Image by Gary (click to enlarge enough to read the names and dates, then ESC to return here), taken at a farm along Guitner Road in southern Franklin County, PA.
Gotta love the pride that comes from a farm being continually in a single family for nearly 300 years. That is indeed exceptional and noteworthy. The farm is tidy and prosperous-looking, sitting as it does among well-tended fields and farm buildings on the low bluffs above the Conococheague Creek.
However....something is missing. Through some 10 generations of Kings, this sign depicts not even one woman. Surely all those generations of men did not adopt their children; undoubtedly there were wives and mothers to fuel the reproductive engine that perpetuated the proud lineage.
Yet not a single mention of a woman. You don't have to be a feminist to notice the omission and if upon reflection you don't feel, well, a bit uncomfortable about it, you should.
For families like the Kings consist of partners who produced and raised the children over those 10 generations. The unknown and unmentioned mothers were there every step of the way to birth and raise not only the listed male heirs but their sisters and younger brothers.
Being a male, I believe I have been accustomed since birth to a subtle or no-so-subtle worldview that men are better, smarter, dominant, etc. It takes an enlightenment followed by continual self-awareness and self-monitoring to ensure that equal credit goes to the women of our world.
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