quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

possession and a power that didn’t need
to flaunt itself. Though shyness per se
was unacceptable, reserve was a mark
of good breeding.
But with the advent of the Culture of
Personality, the value of formality
began to crumble, for women and men
alike. Instead of paying ceremonial
calls on women and making serious declarations
of intention, men were now
expected to launch verbally sophisticated
courtships in which they threw
women “a line” of elaborate flirtatiousness.
Men who were too quiet around
women risked being thought gay; as a
popular 1926 sex guide observed, “homosexuals
are invariably timid, shy, retiring.”
Women, too, were expected to
walk a fine line between propriety and
boldness. If they responded too shyly to
romantic overtures, they were sometimes
called “frigid.”
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