Feminine confidence is something that many girls struggle with on a daily basis. The struggle is much harder when you are anxious and secretive about your girliness. Coming to terms and accepting your inner girliness releases all of the stress that comes from trying to suppress who you truly are and is totally worth it.
This post was created by the talented Candie Hart and originally appeared on her Tumblr blog. It is reproduced here with her kind permission. Be sure to check out more about Candie at the end of the post and give her some Pink Femme love.
One of the hardest things for me to come to grips with is this sort of paradox of feminine confidence. On one hand, I truly believe that being girly is so worth it. Yet, on the other hand, I’m so anxiously secretive about it. Do you ever struggle with that? I know that I do.
Being feminine is incredibly fulfilling, it builds constructive awareness, and encourages a positive self-image; not to mention that being girly is just plain sexy. So, why, if it’s worth every effort, is it so difficult to openly exhibit it? Yes, there is the whole “cultural perception.”
We all know how lame gender perceptions are and will continue to be within our lifetimes. To put that to the side, though, perhaps part of it is a fear of actually doing something and being someone more genuine to one’s own personality. That’s actually pretty scary if you think about it. Being authentic to your innermost passions is a challenging path of personal responsibility. Once you’re out there in transparency, it’s tough to revert back to old habits, especially as people grow accustomed to the better “you”.
As I have indicated in many posts, I’m not an out and flout it, girly boy. But I am girly, at least to an extent. I decided for myself that I don’t have to be macho–not even neutral. I can be softer, gentler, smoother.
I can be, in a sense, dainty even in my most male days. And what I have found is that when I truly express myself in a feminine way, in girly clothing, or with feminine rhetoric, I’m not only more sure of myself, I’m much more transparent to people around me. I’m actually a funny guy, a fun guy, a great confidant of a guy, and a more loving husband of a guy when I’m girlier–if that makes any sense,
It’s frightening, to be honest. It’s not always easy to be the feminine boy on the block. It’s not easy to be girly and still fit in. And it’s not always easy to keep up the guise of masculinity when the little miss wants to shine. Let me tell you though, it’s so totally worth it to be free and feminine. Like myself, it might not be the most extreme, but when you finally release and let your girliness push through in some way–or in many ways–you’ll find yourself. You might even wonder what kept you back for so long.
Much love and girly happiness to you,
CandieHart
Go ahead and give Candie a shout if you wish.
Some more good news is that there is now a page on Pink Femme called Captions By Candie Hart where you can find all the long-form caption posts that Candie and I have posted here. Give it a look to see if there are caption posts that you haven’t read yet. Even better, bookmark the page to make it easier to check for new captions each week.
Candie is an enthusiast for all things fit and femme. All of her very creative captions carry the same positive, motivating ethos that I envisioned for Pink Femme when I started this site. Use this link to go to Candie’s blog on Tumblr and give her captions some much-needed love.
Comment below if you would like to see more of Candie’s longer-form content with captions here on Pink Femme – I know I do.
Hey Candie! Love your post! I think one of the key takeaways for me is that it wasn’t always easy to hide behind the guise of masculinity when she wanted to shine. So many get stuck in that spot and I think that is where a lot of bad toxic masculinity forms, at least it did for me until I became feminine. Great read , love it girl! 🙂