Don’t worry, I’ve started a thread to branch off on this topic, you can thank me later ;).
If I would have the same level of attractiveness as what I am now…no thanks, I’ll stick with being a guy. If I could test drive being a really beautiful woman, yeah I’d give it a try and if it was as much fun as it looks I’d consider sticking with it.
I’d be a lesbian of course.
Occasionally, throughout my life - particularly when I was younger and in school - I’d be the only female working on a project and have any and all of my input ignored. And yes, it’s because I was a girl/woman. They often said as much. (It never really stood in my way in the long-term, just irritated me to no end at the time.)
Those were times I really thought it might be nice to be a dude. Just so that when I opened my mouth, I would be heard. I often feel that way here on the Dope regarding issues of gender discrimination. Because some male posters just ignore women without even realizing it, particularly on issues that are most important to women. As if we couldn’t possibly have anything of value to say about our own experience.
I mean, there are some posters in this very thread refusing to legitimize the existence of sexism in America. Well, it exists. And sometimes I wish I was a man so that when I said that, you’d take me seriously.
I’m transgender but only just starting to transition, so my answer’s yes, all the time!
One more for wanting to test drive the opposite gender. For me it’s not as much about sex as societal expectations - I’d love to find out how my coworkers would treat me if I weren’t six inches shorter than all of them with a voice two octaves higher. I suspect it wouldn’t be that much different, but you can’t really know without trying.
I’ll try to avoid any great gender debates here, but my impression is that most gender/racial/etc advantages and disadvantages even out as you get to know someone. As a chick in the tech world, I may have to work harder to prove that I know my stuff. However, once I establish that I’m competent I’ve never had trouble being accepted. (At least that’s how it works with decent people. The other variety aren’t worth commenting on.) Of course, this assumes that you get close enough to someone ‘different’ to get to know them in the first place.
I don’t think that is so much gender discrimination, as giving less weight to someone with a perceived self interest. Not good either way, but a little different.
The reason some people might take a man especially seriously if he described anti-female sexism is that it would (in an oversimplified way) be against his perceived self interest. It’s like Warren Buffett getting press over his claim that taxes are historically and disastrously low for the most wealthy.
“If even a super-rich person thinks taxes are too low for the super-rich, it must be true.”
“If even a man thinks he is benefiting from being immune to rampant anti-female sexism in America, it must be true.”
Similarly, I think a woman would be taken more seriously than a man if she argued that some of the breast cancer awareness and research funds should be diverted to prostate cancer, or wrote “The War Against Boys”, as at first glance those would be against her seeming self interest.
Hey, thank you, I’ve never inspired a breakaway thread before 
Umm, back to the topic I suppose - female, never wanted to be male, but sometimes have dreams of what it’s like to be a guy, that seem very realistic to me!
(I say seem, because I’ve no way of telling if that’s what having dangly bits actually feels like, but the dream sensation seems fairly plausible)
Best wishes! At the risk of sounding like a public-service YouTube clip, it *does *get better.
Interesting. I never thought about it that way.
I would love to be able to pass as male on command. For one, I know for a fact that I and my opinions would be treated with more respect as a male since when I claim to be male online, I receive more respect. I’ve engaged far too many people who started behaving patronizingly towards me (“doll”, “sweetie”, “girl”). When I asked them politely not to use such terms in real life, then I’m a stuck up cunt. When I tell them I’m a dude online, then they start treating me as an equal. In the work place, when I pretend to be male (I freelance write), I receive more job offers and higher satisfaction rates. I’m not the only author to notice this.
I’d like to be able to walk around on the streets of major cities without being harassed. I’d like to be able to hitchhike around Central America and not have to worry as much about the individuals who pick me up. I’d like to at least have the option of having sex with strangers without worry for my safety or that I will be blamed should something happen to me while I engage with these strangers.
It would be fun to have the body and play with it, but I mostly want the respect. I’ve noticed that growing older has given me more of it, but I’d love to be treated as an equal with my age mates.
I am also a female in a tech world and while it is true that once people understand how knowledgable/good at my job I am, the sexism usually tapers off, the fact that I have to prove it to every guy I encounter here just pisses me off.
I voted that I often want to be male just for that reason. (Also, peeing standing up, no period and wearing a suit to be formally dressed.)
Looking around my office, there are no female managers and I think the fact that I am a tomboy (I go for beers with the boys not lunch with the girls) is the only reason I have as much respect as I do. It’s just wrong.
(Again, I am presuming that if I were magically made male, all other things in my life would stay the same. It would probably add some complications to my marriage, though.)
I haven’t read the rest of the answers, but I will.
If there was a simple, cheap and easily reversible procedure I’d do it in a heartbeat, and I imagine we would be surprised at how many people would also give it a try. If such a technology was available I imagine most of the societal hang-ups we have over gender would, if not disappear, then at least become a lot less important.
A scenario like that depicted in The Culture novels by Iain Banks where most people change gender at least once in their lives would probably be the result. In fact one character is thought of as weird because he has never changed gender and expresses no desire to.
I’ve never quite understood why people are so attached to their gender, its a fifty/fifty quirk of fate and not something you have any control over. In fact I find the whole ‘battle of the genders’ thing that goes on in society, whether on a supposed joke or more serious basis to be divisive and unhelpful, we’re all human beings and we’re all in it together.
I’m male and happy enough about it but I do sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I had been born female, it may have been better, it may have been worse, but it would certainly have been different…
I agree! The coin lands one side or the other, you get either an innie or an outie, and suddenly you’re displaying this extreme loyalty to that particalur variety? It was a fifty/fifty ball.
For that matter, you’re born on one side or the other of a national border, and suddenly you’re willing to defend to your death one particular national flag and one culture’s preference in how to best prepare onions?
Lots of -isms don’t seem to make sense to me.
I’m female. I wish I was a guy sometimes, but not often. Mostly for the social perks, like higher pay and being on the better end of the “slut” double-standard. I’d like the ability to be ambitious, non-desirous of kids, and non-nurturing without having my genderness called into question.
But I also get annoyed by having boobs sometimes. It’d be nice to be able to sleep on my stomach without my chest getting in the way! >:[ If I could trade bodies with a guy once a month and skip my periods, that’d be great, too.
But then you’d be sleeping on your penis, which can be quite uncomfortable.
:dubious: Just how big is your junk?
It’s funny, I’m a little envious that women don’t have to wear neckties.
It’s of epic proportions. Women want it, and men applaud it. Scientists and philosophers study it. The inhabitants of a small South Pacific island revere it as a demigod. I’ve tried convincing them that I’d prefer offerings of live beautiful maidens instead of dead pigs, but there’s a bit of a language barrier. At least my freezer is well stocked with pork. It’s got me cooking at home more instead of eating out as much; it’s a nice change. Pork is a surprisingly versatile meat. I’ve recently perfected a truly amazing bacon risotto recipe. Wait a minute, what was I talking about again?
Oh right, my cock. Seriously though, I’m not the only guy who finds it uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach because my junk gets in the way, am I?
The first part of this doesn’t fit with the second part.
The reason we’re attached to our gender is because we’d be different people if we were born into a different body. There are many mental and physical developments that shape our personalities, quite aside from the experiences we have growing up.
Intersex and transgender people feel so wrong in their original male or female body that they’re willing to undergo the enormous psychological dislocation and not inconsiderable physical danger of transitioning to another gender. That to me says it’s a Big Fucking Deal, especially considering that — like I pointed out earlier — the best physical transformations we can do at present are still horribly limited.
No, your junk gets in my way too.