When I was in junior high (1970s), I heard that if the Equal Rights Amendment passed, men and women would no longer have separate public bathrooms. That idea haunted me for years. I would actively worry about it. I would wake up in the morning and wonder if today was the day when the restrooms at the mall would no longer be separate.
When I was a senior in college, I asked my women's studies teacher if this was ever part of the ERA. Her face got sad as she told me it was part of the misinformation put out by those who were against passage of the ERA. And I knew I had gotten an object lesson in the power of propaganda.
A childhood belief about politics
others believed things like this
- I used to think Freud was pronounced frood, and that "Froid" was a separate person with a different name!— Gracie
- I thought that wars had to last four years... just like high school and college.— A. Falk
- when I was little my uncle told me he was part bear. I believed people could be part bear until I was twelve. — Audrey
- I used to think the Senior Center was where all the high school seniors got to hang out and cut class— Jordan
- when i was a little girl, i beleived that women didnt have bums, because i never heard my mom fart. Anon
- Until junior high school, I thought Monty Python was a wrestler.— Jamie