(and have since recently began re-discovering it in their own terms)

Both men who identify with being trad-con (not genuine traditional men who truly live by their values) and most of the manosphere have this habit of looking down at femininity. Hell, even many ideas the manosphere and the whole trad con thing are based off of (ie. 1950s americana, stereotypes, looking at the worst women as representations of all women) had a habit of viewing femininity as inferior. 1950s Americana and the stereotyping that came with it, for example, gave birth to the notion that in order to be equal, women must shed their femininity (which is more or less the essence of 2nd wave feminism and onwards) and many manosphere ideas are a re-hashing of this.

Of course, I don’t wanna be seen as idealizing things prior to the 50s as well and claim it was equal. Cause it certainly wasn’t, but femininity also played a vital role in that the general structure was the man would provide and protect for his community while the women would maintain it from within (this goes anywhere from raising the children to even agriculture in a number of different societies). If the masculine is to venture outside and protect the community then the role of the feminine was making the community a place worth living. This is especially true for rural communities which were the majority of people prior to last century. Masculinity and femininity complemented each other and their relationship was symbiotic, however, many post 50s ideas began to define femininity as inferior to masculinity and supplementary to it.

With that out of the way, after WW2 as the american suburb was developed and as most of the housework began to become more automated, as well as with the fact that schools took up most of the children’s day, the role of the feminine morphed into “be pretty and obey your man” and sadly this is an idea stuck with many men since and has been the backbone of both modern tradcon movements and the manosphere.

Naturally, women look at this conception of femininity and want nothing to do with. Why associate yourself with a social role that pins you as inferior? why limit yourself to a social role that fully exists at the whims of somebody else? This is where 2nd wave feminism came in and decades later 3d wave. Of course, this also gave way to ideas like the girlboss as well. The ironic thing is, the manosphere and tradcon men don’t see how the ideologies they base their movements on directly contributed to this and have directly led to women rejecting their femininity.

Of course, at the end of the day though, most women like being feminine and prefer it, as such, many have taken it to themselves to define it without the connection to the given role of inferiority forced on it the past 75ish years and with a sense of independence that hasn’t been historically seen.

Women want to be feminine - but we live in a world where they’re taught that in order to push themselves forward they have to reject it

(ps. to the men who say “society forces men to reject their masculinity” - you’re right, i intend to have a whole separate post about that later so don’t you worry)