I have no idea what any of the political leanings of any of my co-workers were, but I can easily conceive of them having exactly the same reaction. It was funny, too, at the reaction I once got when I pointed out that I was very good at math and I might make a pretty good cashier. They were all women at this store (and all men working stock, in the meat market, and in management with the sole exception of the Head Cashier). They looked at me sideways after that.

After I was married and my wife and I set up housekeeping in Cambridge, Mass., I worked at the Purity Supreme in Central Square. They had a different policy - they always had at least one or two male cashiers on shift. The idea apparently was to help deal with obsteprous customers, of which there was no lack in Central Square in the mid-70’s. I ended up getting assigned to close a lot. I thought they were pissed off at me for some reason, but it turned out that they wanted me, because of my size and bass-baritone voice, to escort the guy with the cash out of the store to his vehicle every night.

One of these days I’d like to see a cartoonist who drew women as plain and men as women dressing in drag. The girl cats would look normal; the boy cats would have ridiculous looking chin-whisps and poorly frosted hair. Because, you know, all members of a gender look like the ones shown in the magazines.