Elle

“There were girls at every dining-room table performing being good-mannered, so why couldn’t she? There were girls in bedrooms performing desire and submission. There were girls in kitchens performing being hostesses. There were girls in parks performing being coy, delicate flowers or shrinking violets. Was there a girl anywhere in the city who wasn’t performing?”
― Heather O'Neill, When We Lost Our Heads

“But oh how dreadful it is, cooking, I mean. That oven—Christian puts things in and says: ‘Now you take it out in about half an hour.’ I don’t dare tell him how terrified I am, and at the end of half an hour I summon up all my courage and open the oven, and there is that awful hot blast hitting one in the face. I don’t wonder people sometimes put their heads in and leave them out of sheer misery. Oh, dear, and I wish you could have seen the Hoover running away with me, it suddenly took the bit between its teeth and made for the lift shaft. How I shrieked—Christian only just rescued me in time. I think housework is far more tiring and frightening than hunting is, no comparison, and yet after hunting we had eggs for tea and were made to rest for hours, but after housework people expect one to go on just as if nothing special had happened.” She sighed.”
― Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love