Rumor has it that somewhere outside of the Empire of Lies is the Island of Sanity. There, little girls learn about the difference between girls and boys the hour they are told where babies come from. Here, where you and I live, it is not so.
The experience of young athletic ladies misled by modern lies into thinking themselves equal in strength to young men is not rare.
Not once, but twice, ladies of my acquaintance told me stories of their shock and surprise the hour they discovered the casually overpowering strength of boys.
That these ladies could be so deeply deceived on a point so obvious was my own first exposure to what is now commonly called gaslighting, that is, lies that contradict the obvious.
The first chapter of one of my novels has a scene where my heroine makes this selfsame discovery her teen years, when the physical differences first are seen. It is the first thing, not the last, a girl should learn about womanhood when she enters that estate.
This column from Snapper’s Domain (a realm of gaming, music, religion and wooden weapons) touches on a similar theme and point. Reprinted here with the author’s permission. The words below are his.
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