"The idea that men should only wear pants is such a rigid and old-fashioned way of thinking," Gray told me.
Our beliefs can elevate and inspire, and well-policed secularism – a version of secularism that doesn't itself become an alternative set of rigid, aggressive beliefs – could help us to do both.
Ours is an age of faith as a path to control on a very wide scale – something rigid, paranoid and utterly destructive.
Also, a lack of political will and rigid cultural norms do not favour the improvement of conditions for women, people with disabilities or minorities.
Some cultural norms around food are simply too rigid, and head-on insects would be regarded as a meal too far.
People who use rigid lenses should replace their cases at least every three months, use recommended contact lens solution and never mix the fresh solution with the old.
"If there is no deal, and if we see that Germany remains rigid and wants to blow Europe apart, then we will have to go to plan B," said Panos Kammenos, who heads the leftist-led administration's junior rightwing partner Independent Greeks.
It's exciting to see a new generation of girls who already feel able, aged as young as eight, to stand up for themselves and declare their right to step outside the rigid pink and blue boundaries of gender stereotypes.
Even when the people we work with understand how illogical these rigid roles can be, even when they realise how negatively it has affected their lives, and even when they know that changing these attitudes and beliefs will be beneficial for them and their loved ones, it still feels foreign.
The girls are often born into slavery in a rigid caste system where "noble-borns", usually lighter-skinned Moors, indirectly or directly own darker-skinned Moors or black Africans.
In particular, the prospect of another period of rigid pay restraint means that real-terms pay cuts will continue.
