I adore being a woman, I can’t imagine being a man, (though they’re fun to have! :D).
Being a man would be easier, sure, but so would being white or having some religious affiliation or drinking less. Not really interested in any of those things. I like being me.
Bingo. While of course I’m curious in a general sort of way – particularly, I’d like to experience straight sex as the penis-haver – the only thing that makes me come even close to ever truly wishing I were born a man is the whole menstrual cycle thing (and the peri-menopause, and the menopause, and the post-menopause). Especially considering that I’ve never wanted children, which means I’ve been dealing with this bullshit every month for the past 30 years for no goddamn reason.*
But despite men having it much easier biologically, and despite having some traditionally “masculine” traits/interests, somehow I remain glad that I’m a woman. I may not always feel feminine, but I definitely always feel like a female.
My heart breaks for those who can’t (for whatever reason)!
*I know that there are women who desperately want children and would kill to have a “normal” cycle. I would give them my fertility – well, whatever I had before I was in my 40s – in a heartbeat if it were possible. But it doesn’t make me any less frustrated, or my periods any less pointless. Mother Nature is supremely unfair; that bitch can bite me.
There’s no way I’m opting into sexism. I’ll stay male, thanks.
If I could import my current personality into the female body and age of my choice…maybe. Temporarily.
But to have been born female? Nah. I like being able to walk wherever and whenever I want without feeling scared.
Both genders face difficulties. In the context of western society one sex doesn’t have it easier or harder than the other.
I am extremely surprised to see that everyone is mainly voting to stay the way they are. I can’t imagine wanting to be a woman. It’s good to know that there are enough benefits to balance out the biological and sociological crap that come from being a chick.
Really? I don’t think many women are going to agree with that. I am a man and I don’t agree with it.
The chance to give up monthly menstruation and having to protect against pregnancy in favor of being able to pee standing up?! Sign me up!!
Heck, my husband has talked considerably about how he wouldn’t mind being a woman. We could probably just both switch and call it a day and still be a straight couple. Everyone already treats me as the man and him the woman based on our personalities.
Neither of us feel trapped in the wrong body or anything. I am absolutely me. I wouldn’t do surgery and I don’t feel the need to do stereotypical crossdressing. It’s just if any all-knowing power asked me my opinion at birth, I’d choose man. If androgynous was an actual and normal sex type, I’d choose to be that, actually.
Being able to piss by the side of the road is fucking awesome.
The biggest downside of being a woman would be having to deal with men. Yuck. I honestly can’t understand how the human species manages to continue with half the population being men. What woman would want one? Which is the downside of being a man.
The last time I thought about changing sex was at age 6. I thought twirling a full skirt was awesome, at least for Halloween.
I quickly grew out of it.
This whole concept seems a little odd to me in the way people are looking at it. Considering how many people can’t seem to imagine being the other sex seems to sort of miss the big thing that if one were actually born and raised the opposite sex, a lot of stuff that they can’t imagine now would seem perfectly mundane and normal whereas stuff that seems that way now would appear bizarre from the otherside. I’m sure pretty much all of us would make pretty terrible members of the opposite sex, but if we had a life time of training and practice, we’d probably be roughly as good at it.
Evaluating myself in this context, the major parts of my personality that I most closely associate with defining who I am are mostly gender neutral. And even some of those parts that are more one than the other probably have the opposite equivalent. For instance, it’s perfectly normal for a man to enjoy sports and like exercise and fitness, but it’s generally a little unusual for women to be into it and they’re considered tomboys. If I were born and raised a woman, I don’t imagine I’d lose those interests completely, but they’d probably be somewhat tempered by that feminity and perhaps instead of loving football and doing weight training, I might have been steered more toward another sport to participate in. Or, for an opposing example, men who are more expressive with their emotions are considered sensative, where it’s generally pretty much considered normal for women to be emotionally expressive. So, rather than being a sensitive guy, I’d be a tomboyish girl, based on just those two aspects. I really can’t imagine that the sorts of stuff that interest me now would interest me any different if I were female, I’d probably still love music, love technology and games, etc. and the culture for that is more or less equally strong for both genders as far as I can tell.
