Making Up Representation: The Risks of Femininity

Abstract

For a woman to paint herself red or is, I admit, a smaller crime than to say one thing and think another; it is also something less innocent than to disguise herself or to go masquerading, if she does not pretend to pass for what she seems to be, but only thinks of concealing her personality and of remaining unknown; it is an endeavor to deceive the eye, to wish to appear outwardly what she is not; it is a kind of white lie. We should judge of a woman without taking into account her shoes and head-dress, and, almost as we measure a fish, from head to tail.'