I used to be really mad about male/female caricatures in anything animated/ drawn: the male characters tend to have very little to show, they just look like a base animal/creature. However, the female character is basically the same form except many things added to it: hair, a dress or skirt (while the males can lack any clothes), accessories, such as heels, eyelashes, makeup, a purse. I used to absolutely despise this. In a radfem sense it seemed to be saying "default is male and 'other' is female".
Now, when I look at it from a cultural feminist/essentialist point of view it is completely different. If you look at the male character, it looks, base, unattractive, boring, and sometimes even ugly. It looks the most animal-like. This, I think in a way, swiftly sums up my thoughts about the male truly being the most earthly, "base", most material form. That is, it is the lowest potential of humanity, at the lowest point from the Spirit.
However, the female tends to look most human. It does not look "base", it contains, still, all the features of the highest Humanity. It contains those qualities that are traditionally feminine- they belong to women. Theese feminine qualities (adorning oneself, makeup, are exclusively HUMAN activities, they are what makes human more then just mere animals. From here we know male ness is truly the "base" form, while femaleness is the most human, spiritual form.
