[W]e should stop bothering about what is
feminine…. Standards of masculinity and
femininity are artificial standards….
Differences between the two sexes
certainly exist, but we shall never be able to
discover what they are until we have first
developed our potentialities as human
beings. Paradoxical as it may sound, we shall
find out about these differences only if we
forget about them.
Horney, 1935, in Paris,
in Frager and Fadiman, 1994, p. 238
Gives us some historical context:
She is said to be at home only in the realm of eros.
Spiritual matters are alien to her innermost being, and
she is at odds with cultural trends... She therefore
is…a second-rate being…. [She is] prevented from
real accomplishment by the deplorable, bloody
tragedies of menstruation and childbirth. And so
every man silently thanks his God, just as the pious
Jew does in his prayers, that he was not created a
woman.
Horney, 1967, p. 114