feminine?

To be captivating! The whole essence of womanhood: that captivating hidden mystery of femininity. Alice von Hildebrand discusses it in The Priviledge of Being a Woman, Helen Andelin in Fascinating Womanhood, Staci Eldridge in Captivating!, Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider in The Rules. This is what it means to be a woman. This is the role of a woman. If you are a true woman, the man will rise to the bait ... that is, the occasion. The man will change for you, because true femininity has the power to change a man and if you discover yours, he will be a manly man. The implied converse of this is, of course, if you lose your man, you failed to be a womanly enough woman. You failed to be sufficiently woman enough to keep his attention or call forth his manliness.
Of course, this isn't always true. Sometimes things *just don't work out* for whatever bullshit reason. Sometimes, no matter how captivating you are, the man just doesn't have enough balls to step up to the plate and bat. (cf. Captivating) And then sometimes there is no why. Sometimes the answer to why cannot go deeply enough to mean anything. Sometimes women are so profligate with our mystery and our beauty and our "wanton tresses." I should not have let you kiss me. What a travesty! We think we are giving an incomparable gift of self in love and through love, to our lover ... and he was just horny. It becomes a farce, a cheap joke, all the beauty and mystery. In a consuming desire to love and give and cherish, we give too much and kill the love that was maybe just desire anyway (Eliot says it so beautifully and perfectly in "Gerontion"). And then throwing one's self gain and again against the brick wall or cage bars or gravestone demanding why, and there is no answer, my friend. None. We ask why and God says "Yes." Yes, it really is happening like this. Yes, I really am demanding this of you. "Strike another match go start anew And it's all over now, Baby Blue." oh, "You humble me, Lord."