>
> Off the top of my head, I think this is recent too. Picasso? Dali?
> Femininity did not form part of their image.
>
> I think the artist = gay thing may be an enduring cultural memory of Oscar
> Wilde. (?)
>
>
Big difference between homosexuality and femininity. As I pointed out in my first post the word pansy was tied up with the word "pensive", which is not only an "artistic" notion but a highly effeminate one. Throughout Western history unclear thinking and "imagination" - wistfulness, if you will - was ALWAYS tied up with either the feminine or pure and simple madness.
Artists were always allowed a certain leeway, but never taken seriously. Picasso, Dali all of these were always viewed as somewhat feminine, insofar as they weren't to take part in "real" society. They created beauty and entertained, but that was it. That would be my definition of femininity... a certain type of intelligence which isn't allowed entry to the "order of things" and is thus pushed to the periphery. Funnily enough, the people that recognise this, albeit in a negative sense, are usually virulent anti-feminists; people like Nietszche and Weininger.