The Feminine Arts (pt 2)

And here I thought that the feminine arts referred to quilting, knitting, sewing, cooking, etc.  After a quick google search, I have discovered that the feminine arts refer to seduction and ensnaring a man. See here and here for examples.  The first site made me throw up a little.  The second site was more intriguing but disturbing.  Apparently I feel unloved, incompetent and unattractive because I don't know the feminine arts (or what she calls them).  I thought I was unloved because I have a highly dysfunctional family.  I was incompetent because I was a grad student working on a PhD and that is just the nature of the beast.  I don't know any grad students who feel competent for more than 10 minutes.  Meeting with an advisor is the fastest way to destroy all feelings of love and competency.  I feel unattractive because well...I've had a few too many oreos.   I don't have these feelings because I'm not girly.

According to this woman:
The Feminine Arts help a woman to turn situations to her advantage:  using the feminine arts  well makes her prettier, better liked, wealthier, happier, and better able to get her way.


Wait.  What???!!!  Better able to get her way?  I'm supposed to be able to bat my eyes and get my way???  Isn't that uhm...wrong?  Manipulative?  I didn't think being feminine meant being a manipulative kiniving old hag...but maybe I'm wrong....


I don't want to be a vapid airhead spoiled girl.  I want to be a woman who is respected because I'm well-educated and thoughtful.  


So this site has a year-long course in the feminine arts.  I see she only got to Day 12.  I've flipped through the days and I don't see anything that is glaringly feminine.  I see basic good manners, good posture and a dash of common sense. 


Huh.  Interesting.  I'm looking through the philosophy of charm.  Apparently charming feminine women bring sick or sad friends food.   I bring Hiking Buddy food all the time.  I have to practice my cooking skills and my family doesn't enjoy being my taste testers for some strange reason....  I have yet to make anything Hiking Buddy won't eat.  I don't bring Hiking Buddy food because I'm trying to seduce him or get my way with him.  I bring him food because I like to cook and he likes to eat.  I'm also Catholic.  It's a Corporal Work of Mercy (a good thing) to feed the hungry.  I do it because it is the right thing to do.  


Ugh.  Apparently I'm supposed to be sweet too.  That's never been an ambition of mine....


I'm going to go practice walking gracefully and grandly... (A line from A League of Their Own)