The more I was treated as a woman, the more woman I became. A adapted willy-nilly. If I was assumed to be incompetent at reversing cars, or opening bottles, oddly incompetent I found myself becoming. If a case was thought too heavy for me, inexplicably I found it so myself.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on how societal expectations and treatment shape one's identity and abilities.
Jan Morris explores the impact of societal perceptions on individual identity, particularly through the lens of gender. She suggests that when treated in a certain way, individuals may unconsciously adapt to those expectations, limiting their potential. This quote highlights how external perceptions can significantly influence self-identity and capabilities, especially regarding traditional gender roles.
In practice
In a discussion on gender roles, this quote can emphasize the impact of societal expectations on personal identity.
The language itself, whether you speak it or not, whether you love it or hate it, is like some bewitchment or seduction from the past, drifting across the country down the centuries, subtly affecting the nations sensibilities even when its meaning is forgotten.
To me gender is not physical at all, but is altogether insubstantial. It is soul, perhaps, it is talent, it is taste, it is environment, it is how one feels, it is light and shade, it is inner music.
That beautiful mild woman for whose sake There's many a one shall find out all heartache On finding that her voice is sweet and low Replied, 'To be born a woman is to know- Although they do not talk of it at school - That we must labor to be beautiful.
Like it or not, women are always subject to criticism if they show too much feeling in public.
Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.
Everything that explains the world has in fact explained a world that does not exist, a world in which men are at the center of the human enterprise and women are at the margin "helping' them. Such a world does not exist - never has.
Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms!
Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.
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