Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity.... — James E. Faust

Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. James E.

Author: James E. Faust

Insight: We've built up such a narrow image of femininity that we've accidentally trapped it inside a mirror. The makeup, the clothes, the curated appearance—these became the whole story, when really they're just window dressing on something much deeper. What Faust points to here is that femininity is actually a whole constellation of human strengths that our culture has historically undervalued, maybe even hidden away. The tricky part is that these qualities—gentleness, sensitivity, creativity, the capacity to love deeply—aren't actually feminine. They're human. But somewhere along the way, we decided they belonged to women specifically, which had the odd effect of making them seem less important than the traditionally masculine traits we celebrate everywhere. A man can be strong without question, but a man who's sensitive? That still makes people uncomfortable in ways that shouldn't. Meanwhile, women are often expected to perform all these qualities constantly, as if they're part of the uniform rather than real choices. What matters now is recognizing that femininity as a concept doesn't need rescuing by being placed on a pedestal. Instead, we need to stop acting like gentleness and quiet strength are gendered at all. They're just ways of moving through the world that any person can choose, develop, and embody. That's where the real freedom lies.