Femininity (32 page)

Susan Brownmiller is an author and feminist activist, best known for her groundbreaking
book
Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape
, which helped modernize attitudes toward rape and placed it in the broader context
of pervasive gender oppression. In 1995, the New York Public Library selected
Against Our Will
as one of the one hundred most important books of the twentieth century.

F
OR EACH CHAPTER I
have cited some general reference works, if I used them, followed by specific citations
in the order that they appear in my text.

Carmine D. Clemente,
Anatomy: A Regional Atlas of the Human Body,
Baltimore and Munich: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1981.

Madge Garland,
The Changing Face of Beauty,
New York: M. Barrows, 1957.

Kenneth Clark’s theories of the perfect body are in Kenneth Clark,
The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form,
New York: Pantheon, 1956.

Quote from Byron is from
Don Juan
(1819–24).

The story of Mary Richardson and the Rokeby Venus is in Midge Mackenzie, ed.,
Shoulder to Shoulder,
New York: Knopf, 1975.

Miss America demonstration statement of 1968 is in Robin Morgan, ed.,
Sisterhood Is Powerful,
New York: Vintage, 1970.

Lea is the heroine in Colette,
The Last of Chiri
(Paris, 1926).

Description of adolescent maturation is from Herant Katchadourian,
The Biology of Adolescence,
San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1977.

Estrogenic properties in Constance R. Martin,
Textbook of Endocrine Physiology,
Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1976.

Growth and sexual maturation in J.M. Tanner,
Growth at Adolescence,
Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1973; J.M. Tanner, “Growing Up,”
Scientific American,
Sept. 1973. Tanner observes that sexual maturation puts a fast brake on growth in
the female. He does not propose that the resulting dimorphism in size has a survival
advantage for the reproducing mother and her offspring. A female reproductive theory
of growth and size may be found in Lila Leibowitz, “Perspectives on the
Evolution of Sex Differences” in Rayna R. Reiter, ed.,
Toward an Anthropology of Women,
New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975.

Infertility at the start of menstruation is reported in Ashley Montagu,
Sex, Men and Society,
New York: Tower Publications, 1969.

Comparative height statistics for American males and females, and percentile groupings,
from National Center for Health Statistics, 1976.

World’s Tallest Woman:
New York Times,
Aug. 7, 1978, D-9.

Lady Di postage stamp:
New York Times,
July 26, 1981, Arts & Leisure.

Comparative international height statistics: Howard V. Meredith, “Worldwide Somatic
Comparisons Among Contemporary Human Groups of Adult Females,”
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
(Vol. 34, No. 1), Jan. 1971; Phyllis B. Eveleth and J.M. Tanner,
Worldwide Variations in Human Growth,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Sexual maturation of baboons: Cynthia Moss,
Portraits in the Wild: Behavior Studies of East African Mammals,
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975; of gorillas: George Schaller,
The Year of the Gorilla,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964; of gibbons: J. R. Napier and P. H. Napier,
A
Handbook of Living Primates,
London and New York: Academic Press, 1967.

Dimorphism and monogamy: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy,
The Woman That Never Evolved,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981; Robert D. Martin and Robert M. May, “Outward
Signs of Breeding,”
Nature
(Vol. 293), Sept. 1981.

Hyenas: Moss,
op. cit.
Walpole’s comment on Mary Wollstonecraft: Eleanor Flexner,
Mary Wollstonecraft.
New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972.

Species with larger females: Katherine Ralls, “Mammals in Which Females Are Larger
than Males,”
Quarterly
Review
of Biology
(Vol. 51, No. 2), June 1976; Lorus J. and Margery J. Milne,
The Mating Instinct,
Boston: Little, Brown, 1954; Dean Amadon, “The Significance of Sexual Differences
in Size Among Birds,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
(Vol. 103, No. 4), Aug. 1959; Caroline M. Earhart and Ned K. Johnson, “Size Dimorphism
and Food Habits of North American Owls,”
The Condor
(Vol. 72, No. 3), July 1970; Karl E. Lagler, John E. Bardach and Robert R. Miller,
Ichthyology,
New York: John Wiley, 1962; James A. Oliver,
The Natural History of North American Amphibians and Reptiles,
Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1955.

Hrdy on bullying in Hrdy,
op. cit.

