yeah, that's why teenagers of breeding age act the same way toward one another during courtship in every culture, with only minor variances (such as clothing style and language used).

"Never start a fight but always finish one"
Captain Sheridan - Babylon 5

Backing down from a fight is a bad thing.

"essentially what you're doing is asserting that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive. "

You have seen the love scenes between Dominque and Roarke in The Fountainhead, and between Dagny and pretty much anybody in Atlas Shrugged? 'weak and passive' describes their reaction to the men they want.
Firebrands until they're dominated, then weak and passive. And happy. Probably just like Rand.

Nothing is born with automatic knowledge.
You want to see instinct, go watch two teenagers court.

If it weren't universal to all cultures, I'd agree with you.

On the contrary; I'm very aware of the way language shapes our understanding of society, which is why I oppose political correctness; it's an artificial attempt to manipulate the language, and thereby the thinking and emotional reflexes of the society, with the goal of "guiding" the society's "progress".

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?…The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." - Syme

I had a confrontation the other night with a drunken woman who I was trying to keep from destroying inventory. I was polite; formal. She asked me, "Why you talkin' to me that way?" It later occurred to me that I'd encountered a similar communication gulf with lots of people lately. It increasingly seems to me that the class of people who shop there are devolving into grunting cavemen. And it's my opinion that it's the result of and the purpose of political correctness.

True, but is that instinct, or is it culture? Personally, I think it's the latter.

Something I've noticed is that people who complain about "political correctness" generally tend to be unaware of or dismissive about the way language shapes our understanding of society, our perceptions of culture, and even the way we think of and treat one another.

When you say that a man is "feminine" simply because he backed down from a confrontation, essentially what you're doing is asserting that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive. Also, you're saying that backing down from a fight is a bad thing, when really it's not.

"James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning."
~ Francisco to James Taggart, Atlas Shrugged

That's probably because they likely don't consider themselves feminists. ;)