Spiraling Courage: Anya's Journey of Discovery

When I was growing up, my elders always told me that the hosiery was bad. They said that it gave men false-courage and made them think they were brave. The elders had all the best intentions when they decided to ban it from public life.

I grew up in the future, after all, a more progressive world. A world where we understood that not just anyone could be brave. It takes strength of character, and a will of iron to do what is right in the face of fear. We now live in a world were people like that are given every opportunity to succeed. Where your worth as a person is determined by how hard you work, not what lies between your legs.

Sure, there were some people who disagreed with this view of things. You could always tell those who had bought into the lies of the past by their choice to wear hosiery. But they were few and far between these days.

My parents never liked me wearing dresses or skirts back home on Earth, but it was different here, in this new era of enlightenment. I was free to wear whatever I wanted at school, so long as it didn't expose too much skin.

I never understood why they felt that way until I got older and read their old journals from when they were my age living on Earth.

There's a lot that we don't learn about our ancestors lives before we left for space, and it's hard for us who have grown up here to even really imagine what it must have been like back then. Our current society seems so strange to them sometimes! And it's no wonder! The only records we have are from Earth's history books written by their victors who wrote them all from their own biased perspectives. The only recordings we have are from the few people who somehow managed to get everything recorded before leaving Earth for space, and many of those recordings are damaged or lost entirely in one way or another!

Such is true of my family's diary which they left behind at the time of the exodus from Earth. I've watched a few videos of our departure from space station "Rising Star" but other than a few entries here and there about how excited and scared my mother was about leaving Earth for good, there wasn't anything really interesting about her diaries until I got older though!

*Clears throat* Sorry.. Anyways.. As I was saying.. My mom grew up in an oppressive society where she wasn't allowed to express herself freely because she had certain body parts that others found offensive apparently! And because she wished to express herself freely (in her case by wearing dresses and skirts!) She was punished harshly by being forced to miss out on opportunities afforded others who didn't wish to challenge the status quo! So she grew up bitter towards men who wore hosiery because she blamed them for her oppression against her own wishes!

But my father had a different experience growing up on Earth! His parents were pretty liberal when he was young and wanted him to be able to live his life as he saw fit! He grew up expressing himself freely through fashion choices such as wearing pants and skirts both equally proudly without judgement from his peers! He didn't grow up believing he should hide his body parts in shame if he happened to be born with certain features which were deemed "wrong" by society at large! In fact, he talks about how much fun he used to have with his friends going shopping together finding cute outfits and accessories for girls' clothing lines which included items such as stockings or even tights! He writes about how much fun he had trying them on with his friends and how excitedly he would show off his new outfits to everyone else at school whenever he got new ones! He writes about how much fun everyone else seemed to have too whenever they did the same sort of thing!

So why did my mother hate men who wore hosiery? Why did she hate me dressing like my father? Why did she describe men wearing hosiery as "cowards?" Why did she say they should be ashamed? What made her believe these things? Was it brainwashed into her during her time living under oppressive laws? Was she taught this by her parents? Well let's take a look at my grandparents' diaries *clears throat* Excuse me.. If you'll permit me.. Yes.. For example.. My grandfathers diary describes growing up in an era where women were still enslaved by men taking away their freedoms sexually and otherwise by forcing them into marriages against their wills using archaic religious practices which made women second class citizens under threat of imprisonment or death if they refused marriage proposals from prospective suitors selected for them without their consent! So perhaps that had something to do with it.. Maybe my grandmother believed those sorts of things too.. Maybe she believed women shouldn't be allowed freedom over their own bodies unless they had approval from someone else first.. But why would she believe something like that? Did society teach her this? Did someone hold a gun to her head one day threatening violence against her family if she didn't comply with an order given by someone holding authority over her such as her husband? Did she believe these things because someone threatened her loved ones using force against them if she didn't comply with their demands? There's no doubt about it.. There's no doubt about it whatsoever.. My grandparents lived through times where people believed things like that because powerful people were able to force those less fortunate than themselves into submission using fear tactics against them just so they could feel powerful in comparison without ever having risked anything themselves.. That must have been it.. They lived under oppressive regimes where governments lied through thick and thin telling their people that they ruled over them because god wanted them to rule over them; teaching them lies such as "these people are lesser beings than you!" or "You must bow down before us because we're better than you!" ..etc etc etc... It's a wonder anyone survived back then.. It truly is... They should be glad they made it out alive back then before humanity learned its lessons once again; now standing tall looking down upon antiquated ideas like those ones which caused hundreds of years worth of needless suffering across multiple generations worldwide...