All language subtitles for Growing Up Female (1971) english subs soft_3_text

She was created from the substance

of fairy tales, and magazines.

History books and television.

Romance comics, and bridal shops.

The American woman.

Society teaches us that when
we reach the age of 21

we are free to live our lives
as we choose.

But, by the time a woman
comes of age,

what choices does she really have?

By the time a girl is four,
she already

has learned many of the rules
of being female.

Girls have become little mothers.

Cooking, and cleaning
for their doll children.

While the boys are out
earning a living,

busily building tunnels, and bridges,

with their toy trucks.

- Look, it raises.

- Have you noticed that
the girls and boys

play differently in your classroom?

- Well, I think there is definitely
a different pattern of play.

I think the girls tend to be,
play the dramatic role

a little bit more than the boy.

The girls tend to fritter
their time away.

They sort of float from one thing
to another.

Their attention span
seems to be shorter.

I think the boys tend to group more

with blocks or the sand play.

I think that probably there's more

conversation going on too.

Boys like trucks and cars
and very seldom will you

find the boys at the arts
and crafts table.

I don't know why, it's probably that,

that's looks like all nonsense

when they could be doing something.

- Here we go!

- I'm gonna invite you
over my house to play.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

The girls will usually be
in the doll corner.

Playing their mother roles
and boys will protect the girls

if another boy is pushing her around,
he'll protect her.

The girls, I think I see less
closeness with girls

in the relationships,
the friendships.

If a girl comes to school
with a new haircut

or a new pair of shoes,
the other girls tend to be jealous

and they'll sort of shy away
from her and maybe

say ugly words or something
showing her that

we don't like you because
you have new shoes

and we don't have new shoes
or something like that.

This is true.
I think of females, period.

They have these little ways
about them that are,

nasty, I really think
they're nasty, I really do.

- What are the eleven year old girls
like who you teach?

- Well generally speaking
the eleventh year

is a year of change for the girls.

They start the year looking
and acting very very kiddish.

They are flat chested,
all knees and elbows,

they like physical activity,

tag is still an acceptable game
to play.

They hate boys, they aren't
very interested in clothes

and the idea of combing their hair

during the day would never
occur to them.

Then they begin their change,

by the time the years up
they are interested

in what they wear to school,

and they start carrying combs.

But the big thing is the boys.

They discover that boys
are a pretty interesting

species and they set out
to investigate them.

? I love him, I love him, I love him ?

? And when he goes I'll follow,
I'll follow, I'll follow. ?

? I fill follow him, ?

? Follow him wherever he may go. ?

? There isn't an ocean too deep ?

? Or mountains so high
it can keep me away ?

- What would you say that
Janelle is like at this age?

- To me she is very vigorous.

- Oh at this age, well more what,
tomboyish.

- Really, she's always trying

to get boys to like her.

She gave Lynn and I
a whole bunch of gimmicks

to get boys to like ya.

She said,
"Well when you see a boy you like,"

"go up to him and drop your books
and say oh my,"

"and then the boy will turn around
and say oh hi,"

"and then you say oh my, my books"

"and then he'll pick em up for ya."

And then the boy will like ya
and all that.

I think the boy will laugh at you
more than pick em up.

? I will follow him ?

? Follow him wherever he may go ?

? There isn't an ocean too deep ?

? Or mountains so high it
can keep me away ?

- Yeah I feel like a little girl
should wear dresses.

And I think that this is probably the first year
that she's really ever owned blue jeans.

I don't know I guess
I'm a little old fashioned

I think little girls
should wear dresses

and look like little girls.

- Right. How often
does she wear dresses?

- Well, not very often.

- How often would you like her to?

- Well I think probably a couple times
a week wouldn't hurt.

- Yeah.

She wants to see me
in a dress once in a while.

But if I wear jeans all the time,

she's always sayin though
I think my mother try's

to make me look like a slob.

She's always complaining that
she buys me brand new dresses

and says I never wear em.

Well I guess they make ya
look better.

I can't do as much in a dress,

cause now that good weathers comin
and everything

we like to play outside
and play tag and kickball

and stuff like that. You can't do them-

? Away from my love ?

? And where he goes I'll follow,
I'll follow, I'll follow ?

? I know I'll always love him,
I love him, I love him ?

? And when he goes I'll follow,
I'll follow, I'll follow ?

- Do you have a boyfriend?

- No.

- Is there somebody you like?

- Mmhmm.

- Does he know it?

- I don't think so.

- He doesn't know it,
you gonna tell him?

