They said I should learn through their new education system the minute I was ready to move up. I had to learn about free expressiveness, my right and privilege in Athenian society. I noticed a small child throw a sandwich at her female teacher's back the minute she had turned to face the board. That his didn't happen with the male teachers was put down to human nature, which they insisted on.
Back in the infantry stage we never would have subjected our teachers to such a pelting, out of respect for the rank of lieutenant. The gender didn't matter so much as the authority, moreover the knowledge of what happened to disrespectful recruits, which had been demonstrated to us only once as that is all it took to instil fear deeply in our memories. And yet the Athenians made themselves out to be experts in human nature and to their minds we -- the humans -- could only develop incrementally. They said respect was not a given but had to be earned.
Despite the fact that there were other examples of 'human nature' existing in the same historical time and place, they refused to be moved by these. Instead, they made themselves out to be intellectual experts on the kind of human nature that covers all time and places. And once again, they insisted that women had to earn their place, incrementally.
Back in the infantry stage we never would have subjected our teachers to such a pelting, out of respect for the rank of lieutenant. The gender didn't matter so much as the authority, moreover the knowledge of what happened to disrespectful recruits, which had been demonstrated to us only once as that is all it took to instil fear deeply in our memories. And yet the Athenians made themselves out to be experts in human nature and to their minds we -- the humans -- could only develop incrementally. They said respect was not a given but had to be earned.
Despite the fact that there were other examples of 'human nature' existing in the same historical time and place, they refused to be moved by these. Instead, they made themselves out to be intellectual experts on the kind of human nature that covers all time and places. And once again, they insisted that women had to earn their place, incrementally.
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