2783: Handsome – Gender Connotations Nov 2, 2024

Although the disparity has grown over time—especially in the last half-century or so—never has “handsome woman” been more common than “handsome man” etc. even going back to the 18th century. Comparatively, other words for beauty, like ‘beautiful’, ‘attractive’ and ‘cute’ (which used to be somewhat of an insult) have always been used more for women.

Usually, reasons of why are rarely fruitful in the humanities, but in this case the reason is because of the changing meaning of ‘handsome’. Before it gained connotations of looks, it had the same meaning as ‘handy’ today, in the sense of skillful. Eventually this took on more the sense of desirable and from there, attractive, but since it had originally referred to handiness and workmanship, it has always been a dominantly masculine word.