Shaping up Absurd by Nora Ephron

“Shaping up Absurd”, by Nora Ephron, is about Nora’s experience during adolescence of waiting for and then acquiring breasts. To her, breasts were the ultimate sign of femininity, and not having them as a teenager cast her into the “androgynous” category. I identified with the scene where Diana came back before seventh grade was about to start, and Nora sees that Diana has matured into “a young woman”. “My best friend has betrayed me. She has gone ahead without me and done it. She has shaped up.” (p. 19) I remember the feeling of being in middle school and feeling as if everyone knew something I didn’t. Everyone seemed to know what you were supposed to do in a relationship, and what becoming older was all about. When my closest friends’ bodies matured as well, I figured that all the secrets of becoming older had been revealed to them. I felt alone in this sense, and clueless, but hopeful that if I waited long enough, I would be bestowed with womanliness as well. I also identified with the scene where Nora mimics the actions of mature women to feel less childish and androgynous. “All you had to do was make a great fuss over having enough nickels for the Kotex machine and walk around clutching your stomach and moaning for three to five days a month about The Curse and you could convince anybody.”(p. 17) This instance reminded me of a time when I was overly conscious about the way people sat. Women sat with their legs crossed. I crossed my right leg over my left knee. I felt instantly womanlier.

I found the excerpt from the article to be confusing at first. I had to reread that section to understand that the context changed. Here she was describing her first “competitive remark” about breast size, when she was just describing how her first boyfriend had felt her up. (p. 21)

I found the author’s style to be very colloquial and relatable. In the first line, she acknowledges the readers presence by saying, “I have to begin with a few words about androgyny.” (p. 16) Then she goes on to tell her story, and after she has, she ends the story by addressing the reader again, “You probably think I am crazy to go on like this: Here I have set out to write a confession that is meant to hit you with the shock of recognition and instead you are sitting there thinking I am thoroughly warped.” (p. 22) Part of her craft is that she frames her story with an intimate conversation with the reader, which makes her voice and her character ever more present.