Are Men From Mars?

Genitals are a touchy subject. One talks of phallic men. These type-A personalities are similar to the elite teams portrayed on Strike Force. Uterine women? In this age of gender-free pronouns, how is it possible to detect the effect of secondary sex characteristics on personality or even consciousness?Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus is the title of a onetime bestseller which probably would meet with pushback today. It gets more complicated. People who come out can be like exchange students who return from their year abroad speaking another tongue. One wonders where the stereotypes of femininity or masculinity actually live. You’ve undoubtedly met up with francophiles who are laughable parodies. Is being manly necessarily a characteristic of one born with XY chromosomes? Are women sashaying because of high heels or morphology? In terms of role-playing, the Hermaphrodite raises questions which may be unanswerable but perhaps tantamount to Valentine Michael Smith, the earthling who returns from Mars in Stranger in a Strange Land, not knowing his ass from his elbow.

read "Current Affairs" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star