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I just encountered the phrase 「男前な女」in the book I am reading. When I looked up
男前, it was defined as "good looks in a man," much like "handsome" in English.
What does it mean when used to describe a woman?

Here is the context:

> もし、兄の連絡を受けるようにすれば、あの生意気で男前な女の被る負担は少しでも減るのかもしれない。 Roughly: _Maybe, if he was
> willing to put up with his brother's phone calls, he could lighten that
> cheeky, [?] woman's burden just a little._

(For what it's worth, the woman in question had been repeatedly described as a
conventional beauty. The man who describes her as an 男前な女 is probably
attracted to her but still oblivious at this point.)
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2011-07-26T05:16:32.537
2202
2011-07-26T19:03:26.553
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vocabulary
What does 男前 mean when used to describe a woman?
A definition I found for 男前 is a bit different from what you (and I)
originally expected： 男らしい顔つきや態度。男振りのよいこと。

So, I guess that this girl may behave a bit like a tomboy, or maybe show too
much assurance.

Edit: after a quick survey around me (corpus size: two persons), 男前な女 is
either neutral or positive, and is much related to the behaviour, not really
to the look of the female in question. It could be applied for example for a
person who says what she thinks a bit too directly. In the lack of more piece
of information, I would personally not use it tomorrow before knowing more
about the nuance and how some people may react to it :)
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2011-07-26T06:23:45.230
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2011-07-26T09:16:06.450
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As you guessed already, 男前 has an implication of "man-like" good looks. But
using it on a woman is not in any way pejorative and merely indicates a
certain type of style in their appearance.

A better translation than "good looks in a man" would be "tomboy", as
Axioplase suggested, or, in a more historically fashion-conscious translation:
"flapper" (1920's _Garçonne_ style). Neither of which is incompatible with
conventional beauty and might even have extra appeal to some (but might be
unappealing to those who seek the more traditional gender-bound Japanese
styles).

[This page](http://www.citywave.com/tokyo/tokusyu/040917/) has a small
(informal) discussion on what it means to be a "男前な女性", including examples of
actual celebrity whose readers deem to be typical 男前な女性. Top two picks should
give you a good idea of the style:

  * [天海祐希](http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%E5%A4%A9%E6%B5%B7%E7%A5%90%E5%B8%8C&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1115&bih=594#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=%E5%A4%A9%E6%B5%B7%E7%A5%90%E5%B8%8C&oq=%E5%A4%A9%E6%B5%B7%E7%A5%90%E5%B8%8C&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=534638l534638l0l534852l1l1l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=fa24606344fcdf28&biw=1115&bih=594)

  * [和田アキ子](http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%E5%A4%A9%E6%B5%B7%E7%A5%90%E5%B8%8C&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1115&bih=594#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=%E5%92%8C%E7%94%B0%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AD%E5%AD%90&oq=%E5%92%8C%E7%94%B0%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AD%E5%AD%90&aq=f&aqi=g8g-m1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=12144l12144l0l15039l1l1l0l0l0l0l146l146l0.1l1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=fa24606344fcdf28&biw=1115&bih=594)

(as you can see with Yuki Amami in particular, the Japanese definition of
"tomboy" essentially rests on wearing pant suits and cropping your hair
somewhat short)
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2011-07-26T06:41:37.227
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I agree with the other answers that `男前な女` refers to a woman with a somewhat
masculine quality to her looks, in a positive way.

However, I think that "tomboy" is the wrong English equivalent. It does not
match with your description of the context where the woman in question is
"repeatedly described as a conventional beauty."

A tomboy is a woman who _acts_ like a man or boy (depending on age) , and may
dress the part, but it is almost entirely her behaviour. Whether she is
attractive, whether in spite of or because of her tomboyish, is incidental.

On the other hand, it is perfectly acceptable to [describe a woman as
handsome](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/17108/can-you-still-
call-a-woman-handsome). It refers to her physical features and implies that
she has a sort of masculine quality which adds to her feminine charms.

Thus, I think the best translation for `男前な女` is "a handsome woman".
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2011-07-26T08:53:00.087
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2011-07-26T08:53:00.087
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There's a LOT going on here....

First, the answer: it means "manly woman". You may be thinking, incorrectly,
this is a scale: 1 is feminine. 10 is masculine. 4 is otokomae female (almost
a man). 4 is otokomae male (almost a man).  
Traditionally, the kanji "mae" didn't mean before. The kanji meant "way of
moving", and it came from Kabuki theater. Someone who is "otokomae" is someone
who could articulately be described as "moving like in the loveliest way a man
possibly could". In other words, "He is an ambassador for men, and he
represents their best features."

So, if there were a scale, an otokomae woman would be a woman who made the
eloquent movements of the most 'gracefully', in the theatrical sense, moving
man, so she could be anywhere from 1 to 5. She would, however, likely have a
sturdy frame. As for men, they would likely be somewhere above 7, because they
would have to be at least a little masculine to embody this. They would
probably move with strong determination and flexibility.

Now, I want to send you a personal note about your sentence, and the nature of
the Japanese language. You posted extremely unusual Japanese. As you may
already know, the meaning of a Japanese sentence cannot be taken without the
whole sentence. Likewise, in adult writing, the meaning of a sentence often
cannot be divined until each sentence (including the last) has been read. It's
often necessary to hold language in your head as you continue reading, so that
the secret of the earlier sentences may occur to you at a later time, and it
sometimes takes a very long time to get to that point.

If you really did get your unusual Japanese from a book (probably a novel),
then you definitely should include _more_ context.

Can you write in either: the two surrounding sentences, the entire paragraph,
or the first and last sentence in the paragraph? Because if you don't, there's
no way it can be understood.

The translation of the sentence you posted is like this, in English:

"If someone wanted to move towards gaining conversation (one of these people
apparently being a woman, and the other being a man [the direction of the
desire is likely revealed in another sentence]), the woman's burden of
suffering through the brash statement, "You're a manly woman," could be
reduced [by something that will be revealed in another sentence]."

So, sitting here, a speaker of Native Japanese and Native English, with my two
exclusively Native-Japanese speaking friends (who are studying for their
nursing exams), we're thoroughly perplexed by the sentence. We don't know what
it means.
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2011-07-26T14:00:00.213
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