Ah, summer. Here in the northeastern United States, the season is marked by a series of long-held rituals: weekend getaways to Atlantic beaches, cookouts and barbecues in public parks, and debates over office air-conditioning.

The celebrating has been more zealous than usual this year. On the Fourth of July, the New York Times embraced the summer spirit with a piece by Style section writer Penelope Green provocatively titled, “Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?” Green summed up the arguments against AC familiar to many an inhabitant of this humid, coastal plain: it is used by Americans more than in nearly all other countries, it has a substantial carbon footprint, and it has a gender bias — while men typically enjoy the cooling of summer offices, women regularly wrap themselves in scarfs and sweaters to make it through the indoor chill.

It was this last argument that sparked the most impassioned response, when a tweet by Atlantic writer Taylor Lorenz, linking to Green’s piece, went viral: “Air-conditioning is unhealthy, bad, miserable, and sexist,” Lorenz wrote. “I can’t explain how many times I’ve gotten sick over the summer b/c of overzealous AC in offices. #BanAC.”