#section 04

[Table of Contents]

Now that you understand how dangerous our highly-pointed Isosceles Triangles are, you can understand how much more dangerous our Women are. Because if an Isosceles is a wedge, a Woman is a needle, made up of, you might say, nothing but points, at least at the two ends.

Add to this sharpness a Woman’s ability to make herself practically invisible at will, and you’ll see that the Females of Flatland are not the kind of Creatures you want to mess with.

But maybe some of my younger Readers are confused, and thinking, “But how can a Woman in Flatland make herself invisible?” I think the answer is pretty obvious, but it won’t take very long to explain, so even those who aren’t paying full attention will understand.

Place a needle, or another long, thin object, like a pencil, on a table. Then, lowering yourself until your eye is level with the surface of the table, look at your line from the side, and you'll see its whole length. But if you turn it so that you are looking straight at it from the front or back, you see nothing but a small point.

This is what happens with our Women. When her side it towards us, we see her as a straight line. When her front or “head” in you terms, the part, containing her eye or mouth (which for us, is the same organ) is pointed at us, we see a bright point.

But when her back is pointed towards us, we see a dim light, so dim it's almost as dark as an inanimate object. And this is how a Woman, by simply turning her back on you, can become practically invisible.

[Image description start: A black and white digital diagram with a white background and black border. On the left is a drawing of an eye as seen from the side, with dotted lines radiating out to show the line of sight. This eye is looking downwards on a straight line, and is labeled, "A Straight Line viewed from the side.". The next is looking to the side at a tiny dot that is marked by a large arrow so you notice it, and this eye is labeled, "A Straight Line viewed from the front or back.". Image description end.]

I need to make it clear to you just how dangerous our Women are. If running into an Equilateral Triangle, whose angle is 60°, will give you a painful gash, then running into an Officer of the military class, an Isosceles, will give you a serious wound. If a mere accidental bump from the vertex of a Private Soldier, one of the lowest of the Isosceles, is life threatening, then what can you expect from running into a Woman, except complete and total annihilation?

And when a Woman is almost invisible like this, imagine how difficult it is, even for the most cautious, to avoid running into them!

Many laws have been put into place in the different countries of Flatland in order to reduce this danger, and in the Southern and less temperate environments where the force of the Southern pull, or gravity, is greater, where human beings are more likely to have sudden and involuntary movements from constantly fighting the gravity, the laws regarding Women are, naturally, much stricter and harsher.

But a general view of the regulations for Women can be understood from the following summary:

1. Every house will have one entrance on the Eastern side, to be used only by Females, and all Females must enter “in a becoming and respectful manner”. Females must never use the Men’s or Western door.

[Note from the Author: When I was in Spaceland, I was told (in a conversation not transcribed in this book, to save my Readers’ valuable time) that some of your Religious buildings have a similar policy, with a separate entrance for the working poor so that they can also "approach in a becoming and respectful manner."]

2. No Female shall walk in any public place without continually keeping up her Peace-cry, under penalty of death.

3. Any Female diagnosed with St. Vitus’s Dance ((A neurological disorder causing sudden, involuntary movements after an illness, usually affecting children)), seizures, a chronic cold accompanied by violent sneezing, or any other disease that causes involuntary movements, shall be destroyed immediately upon diagnosis.

In some countries, there is another Law that forbids Females, under penalty of death, from walking or standing in public spaces without constantly moving their backs from side to side, so that people behind them can see them better.

Other countries will sometimes demand that any Woman in public should be followed by one of her male family members or servants, and still others ban Women from public entirely, confining them to their homes except during religious festivals.

But our wisest of Circles and Politicians have found that having so many restrictions on Women not only leads to the weakening of our society overall, but also to an extremely high number of domestic murders, to the point where the number of Men killed as a result far outnumbers the accidents that the Law was attempting to avoid in the first place.

Because when the temper of a Woman is stoked by being confined to her home, or having to deal with harsh, inconvenient restrictions when in public, they are likely to unleash their fury upon their husbands and children or siblings. Several times, in countries with highly restrictive laws, the entire Male population of a town has sometimes been wiped out in just a few hours as the Females simultaneously and violently succumb to their wrath.

And this is why the first three laws I’ve outlined here are good enough on their own for the better-run countries such as the one I belong to, and can be used as a rough summary of the Female Code.

After all, it’s not the Law itself that protects us so much, as the instinct for self-preservation in the Women themselves.

It I true that they can inflict instant death by simply moving backwards, but it is also true that unless they can immediately remove their stabbing-end, their own fragile bodies can easily be shattered by the death throes of their victim, and the Woman will be killed along with them.

The power of Fashion is also on our side.

I said above that in some less civilized countries, Females are not allowed in public without swaying her back from side to side, but in my country, our high-ranking and ambitious ladies have been doing this of their own free will since as far back as anyone can remember. The idea that a law would have to be passed to guarantee this behavior, (which should be instinctive in ladies of high breeding), is extremely embarrassing.

