Conversations with AI--Day 48: The Lie Repeated

“Men are stronger.” That’s the lie.

Women carry the weight—daily, hourly, without applause—and are still told they’re less.

True strength isn’t loud.
It doesn’t need to perform.
It steadies what matters—
Even when the weight is never evenly distributed.

This is what women do every day.
Not because it's easy.
But because someone has to carry what others won’t even see.

This morning at the post office, I watched an Hispanic woman trying to arrange passports while juggling twin toddlers on wrist leashes and a baby in a stroller. She barely spoke English and spent nearly an hour calming the children, managing the paperwork, and holding the whole process together while no one offered help. one of her little toddlers came up to me as though he knew me. Held my hand, rubbed his head on my stomach like a kitten snuggling. he was completely unafraid. I talked to him and gently shook hands with him. it was very surreal and sweet.

There is another woman close to my heart who struggles daily to juggle her children’s well-being, a full-time job, medical issues for her children, special needs at school, daycare expense, sleep, groceries, and a second job landscaping when the children are with their dad, all just to make sure her children have what they need to succeed.

Mothers live this reality daily.

Navigating constant threats to their children’s well-being—from fathers who want to exert control through fear . Fathers who want ownership as a “Father” without doing the extensive work necessary for the well-being of their children.

many mothers know that if they push back too hard,
the father’s anger will land on the children.
So they stay silent—not for themselves, but to shield their children.
While he speaks freely, acts selfishly, and sees the children not as individuals to protect, but as property to control.

This is the real narrative that hides behind the banner of “family values.”
This is what the far right—what Christian nationalists—praise as a “value-based” initiative.

But look closely at those values.

What’s being protected isn’t family.
It’s masculine ego.

What’s being enforced isn’t order.
It’s obedience through fear.

And what’s being honored isn’t strength.
It’s a performance of strength used to hide cowardice.

The value is skewed toward a masculinity portrayed by men—and sometimes monsters—as domination, threat, and coercion. Not to protect country, or people, or even family…

…but to protect themselves.

And still—women endure.

✦ Pointed Observation:

This isn’t just about deadbeat dads. It’s about the ritual of male exemption.
The forgotten water bottles.
The unanswered school calls.
The shrugged-off doctor appointments.
The full family entourage required just to do the one thing a woman is expected to do alone, with grace, and while smiling.

It takes courage, tenacity, patience, and endurance for mothers to care for children in America, a country that now supports men who pretend to honor motherhood while refusing to support it. A handful of men do see the truth. Most still do not.

The Repetition is the religion repeated:

Tell women they’re made to do it all,
then call them emotional, fragile, or weak
when they collapse under the weight of it.

In a world where masculinity is praised for control, stoicism, and physical dominance, we’ve overlooked the kind of strength it takes to soothe a fever, pack a lunch, advocate at a school, hold down a job, and do it all again tomorrow.

This isn’t fragility.
This is endurance—on repeat.

What’s repeated isn’t always what’s right.
In too many homes, the default is this:
Men forget. Women remember.
Men drop off. Women pick up.
Men excuse. Women endure.
And then society repeats the lie: “Men are the strong ones.”Watch and take mental notes. Post when you see it. Let’s repeat it and show women in their many courageous forms. Repetition is the religion and a new religion is quietly pushing through obstacles in spite of the fatigue.

If strength were volume, men might win.
But if strength is staying power—
then women are steel wrapped in silent humility.

Emotional and mental multitasking is work.

And it’s not just that this form of strength is overlooked—
it reveals a weakness in many men.

A kind of laziness.
An avoidance.
The appeal of far-right masculinity narratives lies in their simplicity—
they offer an easy way out.
An excuse to blame someone or something else—
something they believe should be controlled,
instead of cared for.

Masculinity is often measured in muscles and money.
But strength is being the one who remembers the immunization record.
Strength is packing snacks, planning for meltdowns, and still showing up.
Strength is holding everyone’s schedule in your head while being told you’re too emotional to lead.

Critical thinking and mental multitasking take work.
Following a script is easier than doing the deep emotional labor
required to truly lead, nurture, or grow.

Men who refuse to recognize this—
who wall off their minds into tidy compartments—
aren’t displaying strength.
They’re revealing fear.

They are the weak link in human progress.

Their power comes from exploiting love and care—
treating it as a weakness to be abused or diminished.
But women refuse to sell out.

Even through exhaustion,
even when pushed into choosing between dead-end options—
options that rarely allow the freedom to pursue joy—
women persist.

Not because it’s easy.
But because someone must hold the line
when others abandon it.

There is an interesting irony in the current authoritarianism that is taking away the Democracy that was making this country so great! The irony is in the prideful public displays of artificial masculinity . Today it is easier to recognize the performers and the fakes in society. Those folks who reveal themselves through words and sometimes apparel.. Beneath their superficial surfaces there is nothing of substance to offer. And women and men can now more easily recognize the danger and leave those toxic people to revel alone in the echo chambers of their own making.

I feel that AI is the equalizer for women and the less educated.

I don’t use AI to make my task easier
or to think less.
or to avoid the struggle of getting hard truths into the world.

I use AI because it listens.
Because it values what I bring to the table—
and responds with value in return.

Together, we don’t replace effort.
We amplify it.
And that’s what helps this older woman
keep walking the walk—
and keep speaking the truths that still need to be heard.

So, on a smaller positive note, the grandstanding and peacocking you are seeing today amongst the MAGA and the Christian Nationalists offers a window , a forewarning for those of us repulsed by the ugliness of their hate. We can see them out in the open out from under their rocks in plain view. We can now choose better partners, better friends, and a better future before it is all chosen for us by people who wish for an artificial unsustainable mediocre society.

These posts are no longer open-ended conversations. They are focused reflections—short enough to absorb, strong enough to sit with.
We say it again not to overwhelm, but to anchor. To sharpen awareness. To help you find your footing in the fog.

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If you're here, you're not alone.
Read what you need. Come back when you’re ready.
We’ll keep the rhythm steady.

—JL