# Ever wonder what you'd look like as the other gender? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 21, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565 "2008-09-21T18:30:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/21 "2008-09-22T00:29:03Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > My oldest sister and her two kids both take strongly after my father, who I also look like. > > We look better as men. Maybe I’m just in a goofy mood tonight but that is the funniest thing I’ve read today. If I were a female I would never get laid, even with the men at a bar with the beer goggles on at closing time. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/22 "2008-09-22T01:02:14Z")
> [@snailboy](#): > > What if you had received the other sex chromosome from your father, changing your gender, but all your other genes were the same? Just how much do the sex chromosomes contribute to your appearance? I often wonder about this. Even if you change the obvious stuff like facial hair, body hair, a flat chest, I’d still make an ugly woman. As far as I know, there’s no way to know for sure, only conjecture. If there was some non-genetic condition similar to androgen insensitivity syndrome, it’d be interesting to see identical twins of different genders. Nope, never wondered. I figure I’d be seven inches taller and a lot less curvy, but still have the same color eyes and hair. I think my brother is a more attractive man than I would be, but some weight loss and some self-esteem boost would fix most of that. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/23 "2008-09-22T02:00:04Z")
I’m of a very large build, and have the “meat and potatoes, football and beer” look. I suspect I’d be a pretty rough looking woman. Some sort of drag queen parody, I think. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/24 "2008-09-22T02:15:24Z")
My brother’s face was eerily identical to mine as a child, so watching him go through puberty has been interesting in that not only am I seeing my little brother grow into a man, but I’m getting a rough idea of what my own face would have looked like, had I been producing that particularly pubescent cocktail of hormones. I’m tall as a woman (5’9") and would be quite a bit taller as a man. My father was 6’2" and I figure I would have at least reached his height. I’m relatively muscular for a woman, so would probably build muscle mass far more easily as a man. My features are already rather pronounced, but would be moreso. My jaw, which is pretty narrow and pointy as a woman, would be broader and this would probably improve man-me’s face somewhat, though I’d remain looking rather boyish since I doubt I’d ever have a square, manly jaw. My cheekbones and eyes would be extremely striking on a man. I’d be pretty damn good looking, but the unfortunate thing is that while my brother has really nice wavy chestnut hair, my own is curly and red. As a woman, that’s great, but unless I did something about it, I’d be the pretty boy with a red fro. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/25 "2008-09-22T02:21:07Z")
I look almost exactly like my dad, so I know. Pics of him as a young boy are basically a post-puberty me, with short hair. Well, until he grew his beard. My childhood pics don’t resemble him, though. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/26 "2008-09-22T02:23:08Z")
Hmmm…thin hair, generous belly, and a scar on my cheek? Not an attractive woman. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/27 "2008-09-22T02:48:28Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > Well I appreciate the attempt at ignorance fighting. I really, really should have known better than to attempt thinking about a subject that involves math or numbers in any way. It always turns ugly. Don’t feel bad, if each chromosome were inherited as an intact unit from one parent (and it’s not at all intuitive that they aren’t) then the odds would be much better. It would be like tossing a coin 23 times and having it come up the same each time – either all heads or all tails. If my math is correct (it’s not my best area either, and I’m sleepy), then we’re talking something like 1 in 4 million odds, or about what you guessed. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/28 "2008-09-22T03:11:16Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Don’t feel bad, if each chromosome were inherited as an intact unit from one parent (and it’s not at all intuitive that they aren’t) then the odds would be much better. It would be like tossing a coin 23 times and having it come up the same each time – either all heads or all tails. If my math is correct (it’s not my best area either, and I’m sleepy), then we’re talking something like 1 in 4 million odds, or about what you guessed. Adapted from a post I made to another board about this same exact subject. The odds of duplicating 23 coin flips are 1 in 2[sup]23[/sup] (2 to the power of 23) which works out to 1 in 8,388,608. (one in eight million). Ignoring the effects of recombination, you’d expect there to be something on the order of a thousand of these time-delayed chromosomal matches to be alive today with those odds. (but not the close order). The actual odds are worse than that, because the problem is equivalent to flipping a coin 46 times and then duplicating the flips, or flipping heads 46 times in a row. The “flips”, i.e. which halves of the pairs the first sibling gets, happen 23 times on both the mother’s and the father’s side during their [gamete](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamete) production, for a total of 46 flips. Then, the same exact 46 flips need to happen _again_ for the later sibling to get the same chromosomal set. So that makes it 2[sup]46[/sup], which is 1 in 70,368,744,177,664… that’s one in _seventy trillion_. That means the odds of there being even _one_ of those alive on earth today are roughly one in ten thousand. Good luck with that. 🙂 But all that ignores recombination. As I understand it, it’s inevitable during both [meiosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis) and [fertilization](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilization#Fertilisation_and_genetic_recombination), making the odds astoundingly longer. We’re not talking “all the air on the other side of the room” long, but it’s up there. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/29 "2008-09-22T03:27:58Z")
