How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was moody, ill-at-ease, unhappy, and hard to be with. I didn't relish my breakfast. I spent my whole day combing my hair and putting on make-up. Other girls practiced with the shot-put and compared archery scores, but I—indifferent to javelin and crossbow, positively repelled by horticulture and ice hockey—all I did was
dress for The Man
smile for The Man
talk wittily to The Man
sympathize with The Man
flatter The Man
understand The Man
defer to The Man
entertain The Man
keep The Man
live for The Man. (3.1.2)
Through characters like Joanna, Jeannine, and Laura, The Female Man suggests that women need to take responsibility for sacrificing their own power. By choosing to live for The Man rather than for herself, Joanna contributes to her own subservience.
Quote #2
She learned, wearing her rimless glasses, that the world is full of intelligent, attractive, talented women who manage to combine careers with their primary responsibilities as wives and mothers and whose husbands beat them. (4.5.1)
As a young woman in a man's world, Laura Rose Wilding is desperate for female role models to look up to. But even the examples she finds of strong, successful women reiterate to her that women will always be vulnerable to men. Like Joanna's experience with the bookstore clerk who scolds her for purchasing The Subjection of Women, Laura's perspective suggests that, even if women acquire social status and economic independence, it will not be enough to shift the power relations between them and men.
Quote #3
Finding The Man. Keeping The Man. Not scaring The Man, building up The Man, pleasing The Man, interesting The Man, following The Man, soothing The Man, flattering The Man, deferring to The Man, changing your judgment for The Man, changing your decisions for The Man, polishing floors for The Man, being perpetually conscious of your appearance for The Man, being romantic for The Man, hinting to The Man, losing yourself in The Man. (4.11.1)
Like Joanna, Laura realizes that living for The Man will mean losing her own self. While the novel suggests that women do have some choice in these matters, it also argues that social conditioning is extremely hard to resist.