The rhythmic and, if I may so say, well-modulated undulation of the back in our ladies married to Circles is envied by the wives of Equilaterals, who, trying their best, can only create a regular twitch like the ticking of a clock.

But even that simple ticking is admired by the wife of the ambitious Isosceles, who wishes to raise her family’s status, so that she becomes the first in all her family line to practice the art of back motion.

So you see, in every family worth considering, “back motion” is as old and ingrained as time itself, and the lucky Male members of these families enjoy their immunity from invisible attacks.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying our Women don’t care about their families— it’s just that, unfortunately, their emotions in the moment overpower their other feelings, driving out every other thought until their anger passes.

This, of course, is the result of their unfortunate Configuration as Straight Lines.

They have no Angle to speak of, and thus are mentally and physically inferior to even the very lowest of the Isosceles. They are, as a result of this lack of Angle, completely devoid of brain-power, and are completely incapable of self-reflection, judgment, or planning, and barely any memory at all.

This is why, when they are in a state of fury, they have no idea what they’re doing, or who they’re doing it to. They will not recognize their husband or even their children.

I’ve actually heard of a legal case where a Woman murdered everyone in her whole household, but then half an hour later, when she’d calmed down and the fragmented bodies had been swept away by Police, asked them where her husband and children were. She didn’t remember a thing.

So it should be obvious that you shouldn’t annoy a Woman if she’s able to turn around and stab you. But when you have them in their apartments – which are built so narrowly specifically to prevent them from turning and attacking – you can say or do whatever you want, because they’re incapable of reacting in any way except through speech, and in a few minutes, they won’t even remember whatever it is you’ve said or done that they’re threatening to kill you for, nor will they remember the hasty promises you’ve made (with no intention of keeping) to get them to calm down again.

In general, we get along pretty well with our Women, except in the lower classes of the Isosceles military. These Isosceles, lacking in angle, also lack in tact and discretion, and many times this has caused indescribable disasters.

These Isosceles rely too much on their sharp points as weapons instead of the shield of common sense and knowing how to react to different problems, so these reckless Creatures often fail to properly follow the safety code for building Women’s apartments, or irritate their wives by insulting them when out in public, and then to make matters worse, refuse to immediately apologize.

And, being simple Creatures who are too fond of the literal truth, these Isosceles refuse to make the kinds of lavish, impossible promises that Circles readily deploy to pacify the would-be murderess.

The result of this lack of careful handing is massacre, but you shouldn’t see it as a tragedy – on the contrary, these outbreaks eliminate the more brutal and troublesome of the Isosceles, and many of our Circles view the destructiveness of the Thinner Sex as one of many favors Providence has given us for naturally suppressing the population of Isosceles, and helping to nip Revolution in the bud.

But even within the families that most strictly follow the Female Code, even with our closest-to-true circles Circular families, I have to admit, our idea of “domestic bliss” isn’t as full of affection and comfort as it is with you in Spaceland.

There is peace, (if the absence of slaughter can be called peace) but it is impossible for there to be shared interests or hobbies between Man and Wife, with the Man’s safety paid for by the loss of true comfort and companionship.

Since time immemorial, the Women of our Circular and Polygonal houses have had the habit – which has now become a kind of instinct – of always keeping their eyes and mouths pointed towards their Husband and his Male friends.

If a lady in a high-ranking family turned her back on her Husband, it would be seen as an omen of disaster threatening a huge loss of social status.

But, as I will soon explain, this custom, while insuring safety, is not without its problems.

In the house of the Isosceles Working Man, or the Equilateral Tradesman, where the wife is allowed to turn her back on her husband while performing her household duties, there are moments of peace, where the wife is neither seen nor heard, except the humming sound of her ever-present Peace-cry.

But in the homes of the upper classes, these moments of peace are few and far between. There, the loud and bright face of the Wife are always directed at the Master of the household, and not even the never-changing Light is more persistent than the never-ending Feminine Chatter.

The diplomatic skill required to avoid a Woman’s sting has no power against a Woman’s mouth, and, since the Wife has absolutely nothing meaningful to say, and no intelligence or conscience there to prevent her from speaking anyway, more than a few cynics have been quoted with saying they prefer the death-dealing but mercifully silent sting of a Woman’s back side to the obnoxious volume of her mouth.

To my readers in Spaceland, the condition of our Women may seem truly miserable, and indeed it is, without question. A Male of even the lowest type of Isosceles can look forward to some improvement of his Angle through hard work and dedication, and eventually the increased rank of his entire degraded caste, but no Woman can ever hope for such things for her own Sex.

“Once a Woman, always a Woman” is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution seem to stack misfortunes against her.

But at least we can admire the wise arrangement Evolution and Nature have given us, so that even though the Women have to be miserable for our great society to exist, at least they’ll soon forget it.

