Tigi f’punt fejn l-uniku vokabolarju li jinftihem minnhom hi l-lingwa taghhom. Propju li qed iwassal Salvu Mallia. Toqghod tahseb, id-disprezz juri r-rabja li ghandu fih il-poplu Malti.

Oh yes, that too. But the contempt for women does not come from a sense of entitlement. It had its roots in a feeling that women are The Other, and most of them are barely able to relate to women as people at all. I think it’s a combination of having been locked up away from anything female e vet teachers and matron during the formative years, and a deep-seated hatred of their mothers who sent them away at seven to board in that weird and twisted, dangerous environment, but which they are unable to dump on the woman responsible (because she’s their mother) so they project it onto other women instead.

I may be parsing words pointlessly here. What I meant is that Old Edwardians’ greater sense of entitlement is not specific to their relations with women. But in their relations with women, that general sense of entitlement accentuates the specific sense of entitlement that makes most Maltese men misogynistic (in other words, I think we agree).

There was absolutely no group conditioning at St Dorothy’s Convent. That’s the main reason why, of the relatively few women in public life and politics in Malta, most of them were at that school, including me.

I would not have been possible if I had gone to another school. St Dorothy’s was a lousy school in every possible way, but it celebrated individuality.