Define Feminine

Arc'teryx has a Define Campaign. As an ambassador for them, they've asked me to present during their summer launch event for 10 minutes. Something around the theme of 'define feminine.' Since given this assignment, I've been perusing what it means to define feminine. Let's just get the dictionary.com definition out of the way:

adjective
1. pertaining to a woman or girl: feminine beauty; feminine dress.
2. having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, as sensitivity or gentleness.
3. effeminate; womanish: a man with a feminine walk.
4. belonging to the female sex; female: feminine staff members.

Not helpful at all. So I thought about why Arc'teryx selected me. It has something to do with how like the other regional ambassadors, I maintained a separate non-outdoors worklife, I took a couple or more big trips a year, and I was a frequent weekend warrior. I may have toes in another part-time job that is in the outdoor industry. So could this mean my definition of feminine was, ambitious, leaning-in, passionate? I started thinking about the audience of this talk. I couldn't overthink this, but I already am for a 10 minute presentation. So I turned to my activities, also in line with activities the company manufactures equipment for, I started with 'trekking' in college. Became a climber post-graduate and alpinist in the midst my professional career. Two of the four okay. Then I became a skier, three of four - batting well for a white-collar professional. The last is running - something I've been doing since high school but non-competitively and only in the capacity of cross training. Great! So I'll show slides of me doing all of these things - but do they define feminine? Back to square one.

In Yosemite I stumbled upon it. At the Pines campground my friends and I compared our climbing days. I exclaimed I had a lot of fun on my climb. One of the guys who was projecting a route he started six ago, exclaimed, "Fun?!? Climbing is fun?!?" There, nailed it. 

Fun - women have it when we choose to, it's a feminine quality, it's probably the most important thing I hold dear in my experiences with people and places and why I go outside. Fun is just a subset of happiness - or is a pseudonym for it. 

So there, a couple minutes taken up and have about eight minutes left. Going back to dictionary.com ... sensitivity. How can I play with that one? Sure, while watching the film In the Heart of the Sea, I teared up at the whale hunting scenes. I cannot watch creatures get massacred - unless its for food. And unless its another wild creature for its survival. But for human avarice, I cannot. 

So sensitivity - we women feel connection to others, without it, we wither.  

Next, I'm thinking about my recent trip with the Afghan women. I think about the hashtag campaign #AfghanWomenStrong. Strong is a feminine quality. It's a bit of a dirty joke, but I liked this misquote from Betty White (Golden Girls!) “Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”

It isn't to say men don't have qualities of fun, strength, and sensitivity, it's just attributes I think of as a feminine qualities.