Curiosity has a way of making obedience conditional. A girl who is encouraged to ask questions about the world may eventually ask questions about the rules governing her own life: Who made them? Why do they exist? Who benefits from them? What happens if I disagree?
For those conservatives more invested in a more hierarchical vision of gender, that kind of independent judgment presents an obvious problem. Submission works best when it feels inevitable, when the boundaries of a woman’s life are presented not as choices someone made for her, but simply as the natural order of things.
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