inherited "double standard." We begin to say that what is right and good and virtuous for our daughters is NOT right and good and virtuous for our SONS. Yet both sexes were created by an intelligence far beyond our capacity to comprehend, and in the Image and Likeness of an apparently sexually androgynous Spirit!

This double standard seems to cause us little concern over the tom-boyish actions of our daughters, but woe be the boy who prefers a coloring book or helping mother in the kitchen to a rough and tumble game of commandos. We begin to worry that our little man is a sissy. So Dad takes the situation in hand and states "I'll make a man of him," pursuing the mistaken idea that what Western culture requires in conduct of the male denotes him a MAN. So father pushes this unfortunate child into a world of unbalanced and forced masculinity; a world into which the child may not fit and one which may terrify him, forcing him deeper into femininity as a refuge where life is more sweet and quiet, less demanding and more suited to his temperament.

If father succeeds, (this is success?) what becomes of the precious ethical virtues this child wishes to express? Our culture admonishes that a male must be strong, courageous and aggressive, for the more gentle virtues are reserved and held to be the exclusive property of the female. Today there are many women in the world who display strength (of character only, as the accident of birth gives most males the edge physically) courage, aggressiveness, and who are more than capable of competing in our so-called patriarchal society. There are thousands. They have always been there, but have heretofore been suppressed in their MASCULINE expressions by the fearful males who teeter so precariously on their perch of pseudo superiority.

Women therefore are capable of and do express many of the so-called masculine traits. And some men who are unafraid of public opinion become leading fashion designers and hair stylists. A feminine profession? Certainly. But they need be no less MALE. It does not follow that one must be a homosexual in order to express this inborn femininity. (The predisposition to feminine behavior is a theory propounded by a leading authority, and while I concur I cannot take credit for his thinking.) As a matter of record, most homosexual males abhor the female and the femininity she represents.

27