Looking at it a bit deeper, I could imagine a number of ways that life might have turned out easier if I were born female, just as I can imagine certain things that are easier for me now would become more difficult. And I’m not just talking about basic biological differences, but social differences. For instance, despite that I do quite enjoy athletics, I probably got more into it than I might have otherwise because of parental and other social pressures to get involved and, as a result, may have lost out on certain other things I would have liked to have pursued a bit more, like my passion for music, which I didn’t really start to get into until after the social pressure toward athletics disappeared. So maybe I would have had more time and energy to pursue some of my artistic interests. I can’t even begin to imagine how my social life would have been different, whether it would be better or worse.
So, as it is, I’m quite happy with who I am, and if my mind were just transplanted into a woman’s body, I’d be an awful woman. However, I think I’d feel almost exactly the same if I were born female, I’d be quite happy with who I was, and I’d then make a terrible man if my mind were suddenly put in a man’s body. So, frankly, it all seems like it’s pretty much a wash, and I’d think it probably would be for most people, and I’d probably be more or less equally happy either way
The part I’m really curious about, is how it would apply to things like sexuality. I don’t think it’d be one-to-one straight/gay. It seems to me that for most people, it’s a purely biological thing, so if they’re straight or gay in one gender, they’d still be the same orientation in the other. But it also seems that some people’s sexuality takes well before puberty starts to play a role, so it’s possible that they may still prefer the same gender regardless of what their own gender is.
I’m transgender but not yet living as my preferred gender. So assuming the OP is asking about biological sex, YES PLEASE! It would save me an awful lot of time, money and social awkwardness.
Up until my late teens, I would have given an emphatic ‘Yes!’ to a swap. Puberty was a hell of a shock- I really wasn’t expecting big boobs (they skipped a generation, and I never knew the Grandmother I inherited them from), and they didn’t feel like ‘mine’ for ages. I tried to have them drastically reduced age about 16, but chickened out when faced with surgery. In dreams from around that time, I was often male.
I seem to have finally got pretty well used to being a not-very-feminine woman now though- age has helped, both in getting used to the way I look and in that people are more accepting of a less feminine look in an adult than a teen. Though I’d still love to try being male, if given the choice of a permanent switch, it’d take a bit of thought, but I think I’d stick as I am.
You shittin’ me?
I am happy being a woman.
That said, if I believed in past lives I would swear I had been a man at some point. Because I can totally “remember” what it feels like to have a penis with an erection and to penetrate a woman. Very woo, I know, but it feels real.
Don’t let this derail the thread, k?
While I was born male and am good with that, I was immediately subjected to the partial gender de-assignment surgery known as circumcision. Being surgically altered, I feel like my gender technically amounts to “male minus” (not the same as being “less of a man” FWIW). This being against my will (plus stupid and unnecessary), I kind of resent it. You you could say my answer is “born male, surgically altered, would rather be as-is (male-male?)”.
Please. This isn’t a commentary on Judaism- only goy couples are screwing the pooch when they opt for this, and I don’t want to go into the details why. I’m not crazy, so no amateur psychology. Don’t make me write a 20-line disclaimer. Just pointing out that the question isn’t as cut-and-dried (no pun intended) as it is written.
Good post. I also wonder why women are so interested in makeup, ie looking artificial, high heels etc. Why don’t they have short hair like men.
Also I think women are more restrained, know and acknowledge their limitations, aren’t overambitious. In that way, they are better than men on average.
Speak for yourself. I think men are the bee’s knees!
Yargh! There are no poll answers for me! 
I was born roughly 1/2-1/2 or 2/3-1/3 female/male, was raised as a male (with breasts and ovaries…whatever), and am now considered a transsexual woman who is fully transitioned.
All I’ll say is, each social gender is a totally different world. The stories I can tell, and have, told.