Personal Narrative: Growing Up As A Girl

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Growing up as a girl virtually anywhere on the globe can be a challenge; even in the most progressive societies, women remain bound to the expectations bestowed upon them by their ancestral patriarchs. As a girl in such a society, I've experienced being picked last on the kickball team despite my superb boot, and I've watched my brother take evening jogs by himself, a free man, while I was told to stay inside; the darkness too dangerous, my father lectured, for a pretty face. I know what time has done to women; I come from a long line of brilliant girls who stood a thousand feet behind their husbands, in the kitchen, pregnant, and sobbing. For those reasons and more, I was instantly entranced by the strange, matrilineal society of the village

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