By David Kettlewell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may have read about Steven, he\u2019s the male skater who wears a dress on the ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you haven\u2019t heard of him, read the center insert. It gives the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an author with 24 years of professional writing experience, I\u2019ve never dealt with an issue that generated such tremendous emotion from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respected, intelligent, successful people literally accosted me with views that were anything but balanced or reflective of a considered viewpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was told his genetic material should be removed from the gene pool, that he was ungodly, and worse. Friends from the skating world called to suggest the story should not be written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What follows is my attempt to make sense of the emotions. It is theatrical. It is overblown, by design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The essentials of the story are pretty obvious, and even predictable for those of us born and raised in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man chooses to wear a dress on the ice. People make fun of him. He feels outcast. End of story. Or is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We Midwesterners have about as much tolerance for this type of behavior as we do for a fish that won\u2019t swim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, let\u2019s put it another way. You want to win the Presidency? You better win Ohio because as goes Ohio, so goes the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I figure it has to do with the frontier of the 1800\u2019s. The real conservative types stayed in the East, and the real adventurous went to California, but the middle of the roaders\u2026yep, we\u2019re here in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the predominance of opinion is against the guy wearing a dress. He\u2019s never hurt anyone, that\u2019s not the point. You don\u2019t have to hurt anyone. Just don\u2019t \u201cgo along.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, he\u2019s not \u201cgoing along.\u201d Step in line boy, you should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the prison guard with the shotgun in Cool Hand Luke who bloats, \u201cWhat We Have Here Is A Failure to Communicate.\u201d Luke ended up shot and driving at a snail\u2019s pace in the ambulance till he died. Or Jack Nicholas\u2019s character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest. He didn\u2019t want to take his pills, he didn\u2019t want to get along so he got lobotomized and had the life literally smothered out of him with a pillow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think this is just in the movies? Think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guess what, what we say about the man in the dress says whole lots more about us than it does about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WE say he doesn\u2019t fit in, he won\u2019t go along, he\u2019s sick, and maybe dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we should say is we expect<\/strong> everyone to fit in, that you better go along to get along, that we define those that don\u2019t as sick, and that it\u2019s we who can be dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One finger points, three point back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1700\u2019s men of the aristocracy wore wigs, perfume, makeup, stockings, and little bitty outfits that look a lot like a skirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we wear is merely a convention, we agree to agree, about clothes at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wear this, it says you fit in. True in bowling leagues and the corporate suites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what does it say when a person chooses to wear something different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I don\u2019t think we like what it says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It says that our conventions aren\u2019t the final word. That our views aren\u2019t the only ones that count. That he can choose to be different. And that if we don\u2019t like it, we can go jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not that we don\u2019t like a bit of the outcast in our stars. Madonna, Marlon Brando, Avril Lavigne, bad boys all. But please, pretty please, not too outcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, you can wear a Harley outfit and ride a Fat Boy, that\u2019s ok, but don\u2019t wear a dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We wear the thick muck of prejudice around our necks like an oxen yoke, and it fits so good we don\u2019t even see it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For most, our eyes are the key to our prejudices. Forget about them being the window to the soul. It\u2019s prejudice we like, pure prejudice. See a black man, hate a black man, see a white man, hate a white man, you get the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To see beyond the eyes, to view something and think clearly about what our options are, how we choose to respond from various options, this is a monumental task, Herculean. It\u2019s like, \u201cLove Your Enemy,\u201d Jack, that\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Convention can be a good thing. It makes traffic flow work. But convention has an ugly side too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like when we can\u2019t even tolerate a dress. Or an accent in speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re a lot closer to our nation\u2019s potential regarding armaments than we are with the nuances of freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Better than thou? Don\u2019t count on it. Do I like a man in a dress? No. I\u2019m an Ohioan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does it mean when we react so to a guy in a dress? Who does it hurt? Why do we care?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You tell me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By David Kettlewell You may have read about Steven, he\u2019s the male skater who wears a dress on the ice. If you haven\u2019t heard of him, read the center insert. It gives the details. As an author with 24 years of professional writing experience, I\u2019ve never dealt with an issue that generated such tremendous emotion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-general","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n