The theological effect was immediate and durable. A woman with a claim to independent religious authority became instead a symbol of redeemed sin, forgiven rather than empowered. Historian Susan Haskins called the matter "settled" for nearly fourteen hundred years, and the settlement held remarkably well for something built on a mistake.

Taylor Swift wrote "The Man" specifically to imagine how differently the world would treat her ambition if she moved through it as a man instead of a woman. Margaret Atwood built an entire novel, The Handmaid's Tale, around the same mechanics, tracing a patriarchal state that controls women's bodies through law and religious authority, and that novel has since generated a television adaptation running for six seasons. Greta Gerwig took a different approach with Barbie, using

Dystopian fiction has always been absurdly far-fetched. No wonder school boards keep banning these books. Too unrealistic for classroom consumption. I blame Tolkien for starting all these dystopian novels with his silly little book Lord of the Rings about Frodo and a Fellowship on a quest to destroy a magic ring. Like who in their right mind would want to destroy a ring with power. That ridiculous premise set the tone for everything that followed. Take Margaret Atwood's The H