The Woman Within

This isn’t just a story about a bike.   It’s not just a story about what I did today.   It is a story that is all of ours, yet at the same time it is also a story that is uniquely my own....and with special consideration to the inspirations of Robert Frost. Today is the day before the day of my birth.   It’s the day before the day I began an independent journey of what would be called my life.   Today was a warm and sunny day and it was a day for me to explore, to think, to reminisce and a day to think about tomorrow and the days ahead. My spouse, Joanne, was dealing with a painful backache and so my day today, on this Sunday, was free for me to do as desired.   Deciding on a bike ride, I quickly changed into my bike tights and top, donned my helmet, and extracted my bike of choice from it’s perch on our Barn’s wooden walls. On this day the bike of chose was my steadfast and trustworthy 12 speed touring bike.   I thought it appropriate on this day, for this bike, bu

 "Japan is seeing an explosion in sales of male beauty products and the spread of male cross-dressing." We are witnessing a shift and change in the ideology of the world as we continue to break down societally pre-conceived concepts of gender expression. Society has seen, in the past 100 years, the rise of women to be able to express as men, right down to their choice of clothing if they so desire.  That's a move "up" in a patriarchal society that had always put men higher on the totem than women.  Women's suffrages and rights have come to change that. Still, society has had a difficult time with the reverse... seeing any expression of the feminine as a step downward.  Descriptives such as "girly", "effeminate", "emasculated" are often used.  Even sexual identity is often mis-labeled and such a male may be considered to suddenly be "gay" for so cross-dressing. If women can express their masculine side and work