This post continues the previous discussion, which explored some of the motivations and general thoughts upon which The Littlest Dragon and the Princess is based. I wanted to tell a story about a world where hard work, equality and imagination can overcome the difficulties that life can bring.
Our cultural awareness in the western nations especially the United State has significantly evolved over the last hundred years. The social equality of peoples of different ethic backgrounds and gender is beginning to become the same in most Western countries but as it does there are some questions that lurk in the back of my mind.
The international suffrage movement had little success during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Most developed countries move to give women the vote took place during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Since 1950 many of the third world countries joined this movement. My 21st Century mind finds it’s difficult to understand how anyone could truly believe a hundred years ago that women shouldn’t vote. Many proposed that if you gave women the right to vote it would put so much pressure on them that they would face mental break down. (Please!) A common belief was that since women were emotional creatures they were incapable of making sound political decisions. (My eyes are rolling.)
The issue is that as children we tend to grow and accept the beliefs of our parents and other primary caregivers. We are taught ideas and concepts of the past, some of which are valid, some are not. Slowly social change takes place and we look back on ideas like women don’t have the capacity to make wise political decisions as provincial now but back then it was accepted common wisdom.
This brings me to the point of this post.
If the common man in the 19th Century couldn’t see that he was in error due to his ignorance about women’s capacity to vote, what are those beliefs and opinions that I hold today, that tomorrow’s enlightenment will make me shrink with chagrin from those former unsophisticated viewpoints?