- I don't know.

- Do you play with boys very much?

- Yes.

- Do they mind?

- No.

- Do you think that boys,
play differently than girls?

- Yes.

- How so?

- Well the boys are rougher
and they play more boy sports

and the girls, well they like to play
the boy sports but

the boys usually don't let them.

- Oh, how come?

- Because some boys,
they just get together

and they don't like the girls.

They don't want them to play

cause they think
they can't play very well.

- Are the boys really stronger
than the girls?

- Mmm. Some of them.

- How about you?

Do you think your as strong
as some of the boys?

- Mmhm.

- Can you run as fast?

- Yes.

- Even faster?

- Yes.

- Yeah that's what I thought.

Do you think that when you get older
you'll like to go out with boys?

- Yes.

- What do you think that'll be like?

- I think it'll be fun.

- Do you do that now?

- No.

- Would you ever think,
you might go out with a boy you like?

- Now? No.

- Have you ever that that you might
like to be boy rather than a girl?

- Yes.

- How come?

- Cause I think the boys have more
fun cause they get

to wear slacks all the time and
they get to play all the boys sports.

They have a little league
and all this and the girls don't.

- I wondered what sort of gifts
Janelle has asked for recently?

- Well a football, kickball,
monkey swing.

- Do you think that's unusual?

- Well I thought so, for a girl.

- How come?

- Why I thought girls played
with girl things.

- Do you think it's important
for women to be feminine?

- Yes I think it is something
the world needs.

- What would you say feminine is?

- This is hard to describe because
I think that to a man

it's more instinct than maybe
that women feel like it is.

A mother with a house and children

is one of the parts
of being feminine.

- I know this boy that,
he called up one day.

And you know, was real bashful
about it and everything.

This was just last October
and he finally said,

"I love ya" and everything
and hung up the phone real quick.

Well I used to kinda like him
for a friend,

but then when I thought I'd like him
I started hating him.

Well, I don't know why
I started hating him

cause now that he liked me, ya know,

how was I supposed to act
toward him?

So I decided to start hating him.

- Janelle enjoys
the strength of her body,

she likes, really likes other girls.

Janelle is twelve.

During the next few years

something will happen
to the American girl.

"Wedding Blue Bells" by Laura Nyro

- There he is, sixteen years old.

She attends a vocational high school.

Terry how old do you think
you'll be when you get married?

- Between 19 and 20.

- Is that the oldest or the youngest?

- That's the oldest.

- What do you think marriage
will be like?

- Well I hope it turns out to be,

just as beautiful as it can be.

Will probably do everything together.

That's what marriage is for anyway,
more freedom.

- Can you tell me about
your boyfriend Paul?

- Well, he's different
from anybody else

that I've met so far.

- How's this?

- He's the type of person that
you can't really run over.

He's taught me quite a few things
about life.

And he just shows more interest

and plus most girls
love attention anyway,

and he shows that too.

- Would you say he's like
the leader in your relationship?

- Yeah. It's more or less
like a marriage.

Where the man is supposed
to be dominant.

And that's that I think
he strives for.

- What's that?

- Just to be dominant.

- Terry would you say you spend
a lot of time, making yourself attractive?

- Well I guess I would.

As far as clothes are concerned
I do a lot for that.

I spend more time
on looking attractive

for someone else
more than I would myself.

- Do you like clothes?

- I love clothes.

- Do you spend very much money
on them?

- The majority of it,

and the rest of it on records

and just anything to have fun with.

- Is it important to your boyfriend
that you be well dressed?

- That's the way he prefers it
I guess.

- Terry what do you think
of the other girls you know?

- They just, I don't know.

You couldn't really consider them
to be friends.

- How come?

I don't know,
a lot of people are two faced.

- You mean,
you can't trust other girls?

- Not really.

You can trust the men
more than you can the girls.

- Do you like your hometown?

- It's okay but I'd prefer to live
in a larger city

because where I do live,

it's so small that people
like to gossip a lot.

There's nothing to do
no place to go.

So I'd prefer to live
in a larger city

and as soon as I graduate
I do plan to move.

- What do you think of school, Terry?

- I think it's,
I mean school's that important.

Well cosmetology, it's okay.

And most of the teachers are,
I like Misses Coats,

the cosmetology teacher
but other than that,

the school I don't care for.

- Yeah they're restricted
to anything.

- Yeah, just about rules
aren't everything.

- At the vocational high school,

Terry is learning
to be a cosmetologist.

A caretaker of feminine beauty.

