Crawl or Soar

I was thinking about Helen Keller.

She said something like

A person cannot consent to crawl, when she has the urge to soar.

I like that.

Of course, the "she" in that sentence applies to all people, all genders, just like "he" has applied to women, as well as men, for hundreds of years.

Has it been hundreds of years? I have read that "they" is now used as plural or singular, because it does apply to both genders.

What I really admire about Helen Keller, is that she was a professional speaker!

This is what she actually said:

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

Of course, she used the singular pronoun "one." You don't hear that very often these days. But it was a wise choice.

Cross-dressing

I just finished Self-Made Man by Nora Vincent. It's a very interesting account of the experiences of a woman who dresses like a man for more than a year. It's a very interesting examination of gender roles in our culture.

I'm intrigued by things like this. "Tootsie" is one of my favorite movies. I love the way Dustin Hoffman reacts when he can't get a taxi, and when his boss calls him Sweetie or Tootsie instead of his name. I actually could accept Dorothy as a woman.

"Yentl," however, was a different story. I never thought Barbara looked enough like a man to fool Mandy Pantankin or Amy whats-her-name.

Is Gender behavior inborn or learned? I think the answer is both. Nora thought it would be very liberating to be treated like a man, but found out just how much pressure there is to BE A MAN! She started her experiences like a boy and learned along the way what it really means to be a man in our culture. There are some good insights in her book.

Interesting

I can't let this go without making a comment:

The city manager of Largo, Florida, announced last week that he intended to have a sex change operation. He also stated that he would like to keep his $140K position. Last night the City Council voted 5-2 to terminate him. He is an at-will employee and can be terminated at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Of course, they say the reason is not because he has chosen to become a woman, but I was wondering last week how they were going to get out of paying a woman a man's salary. It was easy, given the terms of his employment contract.