demureness

“The demureness of what was much more of a quote-unquote feminine expectation is sort of out the window here,” she said.

The film is rife with tropes and stereotypes: Li’s character is a model of demureness and subservience who serves as a mouthpiece for problematic beliefs, at one point noting that her “irregular choice” to read makes her an anomaly in her insular Chinese community.

I first met Deneen in South Bend, Ind., last winter, where he lives close to the seminary-like Notre Dame campus in a neighborhood of exemplary Midwestern demureness.

And here she closed her harangue: a long one for her, and uttered with the demureness of a Quakeress.

The meaning of that term has shifted some throughout time, though it denotes politeness and a certain demureness or docility.