Calladita Te Miras Mas Bonita/You Look Prettier When You’re Quiet

Kristina Flour Unsplash

A popular and often used idiom as we raise our girls into adulthood. It is repeated often, and the intonation of when it is uttered is either a veiled threat to quiet down “or else”, or a veiled compliment reminder to continue to stay quiet. It conflates the notion of physical beauty and expression — creating the internal, eternal conflict of having voice or being beautiful.