Beginnings · What you believed
Date: 13 October 2026
That being male made me evil. And wrong. Any expression of independence or rebellion was labelled chauvinism.
“You and those goddamn balls of yours” was commonly heard in our home. There was no father in it.
I had no idea what it meant to be a good man.
“Men were oppressors, maintainers of a patriarchy built on fear,” my mother recited to me from something considerably more radical than Gloria Steinem.
My sexuality was dissected and despised. Puberty was hard. I did more than think about killing myself. I planned.
Date: 13 October 2026
At the end of my first marriage.
“Sideburns are too masculine,” I proclaimed. Nuala rolled her eyes, glanced at her friend and said, “See what I have to deal with?”
The mild contempt stung. I set out to become a man’s-man-woman’s-man.
Send them the question, not an answer. They can write theirs wherever they like — on paper, back to you, or nowhere at all.
The message is sent from your phone or your mail app. Nothing about it reaches this site, and nobody here knows who you asked.
Your answer
Take your time. Nothing leaves this page until you say so.
What did you believe as a child that turned out not to be true?
Saved only in this browser. On a shared or work computer, burn it when you are done. Everything you have written here
Readers’ answers
No one has shared an answer to this one yet. Yours can be the first, or you can keep it for yourself.