As someone who has never fit in with other girls from a young age, it was easy to see what I should’ve been. Greer’s description of the stereotypical woman brings flashbacks of dressing up as Tigger among Cinderella’s, Belle’s, and fairies during Halloween. “In the mysterious dimension where the body meets the soul the stereotype is born and has her being. She is more body than soul, more soul than mind. To her belongs all that is beautiful, even the very word beauty itself. All that exists is to beautify her. The sun shines only to burnish her skin and gild her hair; the sea strives to bathe her; flowers die gladly so that her skin may luxuriate in their essence.” (63) I was quite the tomboy growing up; I wore tattered overalls and old sneakers while other girls skipped in their skirts. I would climb trees and catch crickets instead of …show more content…
Bones leave behind no genital or hormonal distinction between male and female, so how do archaeologists tell which gender a skeleton once was? “The little girls look so pretty doing their eurhythmics, and the boys so manly when they chin themselves. The same assumptions extend into our suppositions about male and female skeletons: a small-handed skeleton ought to be female, small feet are feminine too, but the fact remains that either sex may exhibit disproportion.” (36) Hearing this unfair assumption coming from someone else eased the body issues that I’ve had for nearly as far as my memory goes. I’m a fairly athletic person, and have been so since childhood. With softball, gymnastics, dance, track, volleyball, basketball, and swimming, my shoulders have widened and my muscles have developed to an extent that may seem masculine to many. The fact that I’m genetically thick-boned does not help. While I will probably never be happy with the fact that I can’t be petite framed, Greer’s words are liberating to read as a break from our society’s impossible