Religion Is Made Up

[R. S. Martin]

I used to go everywhere with some version of my RubySera screen name. On one forum I got into a scrap with a person because I chose to take offense that he assumed Ruby was a male. In retrospect I think that was incredibly stupid of me but my point is that not everyone catches that it's a woman's name.

 

I learned the thing about using initials from a little story I read many years ago in a little "It Happened In Canada" piece that the local newpaper used to publish. Dr. Miranda something was thought by all to be male until death, when this hardy pioneer doctor was discovered to be female. Let's see, the initials came from another story. Miranda just inserted a male name. There was this successful company name with initials and last name. One day an important client called to speak to Mr. So&So. A female voice answered and informed them there was no Mr So&So. The male client insisted that there was and insisted that he be put through to N. N. Name (I have no idea what the name was). The lady informed the client that if he wanted to speak to N. N. Name he had to speak to her. I forget the outcome of that incident. I think she lost the client but not her dignity or her business.

 

At our humanist-freethinker winter solstice event in December I noticed something different from anything I had ever experienced before in all my life. It was as though all of us were of the same gender. Yet there were more men than women in the room. I would say the men admitted the women into their gender space, because it was not the atmosphere of an all-female space. On the other hand, perhaps what I experienced was the different culture of a different city.