from Through Parisian Eyes by Melinda Camber Porter:
Delphine Seyrig made her name by
incarnating, as she puts it, “a sophisticated, inaccessible woman, a
dream who is not the true ideal because she doesn’t do the washing up.”
Outside her spacious living room one can
the laughter and chatter of the women who participate in her feminist
activities. She launches into an explanation of feminism which, when she
discovered it, was a catalyst that gave her the confidence to express
all the she had intuited and bottled up.
“It starts off when you’re a little
girl. You are almost born angry. You notice the difference between
little boys and girls. At school, you learn that everything has been
created and invented by men. I knew I had to smile, be mischievous and
pretty. People had a low opinion of my intelligence. When I tried to
speak about things that were important to me I was told it was nonsense.
So I became superficial in order to please. I saw a choice before me,
although I couldn’t formulate it: to rebel right from the start, or to
say to myself, ‘In order to survive, I must become what others want me
to be. Otherwise I will be crushed. It’s evident that people aren’t
interested in me, so to be recognized I will exist for others.
In myself I am nothing.’ I chose the latter course and succeeded in
giving the image that men wanted, always with a nagging feeling of
disquiet.”
Read the full excerpt from Through Parisian Eye
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