Tenderness is a feeling or show of gentle love and care. It can also mean a part of the body that hurts when touched.
Formed from *tender* plus the noun-forming suffix *-ness*, which turns adjectives into abstract nouns. It carries forward the sense of emotional and physical softness.
Tenderness is the opposite of toughness, but it isn’t weakness. It’s the strength to stay soft and caring in a world that often teaches people to harden up.
Tenderness has been culturally coded as feminine, leading to expectations that women provide emotional warmth and comfort, while men are discouraged from showing tenderness. This reinforces unequal emotional burdens.
Recognize and value tenderness in people of all genders; avoid language that mocks or devalues tenderness in men or expects endless tenderness from women.
["gentleness","softness","affection","warmth"]
Women’s tenderness has sustained families and communities, but feminist and queer movements have also emphasized that tenderness is a human capacity, not a gendered duty.
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