Caitlyn Kenney is inspiringly young to have such a wealth of experience in audio-journalism. She works in satellite radio doing news podcasts that transcend national boundaries. In her February 17 Plenary lecture at Voorhees Chapel, Kenney spoke about what journalism means to her and played snippets of several podcasts she had previously done, the topics of which ranged from a ring of bicycle thieves to the failure of the construction of a school in Haiti. While I personally have no interest in pursuing journalism, I understand the importance of exploring topics outside of one’s own sphere to be more worldly and informed. I did not feel that I related to Kenney’s experience in entering the labor force, because I have not yet done so myself, and I know nothing about radio journalism. However, I did feel my interest was sparked when Caitlyn discussed her experiences in Haiti and Bangladesh reporting on the construction of a school and the lives of women working in the garment industry, respectively. Her discussion had, at this point, taken a global turn, as her reporting now covered development and women’s agency, which are my key interests and reflect my career aspirations.

Caitlyn started her speech by explaining how she got to this point in her career. She discussed the sexism and ageism that she faced in the workplace at her first couple of jobs and how they led to her self-doubt in a primarily older male environment. She was made to feel “impostor’s syndrome,” which she explained as the feeling that you “pulled a fast one” on everyone around you to get where you are and therefore don’t really belong. To overcome it, she explained, young women must present themselves as “the one with the plan.” We must be extremely passionate and exhibit a drive to do whatever it takes to meet goals in an attempt to prove ourselves worthy of sharing the same space as more seasoned professionals. This felt like a slap in the face, because I thought we were past that gender-based borderline hazing procedure. Sure, millennials are experiencing this expectation to be superhumans who can bring innovation while battling silencing from baby boomers who cry job displacement, but I thought this was the new world order, that all twenty-somethings had to do this in order to survive the first few years of entering the workforce. I refused to believe that women could still be targeted by prejudice rooted in sexism in addition to ageism until Caitlyn Kenney discussed her own experience.

The highlight of Kenney’s lecture was the portion during which she discussed her project in Bangladesh. She followed young Bengali women who found work in the “garment industry” and how their employment gave them unprecedented opportunity. To most, the “garment industry” is just a euphemism for sweatshops. This is a Westernized interpretation. As Americans, we are conditioned to think that anything less than our standard of care is inferior and must be resolved swiftly, but more importantly, by Western actors. True, sweatshops are terrifying, degrading places where the laborers earn too little, but they are sometimes the only means of employment for women in patriarchal societies outside of the West. That is not to suggest that there isn’t room for improvement: in order to ensure the safety and survivability of clothing factory workers, labor laws must be implemented and enforced, including those that prohibit harassment and require fair pay. The point here, however, is that we must not discount the fact that the “garment industry” is important for the advancement of women in areas where they cannot find or are not allowed to work elsewhere, as evidenced by the family of women interviewed by Caitlyn Kenney.

The family in the podcast is made up primarily of women. The eldest daughter was meant to be married off to drive some income into the household. In Bangladesh, like in so many other parts of the world, money drives decisions, so much so that parents, conditioned by cultural standards, arrange marriages that can ease the financial strain on the family, whether it’s in the form of some sort of bride price or the sheer fact that there is one less mouth to feed after a child has left the home. Adolescent and young women have no say in their life course after they are forcibly married, especially if they are child brides, so they must find a way to generate productivity to prove their worth and avoid negative life outcomes, such as teenage pregnancy that can result in maternal mortality. The eldest daughter did so by finding employment in a clothing factory after the rise of the garment industry in Bangladesh. While she doesn’t make enough to satisfy our Western ideals of a living wage, she makes enough to pay for a small apartment and living expenses. She expressed herself that the money she makes gives her control over her own life and the power of choice. Now out of her parents’ home, she can choose to get married whenever and however she wants, and she might be on her way. Now, despite her parents’ disapproval, the eldest daughter feels empowered enough to continue a public relationship with her boyfriend, who does not share the same religion. 

The point here is that we mustn’t discount women’s economic, personal, and romantic/sexual agency when it arises, even if we don’t approve of the method. Sweatshops as we know and understand them are hot, dingy places where the employees are cheated out of fair pay. I won’t argue that that isn’t true. But the institution that we think is deplorable may be the saving grace of a young woman who desperately needs to earn any kind of money. As previously stated, money is power. It’s also independence, freedom of choice, and the means to a stark improvement from very humble origins. In the absence of an education, a job is the next best means of empowerment for women and girls. We cannot invalidate that by insisting that sweatshops must go. We must instead work toward labor law reform that would give peace of mind to and put more money into the pockets of hardworking women who just want a chance to live their own lives.

Unknown, saw on Twitter. 

“You’re hella gay, I’m hela str8, but you’re like my brother, so be my d8?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/living/feat-straight-teen-asks-gay-best-friend-to-prom/