A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

But what if you're not one of the prettier flowers?

I found a clip on X (Twitter, it’ll always be Twitter to me) of Dustin Hoffman discussing the rather lengthy artistic journey and then his “transformation” into Dorothy, the character on which so much of the plot turns in the 1982 blockbuster comedy “Tootsie.”

Beyond the premise of the film (Hoffman, a frustrated young actor, dresses as a woman to get a Soap Opera role, where the expected — and unexpected — hilarity ensues) and the sheer heft of the cast (Hoffman, Terri Garr, Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Jessica Lange, Dabney Coleman, Sydney Pollack, Charles Durning) there was an undeniable recognition of the issues “Dorothy” faced as a woman who was not young or attractive, navigating a society that didn’t just value, but worshipped both youth and beauty.

It was part of the set-up that made the film so funny (with a few moments of non-cloying pathos), but in real life, as almost every woman knows, it’s not so amusing.

Being female in the generation I was raised in meant the better you looked, and the “nicer” you were, the more you were liked.

I was cute enough in my youth, but that wasn’t good enough. I railed inwardly against my genetics that I wasn’t tall, thin, and blonde, the ideal of my day.

That’s where all the prizes were awarded, and I knew it.