Our Hideous Progeny

by C.E. McGill

Shame breeds fear, and fear breeds goodness, morality, better behaviour. Such is the hope. Except that sometimes – as I can attest – shame and fear beget only anger instead.

Ladies are often criticized for being childish, I find – but it is hard not to be, when one’s life is so wholly in the hands of another.

What must it be like, do you think, to run about saying whatever one likes, as so many gentlemen do? To have one’s flaws and misdeeds attributed not to one’s sex, or the manner of one’s birth, but to one’s character alone? I should like that, I think; to make an utter fool of myself, and be regarded not as a bad example of womanhood, but merely a bad example.

Do little boys ever grow out of being fools, I wonder? Or do they simply grow into something worse?