Does this make me look girly?

If anyone needs another argument against the existence of god, I offer one word: gnats. How could a supreme being blunder so stupidly as to create gnats? My (very brief) online research finds not one good reason they exist. Many contributors agree with me: they exist ONLY to fly into my eyes and mouth and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

On the left is one of my weapons against the scourge that is the gnat. For those of you too young to know what it is, let me explain. It is a fan. I hold it in my hand and wave it back and forth, creating a breeze that cools me off a bit, and, more importantly, blows those infernal pests away.

This fan, like the ones pictured below, is likely 50 years old. They were my Mom’s and were almost certainly bought in Japan sometime before 1963. You don’t see fans much anymore, other than in churches in the South. Do folks in Japan still use fans like this? I wonder.

When Ransom learned I was using this fan, he was aghast. He must have been afraid someone would see me. He thought a fan like this was NOT something a man used.

“Why is that?” I protested. It works, that’s all that matters. I’ve always hated the gender roles that society force on us. “You’re telling me I have to suffer the heat and the gnats to protect my masculinity?”

“Bullshit” say I.

“Bullshit” say I as well to what I call the “Tyranny of the Tie.” It’s always struck me as unfair that while women have hundreds of way to be dressed up, men have only one: a coat and tie.

The New York Times magazine a couple Sundays back ran a fascinating article titled “What’s Wrong with a Boy Who Wears a Dress?” Depending on how you stress the words, you might think they were asking “What’s WRONG with that boy?” -- for surely something must be wrong. In fact the Times attitude leaned more toward “What’s wrong? Nothing really.” It’s a fascinating article about a rarely discussed subject.

One can only hope that as time goes by we will all be more free to be who we are.