Yesterday I got a chance to talk to a Girl Scout troop in my hometown. (I was a girl scout many years ago, you know.) These girls were bright and had a ton of questions, which always makes a talk more fun. They brought up very important points: why didn’t Catherine Howard flee the country instead of marrying King Henry? Why didn’t she make herself ugly to avoid the king’s advances? The idea of a time when girls weren’t allowed to choose their mate, when a girl may be sacrificed for the sake of her family’s ambition, was justifiably mystifying for these young women. Things have certainly improved for us (at least in some countries and cultures) over the centuries. And I’m not just talking about the cookies.
I’m working on some posts about censorship and the like. Second-guessing myself at the moment but I hope to post soon.