Ring-tailed lemurs: Alison Jolly,
Lemur Behavior, A Madagascar Field Study,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Female body fat content and ovulation, pregnancy and milk production: Jack H. Wilmore,
“The Female Athlete,”
Journal of School Health,
April 1977; Rose E. Frisch, Roger Revelle and Sole Cook, “Components of Weight at
Menarche and the Initiation of the Adolescent Growth Spurt in Girls: Estimated Total
Water, Lean Body Weight and Fat,”
Human Biology
(Vol. 45, No. 3) Sept. 1973; Rose E. Frisch and Janet W. McArthur, “Menstrual Cycles:
Fatness as a Determinant of Minimum
Weight for Height Necessary for Their Maintenance or Onset,”
Science
(Vol. 185, No. 4155) Sept. 13, 1974.

Rudofsky’s theory and Chinese footbinding: Bernard Rudofsky,
The Kimono Mind,
New York: Doubleday, 1965; Bernard Rudofsky,
Are Clothes Modern?,
Chicago: Paul Theobald, 1947. For an extensive discussion of footbinding see Andrea
Dworkin,
Woman Hating,
New York: Dutton, 1974.

Corsets: Helene E. Roberts, “The Exquisite Slave: The Role of Clothes in the Making
of the Victorian Woman,” Signs:
Journal of Women in Culture and Society
(Vol. 2, No. 3), 1977; Cecil Willett Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington,
Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century,
London: Faber and Faber, 1970;——,
The History
o
f Underclothes,
London: M. Joseph, 1951; Norah Waugh,
Corsets and Crinolines,
London: Batsford, 1954; William Barry Lord,
The Corset and the Crinoline,
London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1868; M.D.C. Crawford and Elizabeth A. Guernsey,
The History of Corsets in Pictures,
New York: Fairchild Publications, 1951.

Anne Hollander’s observations may be found in Anne Hollander,
Seeing Through Clothes,
New York: Viking Press, 1978.

For the feminist-hygienic approach to dress reform in the late nineteenth century
see Abba Louisa Goold Woolson, ed., Dress
Reform: a series of lectures delivered in Boston on dress as it affects the health
of women,
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1874; Mary E. Tillotson,
Progress vs Fashion, an essay on the sanitary & social influences of woman’s dress,
Vineland, N.J., 1873; and Mary A. Livermore,
What Shall We Do with Our Daughters?,
Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1883. An extensive discussion of the physical-culture and
esthetic dance cults of the late nineteenth century, and their relationship to corsetry
and dress reform, may be found in Elizabeth Kendall,
Where She Danced,
New York: Knopf, 1979.

The War Industries Board announcement, preserved by Rudofsky, may be found in L.M.
Vincent,
Competing with the Sylph,
Kansas City and New York: Andrews and McMeel, Inc., 1979.

For lingerie of the Twenties and Thirties see Stella Blum, ed., Everyday
Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs,
New York: Dover Publications, 1981; Christina Probert, ed.,
Lingerie in Vogue Since 1910,
New York: Abbeville Press, 1981; and Crawford and Guernsey,
op. cit.

“She has no thights” is a frequent comment in Emile Zola,
Nana
(Paris, 1880).

For a photographic essay detailing the variety in women’s breasts see Daphna Ayalah
and Isaac J. Weinstock,
Breasts: Women Speak About Their Breasts and Their Lives,
New York: Summit Books, 1979.

For an essay on the evolutionary origins of bipedalism see C. Owen Lovejoy, “The Origin
of Man,”
Science
(Vol. 211, No. 4480), Jan. 23, 1981.

Medical evidence that large breasts present a strain to the spine, chest and back:
Christine E. Haycock, M.D., Gail Shierman, Ph.D., and Joan Gillette, C.A.T., “The
Female Athlete—Does Her Anatomy Pose
Problems?,” presented at the 19
^th
AMA Conference on the Medical Aspects of Sports, June 1977, published in the proceedings
of the conference; Christine E. Haycock, M.D., “Breast Problems—Jogging and Other
Sports,”
Nautilus Magazine
(Vol. 3, No. 4), Aug.-Sept. 1981; Christine E. Haycock, “Breast Support and Protection
in the Female Athlete,” American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation
and Dance, Symposium Papers, Vol. I, Book 2, 1978; Gena Vandestienne, “Breast Reduction—When
Less Is More,”
Ms.,
Feb. 1982; Author’s Interview with Ronald S. Levandusky, M.D., Jan. 11, 1982; Author’s
Interview with Peter I. Pressman, M.D., Jan. 12, 1982; Author’s Interview with Richard
M. Bachrach, D.O., Jan. 13, 1982.

