"Because I have work to care about, it is possible that I may be less difficult to get along with than other women when the double chins start to form"
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Steinem slips the knife in with a smile: the line is funny because it uses the language of self-deprecation to expose how relentlessly women are trained to monitor their own “market value.” “Double chins” stands in for the whole economy of aging-as-failure, a body problem framed as a social problem. The joke lands because it’s not really about vanity; it’s about the bargain society offers women: stay pleasing, stay easy, stay young-looking, and you’ll be rewarded with tolerance.
The subtext is sharper. “Less difficult to get along with” is a phrase women hear as a warning label, usually attached to anyone who won’t make herself smaller. Steinem flips it: if she becomes “easier,” it won’t be because she has learned the right feminine temperament, but because she has something else to anchor her identity - work that matters. That’s the quiet flex. Purpose is offered as a kind of armor against the cultural panic that tells women their faces are their futures.
Context matters: Steinem’s activism sits inside second-wave feminism’s insistence that “the personal is political,” including beauty standards and aging. The line also shows her strategic rhetorical gift: she doesn’t scold; she seduces you into recognizing the trap. By framing it as a possibility rather than a manifesto, she lets the audience laugh first, then notice what they’ve been laughing at: the absurd expectation that women should become more agreeable as they become less decorative.
The subtext is sharper. “Less difficult to get along with” is a phrase women hear as a warning label, usually attached to anyone who won’t make herself smaller. Steinem flips it: if she becomes “easier,” it won’t be because she has learned the right feminine temperament, but because she has something else to anchor her identity - work that matters. That’s the quiet flex. Purpose is offered as a kind of armor against the cultural panic that tells women their faces are their futures.
Context matters: Steinem’s activism sits inside second-wave feminism’s insistence that “the personal is political,” including beauty standards and aging. The line also shows her strategic rhetorical gift: she doesn’t scold; she seduces you into recognizing the trap. By framing it as a possibility rather than a manifesto, she lets the audience laugh first, then notice what they’ve been laughing at: the absurd expectation that women should become more agreeable as they become less decorative.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work |
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