What was the sign in Farewell to Manazar to Jeanne of how to cross what she called "intangible barriers"?

In Chapter 20: "A Double Impulse," Jeanne is only in the seventh grade when she realizes that her budding sexuality and femininity are a tool for crossing invisible barriers. By wearing a sparkly uniform with a short skirt and strutting in parades while twirling a baton, Jeanne experiences appreciation and acceptance from the Boy Scouts and their fathers. This is, significantly, after Jeanne has been rejected from participating in Girl Scouts on the basis of...

In Chapter 20: "A Double Impulse," Jeanne is only in the seventh grade when she realizes that her budding sexuality and femininity are a tool for crossing invisible barriers. By wearing a sparkly uniform with a short skirt and strutting in parades while twirling a baton, Jeanne experiences appreciation and acceptance from the Boy Scouts and their fathers. This is, significantly, after Jeanne has been rejected from participating in Girl Scouts on the basis of her race. She interprets the marching and the warm reception it receives as "the first sure sign of how certain intangible barriers might be crossed."

Looking back on these events as an adult with a mature understanding and the benefit of retrospect, Jeanne explains that her femininity could be a powerful took for breaking free from limitations placed on her due to being Japanese.

However, at the same time, Jeanne notes that this use of her physical charms is just another way of effacing herself as a person, as an individual: "this is usually just another form of invisibility," she explains. What she means is that, even though she is conspicuously marching in a parade in an attention-grabbing outfit, she's simultaneously invisible: the men watching her see her sparkles and her sexiness, but not her face or her personality. Acceptance, then, comes at a heavy price.