"Have there been any changes in the past or is it all basically the same since empowered became a thing in the first place?"

"I think there was less stringent separation between the classes for a time after the Dark Ages, but the basic structure was already in place then."

"Are there any situations where classes mix as peers? In... church, at a wild guess? Do actors and musicians that nobles like get any kind of entrez?"

"There are separate churches and when that wouldn't be practical, separate seating areas inside churches. There are commoners like that, who are treated better than others."

"I might like to see occasions like that and get more of a read on the way it works, if that's ever convenient."

"Do you mean you'd like to meet higher status commoners? Or something else."

"I'd like to see the mixing process."

"I'm not entirely certain what you mean - do you want to see situations where nobles interact with commoners they hold in unusually high regard?"

"Where nobles interact with commoners and the interaction is not about class even to the degree of one of the parties being the other's employer."

"Oh, I misunderstood your previous question - I don't believe that typically happens, my parents being a very unusual exception."

"What did you mean about commoners who are treated better than others, then?"

"Favored musicians, or household servants, and the like, who one noble would come to the defense of, should it be necessary."

"Ah, here I was imagining nobles shouldering their way backstage to pay compliments to the operatic lead or whoever."

"I would not rule that out, I suppose. At least for male nobles, it would not be acceptable for a woman to do so."

"Ugh."

"I do not particularly mind it, compared to the other indignities of my sex."

"They're all of a piece, if there's anything it's acceptable to opine women oughtn't do then it creates a category of things and adding new items is all the easier."

"I imagine there are at least some things that should in fact be in such a category? I think it's probably good that women are discouraged from engaging in combat when they are pregnant, even if I do not approve of the principle being extended farther than that."

"'While pregnant' is different, it's a temporary condition."

"I suppose that restrictions around baring one's chest in public are not quite so temporary?"

"Well, I'm personally accustomed to that double standard so it doesn't stick out to me much but I do acknowledge that it's a double standard."

"My, hrm, understanding of male proclivities is such that it seems a justified double standard?"

"Proclivity adjusts to culture. In places where women cover their hair, hair's provocative."

"Hm... I, for some reason, seem to think that my preference for this particular restriction would remain regardless of my culture, but perhaps that is because I am not very good at imagining what my opinions on women's clothing would be were I in a different culture."

"There are cultures where it's normal to go around topless. I remember reading that the women from one of those cultures thought it was hilarious that foreign men were distracted by breasts because they were used to that being a trait exclusive to babies."