Summary

The author’s tenth suggestion focuses on questions surrounding appearances and body image. The author asks Ijeawele to encourage her daughter to play sports and be active. She also suggests that Ijeawele let her daughter make her own choices about her appearance, such as whether she wants to wear makeup or not. According to the author, Ijeawele must make it especially clear that her daughter should never feel ashamed for liking “traditionally female” (43) activities, such as fashion or makeup, if she happens to like them. The author also recommends that Ijeawele completely delink her daughter’s appearance from her morality, such that her daughter understands that wearing a short skirt does not make you immoral.

In the author’s eleventh suggestion, she encourages Ijeawele to question “biology” when it is used as a supposedly natural explanation for a social norm. As the author...