ental areas, the two sexes dress about alike. Most primitive societies are noted for the artistry of the males which extends into jewelry and articles of clothing.

Western man, on the other hand, is a hard driving competitor who wants to build bridges and rockets; he has no time for frills. Once in a while he relaxes as in the early 1700's when European men were addicted to laces, perfumes, ribbons and wigs. Moreover, Western civilization, in its desire to explain everything, to systematize everything, places us all in categories. If you are an American male of a certain age, in a certain economic bracket, you are supposed to act in a certain way and dress in a prescribed fashion. Finally, this attempt to place everyone in a behavior strait-jacket is accentuated by the triumph of mass-man. The masses are now the arbiters of taste and fashion and you must conform to their models or they will turn on you with scorn and ridicule. We are not as individual as we like to think we are.

Louise 5-R-6

Dear Virginia:

You may be interested to hear of an experience that I had when I was first starting to express my femme nature. It took place in one of the large prairie cities.

While wandering about the down town shopping section I found a Ladies Wear store off on one of the side streets. I will call the lady who operated it Marie (as she was French). I had been in the store a few times and we had become quite friendly and I would have coffee with her in the back of the store where we would talk about different things. After a lot of thought I decided that I would tell her the truth about myself if and when the opportunity arrived.

This came about much sooner than I had expected, for one day dropping into the store just before she was closing up for the afternoon, she asked if I would like to help her to rearrange her stock. Of course I said that I would be very glad to do so. We went out and had lunch together, and when we got back I took off my jacket and tie and rolled up my sleeves to do what I could to help her. All went well till we stopped to have a cup of coffee. She said you seem to be right at home

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