Embrace your feminine side

As a single mom, and I'm sure all single parents have noticed this, I definitely get use out of both my feminine side and my masculine side.

I have to be mom and dad.

I have to cook dinner and mow the lawn.

I have to be the nurturer and be the breadwinner.

Now, I realize that I'm basing the terms "masculine" and "feminine" on purely stereotypical qualities.

Strength vs. Gentleness

Intuition vs. Logic

You get the idea.

As a woman, I've noticed that the masculine qualities, though sometimes ironically regarded as "feminist", seem to be generally accepted by our society.

I've also noticed that all men have a feminine side. Every single man I know has some sort of quality that society might consider "feminine". Generally speaking, the men that seem to have no problem admitting their feminine qualities are the married men. Maybe the traits are far more obvious in a partnership like marriage?

For instance, my ex-husband excelled (i.e. did better than me) at cooking, wrapping presents, flower arrangements and choosing matting/frames for art we purchased.

Soldier was obsessive about his weight. He attributed it to being a triathlete but I get the feeling that his vanity always got the best of him.

My sweet friend TNT - let's just say that his apartment resembles nothing even close to a bachelor pad. From the gorgeous furniture and artwork down to the potpourri on the table behind his leather couch. Nice!

Rascal... oh I'm still learning my Rascal... But I have noticed that it takes him longer to choose what clothes he's going to wear than I do! Well, ok, I guess that's not fair since I'm generally living out of a suitcase when I'm at his house. Rascal is also the most intuitive man I have ever met. Because he's a man, however, he has been raised not to trust that part of himself. Only women are supposed to have intuition.

I was inspired to write about this after being around the guys at work last week. We were having a potluck Halloween luncheon, sitting around and talking about the food.

"Wanna know the secret to my chili?" the CEO asked me. He went on to proudly tell me the secret to several of his recipes.  I so enjoyed listening to him boasting like Betty Crocker!

Another guy at work said it was his dream job to work on the TV show, Ace of Cakes. His dream job. Wow. I was surprised and impressed.

I wonder why society shames men into believing that from these traits, we could also assume their sexual orientation. Sadly, society says the same thing about men who enjoy anal sex play. (But don't get me started on that.)

Hopefully, with the popularity of the Food Network and HG TV, we'll begin to skew some of those attitudes towards men and their feminine sides. I think if more men embraced that part of themselves, we could be looking at a completely different society.

These traits in a man are S.E.X.Y.

And besides, balance is good.