Was refering to women as "handsome" ever a thing?

[Grrr]

I’ve seen this a handful of times on TV shows. I’m just wondering if it was ever common to refer to an attractive woman as handsome.
I’ve always associated handsome with being masculine.

[astro]

NM

[Claverhouse]

Yes; if you were a bluff, horsey gentleman in the early 19th century.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Yes, it’s a fairly common phrase. There’s a discussion at the Wordreference forum.

Putting “handsome woman” into Google gives 241,000 hits. Both handsome woman and handsome man were used somewhat more often in the 19th century but neither has fallen out of use.

[panache45]

Yes, I’ve seen it used for a woman who is attractive and sophisticated, sort of the opposite of “girlish.”

[drewtwo99]

Nowadays if you called a woman “handsome” I would take it to mean “attractive in a masculine way” and not really be that much of a compliment. A very nice looking butch lesbian, for example, might be described as “handsome” as a put down.

[Senegoid]

Benjamin Franklin famously used the word that way in his Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress (1745) (in which he advises a young man that an older woman is a better choice):

2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.

[tomndebb]

@panache45

Yes, I’ve seen it used for a woman who is attractive and sophisticated, sort of the opposite of “girlish.”

This.

@drewtwo99

Nowadays if you called a woman “handsome” I would take it to mean “attractive in a masculine way” and not really be that much of a compliment. A very nice looking butch lesbian, for example, might be described as “handsome” as a put down.

Not so much this.

= = =
I do not associate “handsome woman” with “masculine(-looking) woman.” I do associate it with a woman whose attractiveness is not dependent on “girlish” looks. Generally, handsome is used in the context of older rather than younger women, but it always conveys feminine beauty.
I have never heard it used as an insult.

[drewtwo99]

Ok time for some cites so that you don’t think I’m the only weirdo in the world who thinks handsome nowadays is, at best, a backhanded compliment if not an outright insult, when applied to a woman:

This phrase is very dated and rarely used in today’s English. Those who don’t understand the term could almost be insulted by the word “handsome” being applied to a woman, mistakenly thinking you’re saying she is masculine.

Being a handsome woman to me means she is a “Brunhilda”…Norwegian, Viking, broad shoulders, strong arms, angular face, big feet but not ugly.

Sounds suspiciously like an insult to me!

“A handsome woman. Did he honestly think that was flattering?” writes a character in Stephanie Grace Whitson’s Sixteen Brides

Perhaps this is a stretch but: I think the term was the polite was of saying an elegant to beautiful woman a little past her prime (post-menapausal?). These days, it would come off as both sexist and ageist with implications that a non-breeding female is not sexually desirable. “50 is the new 40”, as claims the headlines.

Yes, there are lots of people like tomndebb who are fine with calling a woman handsome, but there are also lots of people who wouldn’t know for sure if you were trying to be insulting, putting them down for being masculine or older, or what have you.

[dropzone]

@tomndebb

This.

Not so much this.

= = =
I do not associate “handsome woman” with “masculine(-looking) woman.” I do associate it with a woman whose attractiveness is not dependent on “girlish” looks. Generally, handsome is used in the context of older rather than younger women, but it always conveys feminine beauty.
I have never heard it used as an insult.

Absolutely. It is a high compliment for a woman of maturity and grace. Someone with whom you can talk and laugh. Someone with whom you would want to have a longterm relationship with. Someone you’d be honored to be seen with in public. Not someone who was fun the night before but whose squealing the next morning about Beyonce and Justin Bieber the next morning leaves claw marks on your soul. You know–someone you can stand to be around, even when you are not having sex.

And her beauty is not the transitory sort of youth. She may have never been particularly pretty, by Hollywood standards, but she has aged like fine wine. Think of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren and Angela Bassett. Katherine Hepburn. Michelle Obama. Kirsten Nelson, the chief on Psych, is a personal favorite–her dimples could cut ice.

So yes, it was and is a thing. Think of more past, current, or future handsome women.

[drewtwo99]

I just asked my Mom about this and she said:

“actually, i used this word in this context just the other day for the first time. this woman was big boned, not fat, had very short silver hair. she was not manly really, but not what i would call feminine either. very well dressed and put together. she wore make-up and although she was not the popular idea of how a woman should look to be attractive, she was intriguing to look at. i decided that she was handsome. i would not like it if someone said that i was handsome though.”

Now, who here wants to argue with MY MAMA?

[dropzone]

@drewtwo99

Being a handsome woman to me means she is a “Brunhilda”…Norwegian, Viking, broad shoulders, strong arms, angular face, big feet but not ugly.

Coming from, in part, Norwegian Viking stock, I fail to see how this could be twisted into a negative.

Perhaps this is a stretch but: I think the term was the polite was of saying an elegant to beautiful woman a little past her prime…

Hah! Young’uns don’t realize that your prime does not have strict, chronological limits, and people who age without understanding that can end up ceaselessly trying to recapture what they think they have lost. Look at Cher and Jocelyn Wildenstein for examples of women with neither understanding nor elegance.

Yes, there are lots of people like tomndebb who are fine with calling a woman handsome, but there are also lots of people who wouldn’t know for sure if you were trying to be insulting, putting them down for being masculine or older, or what have you.

They should get a vocabulary, though whoever can use “handsome” in that manner can probably lay on the flattery with a trowel when defining it to her.

[epbrown01]

@tomndebb

I do not associate “handsome woman” with “masculine(-looking) woman.” I do associate it with a woman whose attractiveness is not dependent on “girlish” looks. Generally, handsome is used in the context of older rather than younger women, but it always conveys feminine beauty.
I have never heard it used as an insult.

I can believe some folks mistakenly think it’s an insult when applied to women, as it’s fallen out of common use. However, we live in a world when men are “pretty” and there was a time that wouldn’t fly.

To me, the prototype for handsome woman is Glenn Close. Beautiful and feminine, intelligent, sexy, but in a way that transcends the immaturity of cute and the pastel blandness of pretty. Another good one is Tamsin Greig (Black Books, Episodes, Green Wing). Handsome women seem to age well, as their features don’t rely of the blush of youth. Picturing various roles throughout their careers, I’d be hard-pressed to say how old Glenn Close or Sigourney Weaver were in some films that were 20 years apart.

[dropzone]

@epbrown01

I can believe some folks mistakenly think it’s an insult when applied to women, as it’s fallen out of common use. However, we live in a world when men are “pretty” and there was a time that wouldn’t fly.

There’s no other word for Johnny Depp.

Another good one is Tamsin Greig (Black Books, Episodes, Green Wing).

Who? Oh, HER! Red hot in a sophisticated way, and will stay that way forever.

Handsome women seem to age well, as their features don’t rely of the blush of youth. Picturing various roles throughout their careers, I’d be hard-pressed to say how old Glenn Close or Sigourney Weaver were in some films that were 20 years apart.

Excellent examples. And it’s as much a state of mind as anything. Maybe drewtwo99’s mom has not yet grown comfortable in her skin, or simply does not yet see “handsome” as the compliment it is.

[lieu]

What Tamerlane, epbrown and dropzone have said. To me the quintessential example is Jessica Tandy. We had an older neighbor couple where she resembled Ms. Tandy and he a sea captain. She was a handsome woman, they a handsome couple and, having described them both in such manner several times, the descriptor was only meant in the most complimentary, respectful manner.