In ‘The Woman Warrior,’ Maxine Hong Kingston wrote of her childhood struggle to sound like an American girl: “Normal Chinese women’s voices are strong and bossy. We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine. Apparently, we whispered even more softly than the Americans. Once a year the teachers referred my sister and me to speech therapy, but our voices would straighten out, unpredictably normal, for the therapists. Some of us gave up, shook our heads, and said nothing, not a word. Some of us would not even shake our heads. At times shaking my head ‘no’ is more self-assertion than I can manage. Most of us eventually found some voice, however faltering. We invented an American-feminine speaking personality.
—Brownmiller, Susan. Femininity. Linden Press, New York. 1984. (pg. 114-115)
(Source: gynocraticgrrl)
Notes
-
homeinabottle likes this
-
jrahrah likes this
-
twerkjabi reblogged this from navigatethestream
-
bankuei likes this
-
jellobatch reblogged this from navigatethestream
-
drfitzmonster reblogged this from navigatethestream
-
navigatethestream reblogged this from wocsurvivalkit
-
fouronesix likes this
-
so-treu likes this
-
wocsurvivalkit reblogged this from gynocraticgrrl
-
kmofreak reblogged this from gynocraticgrrl
-
baumhugger reblogged this from gynocraticgrrl
-
gynocraticgrrl posted this