Page 44 of The Protector
Five more minutes of walking in silence and we reached a water fountain. “Just so we’re clear,” she said. “I object to being married.”
“Why?”
“Because it suppresses women,” she said and folded her arms and looked away.
“How the hell did you come to that brain-dead conclusion?” I asked.
That made her spin around, and for someone from the Motherlands I knew she had to be fuming on the inside when she sneered through gritted teeth. “In case you didn’t know this: men dominated and mistreated women for thousands of years. There was a time when women were the property of men and practically treated like slaves. They had no power, no voice, and could be raped by their husband without anyone to help them.”
I chuckled. “Whoever wrote your history books must have been poorly informed. That’s all lies made up by women.”
“It’s true,” she said and lifted her chin.
“No, it’s not. Women were never property to men. They were highly cherished members of society. And a father protected his daughter until he carefully chose a man worthy of protecting her for him.”
“Maybe in some cases,” she admitted. “But where I come from, women don’t need men to protect them. And you’re missing the point. If women were so cherished then why weren’t they allowed to have a political vote or have a profession?”
“You’re talking about something that happened thousands of years ago.”
“No, I’m not; women only gained basic rights within the last five hundred years.”
“You don’t know that for sure. And it doesn’t change that you have an obscure way of looking at males as the evil ones, when we’re anything but.”
“You almost ruined the world,” she blamed me in a harsh whisper.
I squared my shoulders and narrowed my eyes, feeling extremely tired of her feminist shit. “No,Idid not ruin the world andIwill not take the blame for what men did hundreds of years ago. You’re a historian, so why don’t we take a look at all the horrible things women did throughout history? If you think women are any better than men, then you’re naïve.”
“Can you point to one female dictator?” I defended myself.”
“Don’t be stupid. Dictators are always linked to military power, and women never came to power that way. Female prime ministers and queens could be just as heartless and brutal as any man. There was no difference.”
“Only because they were navigating a male-dominated world. They had to be tough.”
I buried my hands in my pockets and rocked on my feet. “Women are fully capable of murdering or taking advantage of others. Just like men. It’s human nature!”
“No, it’s not,” Christina protested. “I think the Motherlands have showed that we’ve evolved beyond such appalling behavior.”
“Or maybe you’re so strongly regulated and controlled that you never get the chance to explore the darker part of your personality,” I provoked her. “My point is just thatIrefuse to take the blame for the men who mistreated women in the past. I can’t imagine it was the norm at any point in time, and if it was then I’m happy to tell you that we men have evolved since our ancestors.”
“Have you?” her voice was seething. “You still kill for greed.”
I clenched my jaws.
“The only reason all those men fought in the tournament was greed,” she claimed. “You want more. Men always wantmore.”
“That’s not true.”
“Really? So they weren’t motivated by the million-dollar reward or the prestige that came along with it?”
“Some of us did it for honor and to protect you.”
She gave me a long hard look. “Can you truly say you did it to protect me?”
Our gazes clashed. “Yes!” I said loud and clear.
That left her silent.
“You have all these ridiculous ideas about men being women’s adversaries, but we’re not. We’re meant to live together, that should be fucking obvious.” I couldn’t hide the frustration I felt. “You speak of marriage as something awful but I’ve read stories describing love between men and women. And passion.”
