Thursday, May 30, 2013

Would you change your gender, if you could never change back again?

Who are you calling a sequential hermaphrodite?!
© Deviney | Dreamstime.com


Hello you wonderful person you. How are you doing? How's that cold? I recommend Vitamin C and a hot toddy. 

I know, I've been neglecting you lately. 

My work has been mentally busy (appropriate I guess) and I've been a bit of a writerly tart, slutting about in online mags instead of here.

Fear not, I'm back blathering on about vaginas and nature and toilets again.

On the subject of vaginas and nature and toilets, did you know that some creatures can start life as one sex and then change into another? It's called dichogamy, and those creatures are referred to as sequential hermaphrodites.

No I'm not about to confess some major life-changing decision.

Sequential hermaphrodites can be born either sex and change to the other, or have both sets of gonads but perform either female or male functions during different stages of life. Thank you Wikipedia.

How terrific would it be if humans were sequential hermaphrodites?

What would the impact be?

Most sequential hermaphrodites can only change once, so it would probably be an all-or-nothing deal. 

Would we all be men? Or all women?

What would be the advantages of changing?

Fellas, imagine how much more wardrobe space you'd need.

Gals, imagine not having to sit down to pee.

Imagine what a different movie Finding Nemo might have been if Marlin had behaved like a real male clownfish. Male clownfish stay in their anemone and change to female if a mate is lost, so they can attract another mate and continue making perfect little sequentially hermaphroditic offspring.

Nemo who?

Would you change your gender, if you could never change back again?

20 comments:

  1. Oh God no! I couldn't put up with the incompetence that comes along with being male.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, I rather like being female, mainly. I suppose I wouldn't mind trying it out, but not if I was going to be stuck with all the left over elbow skin that goes into making a scrotum...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd rather be a male.

    No periods, no pregnancies, no menopause, no boobs, no boob pain, no ovaries, no worries about make-up, skin care, clothes, growing nails, hair care, etc, etc, etc....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to admit I'm a terribly lazy woman so I'm halfway there already... although I'm so with you on the period thing!

      Delete
  4. So glad to see you here again.
    I have missed you and your wonderful wacky words.
    I would love to see what it was like to be a man and to be able to zone out and not hear my partner when I didn't want to.
    Oh and to be able to go through life with the attitude...don't worry it'll be right.
    I would love not having to remember where anything was as I could just ask my wife.
    But I couldn't stand the dangly bits as my boobs get in the way enough at times so I guess I wouldn't if I couldn't change back again :) xx
    So I guess I would have to stay a woman

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting how women in general are more focused on the behavioral aspects - which are not inherent but culturally learned at home and in the neighborhood.

    Yet, while there appears to be some interest by the women here (small sample, I know) in the physical it almost seems secondary.

    I'd bet that most men would, like me, certainly be more interested in the physical - specifically what it would feel like to be the catcher rather than the pitcher. (Sorry, US baseball reference/euphemism) Most of us would like to know what it feels like physically to be a woman ... specifically during sex. (I noticed that no men have answered. Are men afraid to admit interest at any level of being female? I am guessing "YES".)

    I am guessing that if I could no longer "pull up a tree" (standing pee reference) AND the change were permanent - the deal is off. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mark. It seemed to me that women were turned off by the whole male genitalia thing in general in their comments - thank you so much for being a lone male voice in the wilderness! ;-)x

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