How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Burned any bras lately har har twinkle twinkle A pretty girl like you doesn't need to be liberated twinkle har Don't listen to those hysterical bitches twinkle twinkle twinkle. (3.5.1)
As in earlier sections featuring Ewing and the Car Manufacturer from Leeds, this passage satirizes men's supposedly "sociable" dismissals of the feminist movement. By assuming that attractive women couldn't possibly have feminist values, these characters reiterate the stereotype that feminism is only for women who can't get men.
Quote #5
Why does she keep having these dreams about Whileaway?
While-away. While. A. Way. To While away the time. That means it's just a pastime. If she tells Cal about it, he'll say she's nattering again; worse still, it would sound pretty silly; you can't expect a man to listen to everything (as everybody's Mother said). (6.1.2-3)
Although Jeannine disapproves of Janet initially, and is horrified by Whileaway, over the course of the novel, her feelings change. Her dreams about Whileaway are a clue that she is starting to develop a feminist consciousness (however faint it might still be).
Quote #6
Jeannine, who sometimes believes in astrology, in palmistry, in occult signs, who knows that certain things are fated or not fated, knows that men—in spite of everything—have no contact with or understanding of the insides of things. That's a realm that's denied them. Women's magic, women's intuition rule here, the subtle deftness forbidden to the clumsier sex. (6.1.3)
Here we have one of the novel's subtle refutations of gender essentialism. Until the last chapters of the novel, Jeannine is a flaky and naïve character—not a person we'd be wise to trust about things like "women's magic" and "women's intuition." The omniscient narrator's satirical tone suggests that all of this stuff is hogwash, and about as sensible as the rest of Jeannine's moony fantasies.