Landing Journal
The Plaintive Cry of a Prisoner of Privilege
Anonymous Letter to the Journal Opens a Window to an Invisible World; Spurs Call for Action
by the Editors
If not for occasional references to modern technology, such as mobile phones, the letter could have a mistaken for a relic of an earlier age. It could have been an anomaly; perhaps something that had fallen through a time warp straight out of the 18th century. Even the heavy stock paper and elegant signature seemed to speak to an earlier age; a time and place having more in common with the quill than the tablet computer. Nevertheless, the letter was of current vintage. It contained the heartfelt plea of a young Pantocratorian woman, the citizen of a modern, 21st century constitutional monarchy, who described a life of devoid of liberty and proscribed by arcane and archaic rules, which appear to serve no purpose other than to keep noble-born Pantocratorian women subject to the men in their lives and constrained from exhibiting any freedom of action.
While it may be difficult for some, especially those facing material privation, to feel sympathy for women born into wealth and privilege, the letter from our anonymous Pantocratorian author makes it clear that the luxurious homes, servants and fine clothes come at a price. Especially for Pantocratorian women, who live under complete subjugation to their fathers, brothers or male guardians until they are old enough to be given to their husbands in arranged - and socially advantageous - marriages and live under their new husbands’ subjugation. Often deprived of educational opportunities, unable to marry - or not marry - at their own discretion, often unable to choose their own friends and even deprived of the right to come and go as they please, Pantocratorian noblewomen seem to live in conditions that, if they were mandated by law, would clearly violate the Western Atlantic’s basic norms of human rights.
If these medieval conditions were imposed upon any class of Pantocratorian women by Pantocratorian law, there would be an understandable outcry for the Excalbian Imperial Government to take some action to protest such a gross human rights violation and to demand change. However, as our anonymous correspondent made clear in her letter, these intolerable conditions are not mandated by any Pantocratorian law; rather, they are the product of the antiquated social mores of a rigid and closed class system. This makes it less a matter for dialogue between governments than for dialogue between societies.
Of course, Excablia has its own class system, with two tiers of nobility, the Imperial family and – increasingly – the business elite. However, as a nation and a people, we have managed - albeit imperfectly at times - to combine the best of our social traditions with a fairly high degree of social mobility and individual liberty - for citizens of all classes. Because of this - and because of our numerous social and political ties with Pantocratoria - we are well-placed as a society to enter into a dialogue with our Pantocratorian counterparts about this subject and to urge them to speak for the freedom and equality of all Pantocratorian women - whether commoner or noble.
Therefore, this paper calls upon Pantocratorian journalists to investigate our anonymous young noblewoman’s claims, to report on what they find, and to call for reform where they find reform needed. We further call upon the luminaries of Excalbian society in all fields to speak out on the issue and to engage their Pantocratorian friends and colleagues on this subject.