Other girls take horses
and secretarial skills,

book keeping, and business machines.

But more than school work is taught
in Terry's classroom.

The school also teaches her exactly
how to be a woman.

- I think the best way to teach
is through example.

Because through the example
of the adults

around the students
they learn the most

and in the most effective manner.

- Discuss do you feel it's important
for women to be feminine?

- Very. Very much so.

I think that every women
should be feminine.

I think that every man wants
a women to be feminine.

Recognizing a man's masculinity

and making him feel more masculine.

This is femininity.

When I think about a women
being feminine,

the way that she can prove it,

she can have a child
and she can cook and she can sew.

- In your field of cosmetology,
how is it you help women be feminine?

- By (mumbles) of course.

By the use of hair pieces, etcetera.

By means of teaching them how

to use their cosmetics properly.

What you try to do
in the field of cosmetology

is make a women more feminine,
more beautiful,

and as a result
her husband looks upon her.

And making him feel that he is
the only one that can fulfill

any needs that she might have
whether it be opening a door,

or providing for her,
loving her, caring about her.

She's caring about him.

When she comes to the beauty shop
she's not caring about how

she's gonna look for
Jane Doe down the street,

she's caring, or should be caring

how she looks for her husband.

I go to the beauty shop ever week.

And I go for one reason,

when I come home my husband says,
"Gee you look great".

This is what cosmetology is all about.

- I really and truly enjoy
being a woman.

I wouldn't want to be a man
for anything.

I think being a woman
is the greatest thing

that we could possibly do.

Being feminine,
being attractive to men.

- Now Cindy Jones is operating
a key punch now.

So what does it take to operate this?

Now it requires a relatively simple
type of logic

and after she becomes
very proficient at this

she doesn't even have to think
about it.

She can go ahead and key punchin,
and be miles away, doesn't matter.

It requires a very sedate
type of individual.

Somebody that's high strung
I don't believe

could stand at that, in one position,

and key punch day in, day out.

- Would you say that the females
are more adept at this?

- Females are definitely
more adept at key punch.

For anything beyond key punch
I would prefer a male student.

Primarily, industry takes men
for this type.

Primary reason, a woman's gonna work
just a couple years

and then bingo she's gonna get married
and have a family.

They like to use this as sort
of a stop gap or fill in until

her husband,
till she meets her husband.

The very nature of a woman
is such that makes her

wishing to get married.

- How are you Theresa?

- Okay.

- What's on your mind today?

- Every young women
in Terry's high school

is required to take
a six week course

from her guidance counselor
on the subject of marriage.

- What do you think makes
a good marriage?

- Well I think it should be based
around love and I'd like

to know exactly what keeps
your family together?

- Well there are a good many things
that keep families together.

Terry some of the things that
I feel that young people forget

It's part of the qualities
that make up a good wife

and make up a good husband.

Some of the qualities
that make up a good wife

we might cover,
would you like to hear them?

Alright. I would say a young wife
should be neat, and clean,

and attractive as possible.

With her own habits
as well as the habits of

taking care of her own
apartment or house.

She should be kind and courteous.

She should have a pleasant attitude
about life in general.

And this particular aspect
is most important to young women

and especially if you're going
to think of marriage.

Because you're going
to carry the children.

And with you being in the limelight
for nine months

and the prenatal care of the baby,

you should be concerned about people.

The husband should make
major decisions,

the wife should assist maybe
if he asks for advice

but the major decisions are his.

The wife should be
at least understanding

whatever his decision is,
she should go along with it.

Also I believe the wife should not expect
the husband to do any housework.

Like wash dishes, clean the house.

Do any of this menial task
and leave time for his

educational status
for his later life.

Now I believe this is so important
because a young man now

has to be working
in a competitive field.

And this competition
is so great that if he is not striving

constantly for perfection
in his area then he will not

really be a successful man
in later years.

You would want your husband
to truly be a successful man.

So therefore I think
all these menial tasks

should be taken care of by the woman.

And when I say menial I mean
doing the laundry,

taking care of the washing,
the baby's diapers and so forth.

That doesn't mean he doesn't
have time to play and know the children.

But this is not his primary task.

He can be a father but
not a playmate to his children.

A father's a little different image
all together.

The wife has a
very different obligation

to take care of his belongings,
his meals.

And for you do get married
you should know

something about food preparation.

And in this way you are helping him

to be a healthy, happy,
successful man.

"I shall be released"
By Bob Dylan

- I prefer to live in California,

I've been thinking about that
a long time

haven't changed my mind.

