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SD Response #2

Look back at the definition of the "narcissistic personality" on p. 119. Does Douglas’s essay exhibit traits of this personality? Justify your answer with a close reading of one or two sentences from any part of the essay.

Sample answer

Christopher Lasch’s definition of narcissism had all to do with how a woman thought others perceived her and little to do about how that woman perceived herself. This obsession with admiration, according to Lasch, allowed a woman to become skilled at "managing impressions" (119: something Douglas manages in her essay.

"Cybil Shepherd in her brattiest, na-na-na-poo-poo voice as she swirls her blond hair in my face. Since I have to be restrained, physically, from hatcheting my television set to death whenever this ad appears…it is amazing to think it actually sells hair dye." In this passage, Douglas gives us the impression that she is furious over the advertisers hawking of the hair dye, but what she really is furious over is the model - a beautiful, young actress, not a wrinkled, old essayist. Shepherd‚s voice is "brattiest" and "na-na-poo-poo", while her hair is only "blond". By twice-describing Shepherd’s voice -- and even mentioning it at all -- and by sparing the hair adjectives, we see Douglas trying to manage the impression of being the fed-up consumer, rather than the I-want-that-too viewer.

Everyone is more confident, more comfortable, and more likely to feel others perceive them in a better light when the others offer no competition. We see this in Douglas’s passage on Billie Jean King (127). Douglas says King is "one of my heroes". The athletic, feministic, unbeautiful Billie Jean becomes a hero while the very feminine, beautiful Cybil Shepherd becomes the target of her rage. The impression Douglas doesn’t want us to have is obvious; it is not the message, it is the messenger.

Douglas manages to give the reader the impression that her anger is at the ad guys, in reality it is anger directed at herself not measuring up, and being perceived as not measuring up. Did she offer any reviews of ads for feminine beauty products directed at the geriatric generation? No.