I always thought that, with my prognathous brow, big nose, and other features, I’d make a singularly unattractive woman. You’d have to change so much that, if you wanted a female at all attractive, you’d have to excise just about everything that makes me me. Now that I have a daughter, I’m not so sure anymore. She has a _lot_ of my features, but she doesn’t look bad at all – and I don’t think that’s just my parenting instincts blinding me to reality. On her, the brow doesn’t look so bad. She hasn’yt got my nose, thank Og. And she manahges to make the chin look not so bad. Of course, having Pepper Mill’s genes helps, but she still shares a lot of my features, without looking as horrible as I imagined a woman built on my body would. ---
**Author:** ![beanpod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9adbd/32.png) [@beanpod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beanpod)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/30 "2008-09-22T04:18:50Z")
I always figured I’d look like my brother. Which means that I’d look a lot like my father. My brother and I actually look very similar. When you compare photos of us at the same age, it’s striking. He’s basically me with lighter hair and blue eyes. And, you know, boy parts. (And no need for glasses–the bum. He got mom’s eyesight.) We both look mostly like our dad, with a few subtle features from our mom. Also, when you line up my brother, my dad, and my grandfather, the resemblance is almost _scary_. We’ve got this photo of them all standing in the front yard, and they each have the same posture and look on their faces–and they didn’t mean too. I’ll see if I can find some old photos to post so you can see what I mean. So, my brother looks very very similar to my dad, and also looks very much like me. Once he’s grown up, he’ll probably look about like I would’ve if I’d been a boy. (He’s 12 now, so in 6 or 8 years maybe we can ask him if he thinks he looks girly.) I also flatter myself that I’m not ugly. 🙂 I’m not _gorgeous,_ but I’m a pretty average looking woman–ok, cute, sometimes pretty. I do have my dad’s big head, though. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/31 "2008-09-22T04:23:34Z")
> [@Monstera\_deliciosa](#): > > I believe **snailboy** was wondering what male identical twins would look like if it were possible for one, but not the other, to be affected with this syndrome. I don’t think he was positing that identical twins could be anything other than the same genetic gender. Exactly. Androgen Insensivity is caused by a defect on one of the non-sex chromosomes. Since it’s genetic, identical twins will both have it or neither will. But if there was some non-genetic version of it, something caused by the environment during gestation, we could see what identical twins of opposite gender look like. As far as I know, there’s no such condition, but this is all hypothetical anyway (unless someone can actually come up with an example). > [@Lamia](#): > > A person’s facial features are affected by their hormones, just as their body shape is. If you’d been born a woman with normal female hormone levels, you wouldn’t have the same facial features you do today even if your genes were otherwise the same. That’s largely what I’m getting at. There are the obvious secondary sex traits like I mentioned. There are somewhat more subtle traits like you mentioned. There could be things that we don’t realize are affected by the sex chromosomes, but are. Due to the complexity of genetics and no actual examples, it’s really hard to say what our otherwise identical but opposite gender sibling (or clone) would look like. Would you just look like siblings? Or would it go beyond that, something we’ve never seen before? I’ve seen siblings of the same gender who aren’t identical but look very similar, but it’s still not on the level of identical twins. So how much would hormones obscure those identical genes? > [@CalMeacham](#): > > I always thought that, with my prognathous brow, big nose, and other features, I’d make a singularly unattractive woman. You’d have to change so much that, if you wanted a female at all attractive, you’d have to excise just about everything that makes me me. > > Now that I have a daughter, I’m not so sure anymore. She has a _lot_ of my features, but she doesn’t look bad at all – and I don’t think that’s just my parenting instincts blinding me to reality. On her, the brow doesn’t look so bad. She hasn’yt got my nose, thank Og. And she manahges to make the chin look not so bad. > > Of course, having Pepper Mill’s genes helps, but she still shares a lot of my features, without looking as horrible as I imagined a woman built on my body would. I think a lot of people here overlook that. A female version of you would not look like you in drag. There may be traits you don’t think are caused by the sex chromosomes but are, and others that would appear in either gender but take on a more masculine appearance in males and a feminine appearance in females. Then I’m sure there are a few that wouldn’t cross over so well, but not nearly as many as people think. