I Enjoy Being A Girl, Sort Of

Variations on what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a woman. Prologue: A high school student named Rebecca tells the story of a friend of hers who changed over the course of four years from a preppy alternative kid to a member of the Latina clique to a ghetto girl to a Clueless girl (a girl who models herself after the girls in the film and TV show Clueless). It's hard to imagine many boys changing style this quickly, this willfully, this many times. It's very girl, transforming yourself head to toe every year just because you can, and because you're expected to be that obsessed with how you look. (6 minutes) Fatty Suit: David Sedaris with a parable of the pressures on modern women, and how one woman — his sister — responded. David's father thought it was very important that his daughters be thin. David's sister Amy responded by wearing a costume that made her look like she'd gained eighty pounds, horrifying her father. (15 minutes) How To Be A Man: Writer Sarah Miller attends a class on how to walk and talk and act like a man. It's not easy. None of the women in the class are able to cross the gender line convincingly. (9 minutes) Strength In Numbers: Ira with "The Hens," a group of nine middle-aged women who've known each other since girlhood. They play recordings of their recent three-day road trip from Chicago to a casino in a cotton field in Mississippi. (13 minutes) Taking Sisterhood One Step Further: Ira with Elizabeth Joseph, who is in a polygamous marriage with eight wives and one husband. She says polygamy is the ultimate feminist lifestyle. Ms. Joseph and her sister-wives are all modern working women. (10 minutes).