FemininityBrownmiller addresses the set of societal strictures, esthetic ideals, and assigned "characteristics" which governs the lives of half of America, and which goes by the name of Femininity. Biological femaleness, writes Brownmiller, is the smallest part of the elusive quality we know as femininity, which "always demands more. It must constantly reassure its audience by a willing demonstration of difference, even when one does not exist in nature." Body and gesture, skin and hair, conversation and clothing; the way a woman speaks, the way she sits, the way she smells: all are ruled by a code that requires enhancement, containment, exaggeration, or even denial of woman's nature. Whether an individual woman finds in femininity the luxuriant pursuit of a positive identity or an implacable standard she can never hope to meet, femininity remains, at bottom, "a powerful esthetic based upon a recognition of powerlessness." |
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aggression ambition American androgen appearance Athlete became behavior Bernard Rudofsky biological blonde body hair boys brassiere breasts century clothes color competitive corset cosmetics costume cultural Desmond Morris difference dimorphic dress ducking stool emotional erotic esthetic estrogen eyes face fashion feel female body feminine feminine ideal feminist function gender genetic gestures girl glamour grace hairless heels hips hormonal human knees labor lady legs lipstick London long hair look makeup male Mary Mary Pickford masculine menstruation mother motherhood movement muscle myth nails nature never nurturance one's pants Philip Stubbes physical popular Press primate pubic hair reproductive Rokeby Venus role romantic sexual sexually dimorphic shape shave Shelley Winters shoe short skin skirt social speech stockings style Susan Susan Brownmiller sweat symbol testosterone thighs tion tradition unfeminine Venus Veronica Lake voice walk wear woman women wore York young