Shrinking Violets and Caspar Milquetoasts: Shyness, Power, and Intimacy in the United States, 1950-1995

The American Social Experience Series

by Patricia McDaniel

Since World War II Americans’ attitudes towards shyness have changed. The women’s movement and the sexual revolution raised questions about communication, self-expression, intimacy, and personality, leading to new concerns about shyness. At the same time, the growth of psychotherapy and the mental health industry brought shyness to the attention of professionals who began to regard it as an illness in need of a cure. But what is shyness? How is it related to gender, race, and class identities? And what does its stigmatization say about our culture?
In Shrinking Violets and Caspar Milquetoasts , Patricia McDaniel tells the story of shyness. Using popular self-help books and magazine articles she shows how prevailing attitudes toward shyness frequently work to disempower women. She draws on evidence as diverse as 1950s views of shyness as a womanly virtue to contemporary views of shyness as a barrier to intimacy to highlight how cultural standards governing shyness reproduce and maintain power differences between and among women and men.

215 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Examines how Americans' views of shyness have evolved throughout recent decades, particularly in relation to gender. The 1950s view of shyness as a womanly virtue differs greatly from modern views. As a woman who is frequently described as "painfully shy" I am all too aware of the negative impact this personality trait has on my life. In fact, the mental health industry considers my shyness a "disorder" commonly known as Social Anxiety Disorder or Social Phobia. I struggle all the time with the idea that what I see as just my personality, others view as so unusual that I must have a disorder. Really, what's so bad about being shy?
It is true that my Social Anxiety, or extreme shyness, influences my personal, professional, and educational growth. What does the stigma of being shy or socially anxious say about our culture? Why are aggressive and dominating personalities valued so much more?