p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"England and France believed in "proper education"./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"From the nine in the morning, to three in the afternoon, we had lessons with a tutor, Mr Collins. Mr Collins was an old man, with white hair and a bald patch in the middle./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He always wore rumpled suits that had gone out of fashion decades ago. His teeth were stained yellow, and his mouth was puckered, like he'd just sucked on a lemon./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He didn't believe in educating females, and would proclaim so loudly every time me or Newfoundland entered the schoolroom./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He also didn't believe in "mollycoddling". If one of us got a question wrong then we were swiftly reprimanded by a smack on the wrist from his ruler, which he carried everywhere./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I got many, many smacks. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"My worst subject - though I was equally terrible at nearly all of them - was definitely maths. He refused to teach me the basics, instead he taught me the same as everyone else. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"The problem was that everyone else had had many lessons before me, and were learning long division and how to calculate area, while I was still unsure how to count!/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"India complained to him that I had no idea what they were doing, and his response was that "it's not my fault that the stupid female can't understand basic concepts"./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He always blamed my mistakes on the fact that I was a girl, and that my weak, feminine mind had no hope at ever understanding any of the complex theories that men picked up with ease./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I didn't understand what the fact that I was a girl had to do with my ability to learn. Father had never said anything like that! He always said that I was very intelligent! /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"***********************/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Why does Mr Collins always say that I'm stupid because I'm a girl?" I asked Newfoundland one night as we got ready for bed./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"She turned down her sheets, and then said, "In England, it's not the same as back in our own lands."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I scoffed, "I know that!"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"She shook her head, "Not just in language and culture, but also in beliefs."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"Culture and Language are very important to English people. England refuses to let me speak any language but his, and makes me obey stupid rules that make no sense./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Like how England makes us go to church to talk to that guy who died?"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Well, yes. But also no. I'm talking about what the English people believe about gender."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""What's gender?" I asked. I always loved learning new words from Newfoundland. She made sure to explain them in a way I could understand, instead of scoffing and calling me stupid like Mr Collins does./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Gender is... it's the way people believe men and women act."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Like how back home the men used to hunt, and the women would gather?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"If I'd said something like that in front of England, or Mr Collins, I would've been slapped. I'm not allowed to refer to Father's land as my home. England is my home now, no matter how much I hate it./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Yes. In England, they believe that women are inferior, stupid creatures whose only purpose is to get married, and that men are naturally stronger and better."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""That makes no sense."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""But it's what the English believe, so we must go along with it."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"That was the answer to a lot of my questions. I hate going along with England's stupid beliefs. Like how, in England, I'm not allowed to wear dresses that show off my ankles, or pants./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"English people are stupid./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"From the nine in the morning, to three in the afternoon, we had lessons with a tutor, Mr Collins. Mr Collins was an old man, with white hair and a bald patch in the middle./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He always wore rumpled suits that had gone out of fashion decades ago. His teeth were stained yellow, and his mouth was puckered, like he'd just sucked on a lemon./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He didn't believe in educating females, and would proclaim so loudly every time me or Newfoundland entered the schoolroom./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He also didn't believe in "mollycoddling". If one of us got a question wrong then we were swiftly reprimanded by a smack on the wrist from his ruler, which he carried everywhere./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I got many, many smacks. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"My worst subject - though I was equally terrible at nearly all of them - was definitely maths. He refused to teach me the basics, instead he taught me the same as everyone else. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"The problem was that everyone else had had many lessons before me, and were learning long division and how to calculate area, while I was still unsure how to count!/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"India complained to him that I had no idea what they were doing, and his response was that "it's not my fault that the stupid female can't understand basic concepts"./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"He always blamed my mistakes on the fact that I was a girl, and that my weak, feminine mind had no hope at ever understanding any of the complex theories that men picked up with ease./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I didn't understand what the fact that I was a girl had to do with my ability to learn. Father had never said anything like that! He always said that I was very intelligent! /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"***********************/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Why does Mr Collins always say that I'm stupid because I'm a girl?" I asked Newfoundland one night as we got ready for bed./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"She turned down her sheets, and then said, "In England, it's not the same as back in our own lands."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"I scoffed, "I know that!"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"She shook her head, "Not just in language and culture, but also in beliefs."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"Culture and Language are very important to English people. England refuses to let me speak any language but his, and makes me obey stupid rules that make no sense./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Like how England makes us go to church to talk to that guy who died?"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Well, yes. But also no. I'm talking about what the English people believe about gender."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""What's gender?" I asked. I always loved learning new words from Newfoundland. She made sure to explain them in a way I could understand, instead of scoffing and calling me stupid like Mr Collins does./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Gender is... it's the way people believe men and women act."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Like how back home the men used to hunt, and the women would gather?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"If I'd said something like that in front of England, or Mr Collins, I would've been slapped. I'm not allowed to refer to Father's land as my home. England is my home now, no matter how much I hate it./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""Yes. In England, they believe that women are inferior, stupid creatures whose only purpose is to get married, and that men are naturally stronger and better."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""That makes no sense."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;""But it's what the English believe, so we must go along with it."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"That was the answer to a lot of my questions. I hate going along with England's stupid beliefs. Like how, in England, I'm not allowed to wear dresses that show off my ankles, or pants./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"English people are stupid./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16.1px;" /p