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/32 "2008-09-22T09:19:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I always thought that, with my prognathous brow, big nose, and other features, I’d make a singularly unattractive woman. You’d have to change so much that, if you wanted a female at all attractive, you’d have to excise just about everything that makes me me. > > Now that I have a daughter, I’m not so sure anymore. She has a _lot_ of my features, but she doesn’t look bad at all – and I don’t think that’s just my parenting instincts blinding me to reality. On her, the brow doesn’t look so bad. She hasn’yt got my nose, thank Og. And she manahges to make the chin look not so bad. > > Of course, having Pepper Mill’s genes helps, but she still shares a lot of my features, without looking as horrible as I imagined a woman built on my body would. Look at the Tylers. According to an interviewwith Aerosmith I saw on TV, Liv’s mom wasn’t even sure who her dad was, but there came a point when the resemblance was so evident it dispelled any doubts. He’s fugly, she’s a looker if you’re not avert to wide mouths. Thinks like fat distribution (the belly mentioned by another poster), nose size and hair are very affected by gender. So shaving my head and painting on a 5 o’clock wouldn’t give me a good guess of what I’d look like as a man; I’d have a better shot by looking at my brothers and cousins. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/33 "2008-09-22T12:49:58Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#): > > The actual odds are worse than that, because the problem is equivalent to flipping a coin 46 times and then duplicating the flips, or flipping heads 46 times in a row. I was thinking about this during my morning commute, and actually logged on specifically to say I must have underestimated the number of “coin flips” involved. I’m glad someone who better knows what they’re talking about showed up, because I don’t think I’d have been able to work out the correct odds. I also wanted to mention that the genealogy site [MyHeritage.com](http://MyHeritage.com) has a fun tool that will analyze photos of people’s faces and compare them to a large database of celebrity photographs. The results are based on facial structure and ignore gender, so people may be able to get an idea of what opposite-sex celebrity has features most similar to theirs. Go to [http://www.myheritage.com/face-recognition](http://www.myheritage.com/face-recognition) and choose “Celebrity Collage”. The program gives what I’d consider undue weight to hairline, so if you’ve got bangs you’re going to be matched with photos of other people with bangs, etc. As most photos of me show me with my hair pulled back for work, I get a fair number of matches with photos of men with short, forehead-showing haircuts. So women interested in being matched with men could try putting their hair back to increase masculine results, and I guess men could throw a scarf over their heads or something. Based on the results of several different photos of myself, apparently the celebrity guy I most resemble is Frankie Muniz, TV’s “Malcolm in the Middle”. He’s several years younger than I am though, so what I’d look like as a mature man remains to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/34 "2008-09-22T14:50:32Z")
Probably nothing to write home about, except for one feature: I have fingernails that some women would kill for. They grow fast, they’re exceptionally strong yet flexible, never crack or chip, and are perfectly shaped. Naturally, they’re utterly wasted on me. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/35 "2008-09-22T14:52:23Z")
If I were the other gender, I’d totally do me. Wait…what? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/36 "2008-09-22T14:54:19Z")
I have it on good authority that I’d make an ugly woman. ---
**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/37 "2008-09-22T14:57:26Z")
I think I could have been a supermodel if I’d been born a woman. I’m tall, naturally skinny in the “eat absolutely anything and can’t gain a pound” mold (although now that I’m in my mid '30s I’ve filled out), and I most closely resemble my mother who was genuinely gorgeous as a young woman. I’m not bad as a guy, but nothing to write home about. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/38 "2008-09-22T15:16:14Z")
I believe it was Brodie Burce who said it best: “I would have made a sexy chick!” ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/39 "2008-09-22T19:09:02Z")
Somewhat amusingly, I think I’d end up the kind of chick I tended to end up dating–slavic facial structures, big-boned, judging by my female relatives I’d be voluptuous instead of pudgy. =P This is certainly an interesting thread especially in how many guys seem to think they’d make ugly women. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565/40 "2008-09-22T19:22:55Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > My brother’s face was eerily identical to mine as a child, so watching him go through puberty has been interesting in that not only am I seeing my little brother grow into a man, but I’m getting a rough idea of what my own face would have looked like, had I been producing that particularly pubescent cocktail of hormones. I’m going through the same thing with my son, who has his father’s torso and ability to put on muscle with no effort, but my face, arms and legs. It’s weird! Seeing coarser features on “my” face, and long curly hair on “my” legs certainly does have me intrigued! “I” have much better cheekbones as a male - we had the same shape face until he hit puberty, and then that testosterone just came in and chiseled away all the roundness, leaving cheekbones you could cut steak with. So jealous… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-wonder-what-youd-look-like-as-the-other-gender/464565.md?page=3)