Hello there! Talking about the essay by Susan Sontag the other day in class, I was confused by the last sentence of the following paragraph:
To preen for a woman can never be just a pleasure. It is also a duty. It is her work. If a woman does real work and even if she has clambered up to a leading position in politics, law, medicine, business or whatever, she is always under pressure to confess that she still works at being attractive. But in so far as she is keeping up as one of the fair sex, she brings under suspicion her very capacity to be objective, professional, authoritative, thoughtful. Damned if they do-women are; damned if they don’t.
Please shed some light on the last sentence. Thanks
by General-Hospital4073
3 Comments
A woman trying to be successful still has to try to be pretty, but if she tries to be pretty she undermines her professionalism.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t is a common, easily googled expression. It means that the person will be considered to be in the wrong or criticised no matter what they do.
It essentially means that if a successful woman doesn’t dress up/wear makeup/look pretty, people say, “Yeah, but have you seen her? Can’t take her seriously when she looks like that.” And if she does dress up/wear makeup/look pretty, people say, “She’s such a vain bimbo. Can’t take her seriously when she looks like that.” Basically, no winning.