you see a glow of intelligence in their eyes. They tend to be middle of the road on laughs vs. seriousness either - I avoid girls who need to laugh 24/7 or have that odd 'run from it' sense that seriousness by necessity is something negative as I like a healthy balance of both and see the beauty of both in the right time and place. Her enjoying 'intelligent' conversation and observations and being willing to share her own thoughts on that level. Aside from that - is strong in herself, knows who she is and who she isn't, and if she's showing a guy the time of day its because a whole sequence of lights went off in her head to where she knows what she has in front of her. The combination of half party half straight-laced is also a rare and great combination; at least in my mid 20's it seemed like most of the girls I met were all-or-nothing in that regard.

It's kind of hard to have one list of traits, because I have both tomboy and girly-girl types I'm attracted to.

In "girly girls" I like nurturing, feeling deeply, ability to calm me down, maternal instincts, etc.

The "tomboys" I like are more active, hyper, and like edgewaters says, "impish". They can really act as much like boys as they want, and as long as they have a cute face and voice I can be interested. Interests also matter--a total tomboy who's very science/engineering minded like myself seems less feminine than one who is into something else--even sports; I think it's because they lose that "exotic other" vibe.

With girly girls the attraction feels more "straight", with tomboys it almost makes me feel I should be a lesbian hehe.