the problem
Women in contemporary North America are constantly bombarded with messages about who they should be, how they should dress, what they should do, and how they should live their lives. We are so used to these constant messages that we often forget they exist. These messages are delivered in various media. They are in magazines. They are in television programs. They are in movies. They are in the books we read and the music we listen to. Girls learn from an early age that they need to be popular to be successful, and to be popular, they must be pretty. If you're pretty, the lesson goes, you can have "the world at your fingertips" (Schwemm, 3).
"She was slender and tall, with long, dark blond hair and delicate features. She wore a close-fitting black top with long sleeves and a scooped neck and a very short skirt. [...] Even more than her legs, though, he noticed her eyes. They were big and dark, and her lashes were about a foot long" (Schwemm, 19-20)
Every different message carries with it an expectation. The lives of North American women today are made up of conflicting expectations. Women internalize all these expectations, whether they notice or not. Taken as a whole, these expectations make up what I will call the "vernacular woman." The vernacular woman is troubled, divided, and made up of conflicting opinions about femininity and what it means to be female. That's the problem.