Years and years was firmly planted on my couch watching MTV.  This was back when hey played videos, too, and I was enjoying some sort of top twenty show.  The VJ then announced that a new band had entered the countdown with a song called "Mmm Bop."  The video began and I took in the scene: a three-person band backed up a by an ugly guitar player, a little kid drummer and acute chick singer/pianist.  Of course, that band was Hanson and the singer was certainly not a chick.  I wouldn't find out until later on, after commenting to one of my friends about this cute girl singer I saw on TV.  I think I could be forgiven for mistaken Taylor Hanson for a girl, especially in those early days when he really, really, did look like one.  Anyway, that embarrassing incident passed and I haven't made the same mistake again...until a few days ago.

I was at the gym, running on the eliptical (like all jacked guys do) when a video for a bad called Tokio Hotel came on.  I first noticed the guitarist, who wore a stiff brim baseball hat from which flowed feet of nappy dreadlocks.  White person dreadlocks have never been my favorite style, but then I noticed the singer.  She was a rail-thin, tall, brooding girl, with wildly teased out emo hair and a slender, cute face.  If she was actually a girl it would have been better, too.  I had been fooled again by a girlish boy!  This time, the Internet answered my question when I saw a banner ad featuring the "adorable Billy Kaulitz from Tokio Hotel."  "Huh," I thought, "she's named Billy.  Weird."  A quick stop at wikipedia confirmed it; the she was most certainly a he. 

So, after two embarrassing incidents over the past decade I must insist something be done about this.  I cannot continue to mistake he's for she's, especially not in the company of my friends who rarely let that sort of misstep go un-made-fun-of.  Here is my proposal: if you're a girlish looking boy in a band you should be made to wear some sort of identifying mark that says as much in your first video.  Perhaps you could wear the blue baby booties the hospital gave you when you were born around your neck.  Or maybe you be shown enjoying a Three Stooges movie.  Perhaps you might even want to take it out, just for a second, to put any rumors to rest.  I hate to be so drastic but at this point, any steps to keep me from mistaking boys for girls are welcome. Also, maybe chill on the makeup.