I figure the farther away I get,
maybe the better I'd be.

- Women are always living
in a dream world,

they're attempting to escape
from the humdrum reality

of America to exotic lands.

I remember one time we handled
a tooty fruity super duper

double bubble soft drink.

It was set in a Tahitian setting.

There were dancing girls and fellas
climbing coconut trees.

The girls just eat it up.

The women bought this product two
to one over the men.

- Do you appeal to women
with just that one image?

- No we went across the board.

Specifically we had a problem
with the non-materialist.

The hippie, the flower child,
the chicky who carried around

lipstick in her stache bad.

We created what I think
is a new group,

it's the hip woman.

- If you could be doing anything
right now what would it be?

- Right now?

I'd probably be in bed with Dave.

- How about as far
as a long term thing,

if you didn't have to work or anything
what would you do?

- What would I be doing?

I'd be like traveling
across the country.

- What were the important things
to you when you were in high school?

- Oh popularity,
and having the most boyfriends,

and getting honors like cheerleading,

homecoming queen, things like that.

- What'd you think
of the other girls then?

- Well, you know
it was more competitive,

I wanted to be better than they were
and have nicer clothes

and more boyfriends
and more people like me.

- How do you think
you're different now?

- Well material things are nice,
but they're not that important to me.

- To sell the women
you make them insecure.

- Miss Blake you may be the
fashion editor

but you've got bad breath.

- My class choose fluoride toothpaste
instead of a whitener

and got 32 percent fewer boyfriends.

- Come, come dear.

- Oh! I'm not even dressed yet,
how bout my hair?

- What are you so nervous about?

- He said he's taking me
someplace special.

- Antiperspirant Secret,
for a woman's extra feelings.

- For even all the
wispy females scream.

Beautiful chickies dressed
in Harris originals

who had a fantastic hairstyles.

- So gentle to your hair, loving care.

It's the quietest smartest hair color
you could use.

- Any Misses America watching this
in the screen will run

right out and buy those products.

Then you have em exactly
where you want em.

- What do you spend your money on?

- I spend it on albums,
and I spend it on clothes,

I spend it on presents
for my friends.

- You like to shop?

- Oh I love to.

- When you go into a store you like,
what's it like for you?

- The first impulse is to run around
and see everything all at once.

And then decide
what you want to see first.

- You really enjoy that though?

- Yes.

- What sort of things won't you buy?

- I don't know, it's really funny,

lots of times I just go up
to housewares

which is really a weird thing

because I hardly ever
buy anything there.

But that's usually
the first place I go.

- What's housewares?

- Well you know like pots and pans,
dishes and china.

Things to furnish your home.

- These are small town girls,
away from home for the first time.

Emerald money in their pocket.
They think they're free.

- Do you think you wanna get married?

- It really depends because so far
I can only judge

marriage by my friends
and their relationships

with their wives or husbands

and it seems to me that
the institution of marriage

is a farce.

- Do you want to have children?

- Yes. Even if I don't get married
I'll have children.

- Actually they're secretaries,

they call their mother
two or three times a day,

they got a lot of hang ups.

- Tammy how far away from you
do your parents live?

- Around 15 miles.

- Do you ever see em?

- Oh I see em quite a bit.

Ya know once or twice a week.

- Tammy who's a woman you admire?

- One of the women I most admire
is Elizabeth Taylor.

- How come?

- Well that's mostly because,

I guess it's called undying loyalty

to whatever she believes in.

- You don't think she's too tied
to men?

- No. I think that men are probably
the most important thing in her life

but that doesn't mean
that she's too tied to them.

- The thing we like to sell them
is freedom.

- Is it important to you to be free?

- Yes.

- Very important?

- It's probably the most important
thing to me right now

because without freedom
you're just tied down

and everything you know.

- The illusion of freedom
is transitory.

Shove it in a pipe like all the rest.

Soon as she's gonna be married,

then you sell
on the wife mother image.

- What are you gonna do with your life?

- You know that's something
where I'm at a thing right now

where I really don't know
and if I try to think about it

I really get uptight because I think,

there's not a place to go.

If I'm not gonna do anything in life

then there really isn't any future,

what's the sense staying around?

- At twenty one,
Tammy feels she is free.

She feels she can make
her own decisions about her life

and can do whatever she wishes.

But can she?

- Tammy.

- Yes.

- Before you take
the timecard out back

am I supposed to call back
the (mumbles) to this guy?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Jessica Jones is also twenty one.