Trends in plastic surgery for breasts from the Levandusky interview.

Desmond Morris’s speculation on the evolution of the full breast may be found in Desmond
Morris,
The Naked Ape,
McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Florenz Ziegfeld’s feminine ideal, with measurements, is in Marjorie Farnsworth,
The Ziegfeld Follies,
New York: Bonanza Books, 1956.

Measurements of Lillian Russell and Anna Held, and newspaper interviews with them
regarding tight-lacing, from the Robinson Locke Collection, Vol. 264, New York Public
Library at Lincoln Center. A discussion of the rumors regarding Held’s ribs, and a
denial, may be found in Charles Higham,
Ziegfeld,
Chicago: Regnery, 1972.

An analysis of the competitive pressures on ballerinas to keep thin, and a short history
of the anorectic ideal, including Twiggy, may be found in L.M. Vincent,
Competing With the Sylph, op. cit.

Differences in basal metabolism of males and females, and in caloric consumption,
is reported in M.P. Vessey, “Gender Differences in the Epidemiology of Non-neurological
Disease” in Ounsted and Taylor, eds.,
Gender Differences: Their Ontogeny and Significance,
Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1972.

A discussion of anorexia and striving for perfection may be found in Steven Levenkron,
Treating and Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa,
New York: Scribner’s, 1982. A feminist perspective on the ideal body may be found
in Kim Chernin,
The Obsession: Reflections On the Tyranny of Slenderness,
New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

Wendy Cooper,
Hair: Sex, Society, Symbolism,
New York: Stein and Day, 1971.

Smithsonian Institution,
Hair,
an illustrated catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt
Museum, New York City, June 10 to Aug. 17, 1980.

Genetics of baldness: Curt Stern,
Principles of Human Genetics,
San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1973; James B. Hamilton, “Age, Sex, and Genetic Factors
in the Regulation of Hair Growth in Man: A Comparison of Caucasian and Japanese Populations,”
in Montagna and Ellis, eds.,
The Biology of Hair Growth,
New York: Academic Press, 1958; Owen
Edwards and Arthur Rook, “Androgen-dependent Cutaneous Syndromes” in Arthur Rook and
John Slavin, eds., Recent
Advances in Dermatology, No.
5, Edinburgh, London, New York: Churchill Livingston, 1980. Baldness is troubling
to neo-Darwinians: See Ernst Caspari, “Sexual Selection in Human Evolution,” in Bernard
Campbell, ed.,
Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man,
Chicago: Aldine, 1972.

Samson’s long hair: Judges 16; Absalom’s long hair: II Samuel 14, 18.

Long-haired Greeks: Homer,
Iliad,
Book II.

Short-haired Romans: Suetonius,
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars,
Julius Caesar, XLV.

Saint Paul on hair: I Corinthians 11.

Saint Chrysostom on hair:
Homilies on First Corinthians,
Homily 26.

Philip Stubbes on hair: Philip Stubbes,
Anatomy of Abuses,
Part II (London, 1583).

William Prynne on hair: William Prynne,
Histrio-Mastix
(London, 1633).

Milton on hair: John Milton,
Paradise Lost,
Book IV (1667).

Bruno Bettelheim’s interpretation of the Rapunzel story may be found in Bruno Bettelheim,
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales,
New York: Knopf, 1976.

Liane de Pougy’s observations are in Liane de Pougy,
My Blue Notebooks,
New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

Irene Castle on short hair: Irene Castle Treman, “I Bobbed My Hair and Then—,”
Ladies’ Home Journal,
Oct. 1921.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s talk to the working women was reported in
The New York Times,
March 15, 1916, 22:7. The
Times
ran its satire the following day:
The New York Times,
March 16, 1916, 13:3. The story of Marshall Field firing an employee for short hair
appeared in
The New York Times,
Aug. 10, 1921, 13:1; the
Times
editorial appeared three days later:
The New York Times,
Aug. 13, 1921, 8:4.
The Nation’s
editorial comment was published in the issue of Aug. 24, 1921.

Mary Garden and Mary Pickford on hair length:
Pictorial Review,
April 1927. Further information on Pickford from Robert Windeler,
Sweetheart, The Story of Mary Pickford,
New York: Praeger, 1974.

Marjorie Rosen’s observations on Hollywood blondes may be found in Marjorie Rosen,
Popcorn Venus,
New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973.