Girl Women and Femininity Quotes

Whew, that's a lot of smiling. Notice that girls are expected to smile to everyone regardless of whether they like them or not. Think that's a relic of a different time and place? Nope: girls are still expected to smile more.

We only get mentions about men a few times in the text, so it's important to see what role they play. Here, it looks like part of being a girl is acting a certain way so that men don't judge you—or think they can expect something from you.

Okay, gross. But also, after all of Mom's lessons about how to clean and mend everything, she tells Girl that even she is part of the things that need to be kept spotless. Spit shine those knees!