Yet life been has quite different
for her than for Tammy.

She comes from a large poor family.

In her senior year, she was awarded
a full college scholarship.

But had to refuse it in order
to support her young daughter.

Is this Jessica's first job?

- No, she's had three
or four previous jobs.

Coming to this area
she's worked as a secretary

to the director of admissions
in a small college.

- Why do you think she changed
from secretarial work to factory work?

- I would guess probably
not only because it's easier

to get a job perhaps
as a young negro person

but also that the money
is substantially better.

- My mother she worked two jobs

and my father worked two jobs.

They gave to us what they could.

I was never really lonesome

until my mother and father separated.

She was the type of woman,

she was independent
but her kids were her life.

Now my father, he was uh-

I don't think when he
and mom got married

that they really loved each other.

Mom was pregnant with me so,
you know,

she sort of put the gun to it.

Dad liked to have fun,
he didn't want mom to work.

His pride ya know.

But mom was the kind of person,

she could do twice as much by herself

than she could with a man.

After I got into high school
I think I was going into

the tenth grade when
I became pregnant with my daughter.

I began to think that
I should take life more seriously

were as before my mother had given me
everything that I wanted

or needed and it was time for me
to get out on my own,

begin to think about life
and act on it.

- Did you feel differently
about school?

- Yes. My girlfriends.

Well once I got married
I could no longer

spend all the time with them,
giggling about other guys.

Because I had my own husband
to take care of

and I sort of became a loner.

- How old were you then?

- I was 16 when I had my daughter
and 17 when I got married.

The reason why I left Nebraska

is because he got himself
into some trouble.

He got himself put into jail.

And when I got up here
they had sent him to prison

for three years,
two years good behavior.

He felt like the world
owed him everything.

I should take care of him while
he had a good time.

If his friends called,

they were the most important
thing to him.

I didn't really want
to take care of him

I wanted to be able to say,

"This is my husband
and he gets out there

"and he works for me
and he takes care of us."

But sooner or later drugs
got a hold of him.

He was no good at all.

He'd come in and stumble
or he'd come in

with tears in his eyes,
his clothes ripped.

I don't know what it was
he was messing with.

And then when I saw him fall
on his knees,

this guy isn't for me
because I need somebody just-

I can only be as strong
as the man that's there.

I'm going with a man right now.

He's 16 years older than I am.

Well he works in janitory you know,
cleans up.

He's not quite proud of himself
as something like that.

Ever since I come up here
he was the first man that I met.

From the start
I liked his personality.

It was six months later,
it took him to as me out.

But to had I approached him first,

this would removed some
of his manhood I think, his pride.

I think pride is more important
to a man than it is to a women.

Especially the negro man.

- Why's that?

- Well I think that over the years
the negro man has been known as boy.

And he's not a boy he's a man.

And in the negro family the man,

it's been hard for him
to take care of his family

and he would often leave home
out of despair.

And the woman,
it's been easier for her to get a job

and take care of her family.

And we women have assumed
the male role partly.

And I think that it is important
for the negro woman

to be aware that she's a woman

and let her man know this too.

- As a negro woman then,
how do you have to act?

- I think we have to work harder
at being feminine.

It doesn't bother me wearing pants
during the week.

Because there's really no one at work
that I'm trying to impress.

But when I'm around Carl,

I like to wear what he likes
for me to wear.

I think a woman
should not be so worried

about what she likes for clothing.

If there's a man
that she really cares about

she should go all out to please him.

I've gone out with a few guys

from where I work and they try.

They just don't believe that a girl
my age is now dating and going home.

Sometimes I'm quite insulted,

I cannot stand to be howled at.

See a guy that's gonna growl
at you or make passes at you

makes you feel like a tramp.

I think they're totally interested
in just sleeping with me.

That's about all.

They're not out to find out
what you're all about,

what you like or anything like that.

They're out to conquest.

You know, well I had her last night.

I'm going after this one tonight.

That's all they're after.

Well see they're some women
there that are older than me,

and they're let's say
out on their last limb.

And they want all the attention
they can get.

They let a guy know
from the very start, here I am.

Not that I think
I'm any more superior,

I'll probably go through the same
thing once I get up in that age.

That scares me more than I think.

Anything else besides
the thought of dying.

I think that the women it's harder

for her to grow alone than the man.

He has his friends
and things like that

but the woman she's in competition
with the younger woman.

Her beauty's she's losing.

And I myself it scares me.

A women is always in competition
with another woman.

I notice when my mother
and father got a divorce,

the women that were
really closest to my mother

when he was married shied away
from her once she got a divorce.

They might have thought that
mom was looking for another man

and mighty slick come after theirs.

I just seem to sense competition
and I think it's a good thing

because it keeps you on guard
and keeps you aware of him

and his needs and things like that.

- I've been married 12 years,

I have three children, all girls.

I am 44 years old and a housewife.

"The Girl That I Marry"
By Howard Keel

I can't just concentrate on dusting,
I mean if I did,

I'd probably get a lot more
dusting done but that seems

like a very useless kind of thought.

Picking up after people
is probably my biggest complaint

as a housewife and mother.

That just gets to be the biggest-

That if I know,
if there were a numbers count

made of the time
I have exploded it would all

mainly be centered around
that one thing.

Cause I find it very discouraging

to spend the whole damn day
cleaning up

and then have everybody come in
and drop and then I take off.

Doesn't do any good,
doesn't change anything but I explode.

I think I won't have an ulcer
that way.

I grew up in a generation
that was so marriage oriented.

Brain washed

That was the thing to do.

Actually I think it was a
bad sort of situation but,

at the time
didn't think anything about it.

Practically everybody I knew
was marriage oriented.

That was the main thrust
of all your thinking.

The idea of going to college

if I could manage either
by scholarship or hook or crook

or some other way get there I'd go.

Then I'd get married.

Those were kind of the two things

as a growing up teenager
I think I was most concerned with.

From the time when
your children are very young,

you're with women
who's children are the same ages

and they're all doing walking,
talking,

the competition bit
that goes on between mothers.

That probably can get to be
the most boring thing

after five years of sitting
around with women.

That is one thing that
really gets ya after a while.

I think there's just nothing more dull
than to sit around

and listen to a bunch of women
talk about their children.

It's just, to get out and get away
from your children

for a while becomes
an absolute prime necessity.

Because there is no relief
from their constancy

upon you when you are
the only one there.

You can't even say, one of then has
to have a drink,

well ask daddy.

You get so that
you think you're gonna scream

if you can't talk to an adult.

I think most women,
married women with children

speak as mothers.

Only infrequently do they speak
even as wives.

My feelings about myself,

maybe I kind of dominated
I mean about me as an individual

are really dominated by me
as a wife and me as a mother.

They really do.

I think possibly the one place

that they're not is when I work.

Because I think that's really
the only place that I am me.

And I'm not really a mother or a wife.

We've been told that this
is how our mothers did it

and we saw, even if we weren't told

that this was how life was
for a woman

and I think that's generally kind
of the basic attitudes

that you grow up with
and that you really don't

think too terribly much about it.

I don't consider myself
to be dominated,

I always considered these things

kind of because I wanted to.

That may be fallacious.

Right at this moment
I would be very upset

if I got pregnant again, say.

Perhaps the biggest reason
is the fact is that

I don't want that tied down
to the home sorts of things.

And I really do have very definite
feelings about what my position

to my children is and
the reason I gave up working

is because I felt it was important

and I still feel it's important
that I be home.

Which is why I don't work.

And be the controlling force,
more or less,

in my children's lives
and not somebody else.

But I don't want to have to be
tied down that tightly again.

If I had my life to live
over again right now.

If I hadn't married,
and were just getting married today

would I live it the way
I'm living it now?

Oh boy, I doubt it.

- What has become
of the American woman?

If unquestioning little girls
accept offering of dolls

and makeup kits and young tomboys
find that rough housing

and being strong are not part
of grown up woman's world.

If teenagers lose their daydreams
of being doctors

or explorers, setting their
future sights on marriage.

If young women learn to compete
with each other for husbands,

the one acceptable form of love,
security, and fulfillment.

If mothers attend to
everyone else's needs but their own.

Becoming everyone else's person,
but their own.

And if all women live up
to someone else's image of woman,

seeking approval
rather than self definition,

learning to scorn their sex
and so themselves.

What has become
of the American woman?

Where is she in all this?
How do we find her?

There are no easy villains,
there and many victims.

Some women today
are beginning to find new ways.

They are putting aside
competitiveness and fear

to share their common feelings

and change their common condition.

Through the lives of Janelle, Terry,

Tammy, Jessica, and Mrs. Russel,

a view of the American woman emerges.

Her potential robbed from her

by constraints and false values.

Her future uncertain.
Her identity unknown.

English subtitles from Kanopy. Resynch
and clean up by Jon @rarefilmm, June 2026.