10 Reasons Why You Would Like to Be the Opposite Sex...

In my social psychology class our professor conducted an experiment. We were asked to write up to 10 reasons for why we wanted to be the opposite sex. Not surprisingly, females turned out to write an average of 7-9 things, while males wrote on average 3-4. The reasons why females wanted to be males included:  taking the pressure off looking good, the ability to have a child without going through labor, their lack of menstrual cycles,  more job opportunities and the lack of discrimination overall. These, all social constructs, which we read about in class and are still alive today. The males on the other hand, opted to be females for the ability to experience a different anatomy. There were in fact some who decided to write that they would never like to be the opposite sex in the poll. If this is how many of the males feel, if they understand how it is that women are treated in this society, then why is it that they can’t understand the feminists fighting for equal recognition?

                The reading explains a time when women and men were once equal human beings. There were even ideologies that argued that women were indeed men with their genitals inside rather than outside. And despite their obvious difference that one could give birth and the other not, this belief was held to be true for a long time. Menstruation during puberty was even seen as a bleed nose in males during puberty. But as one of the articles stated, “Culture shapes how scientists perceive the natural world”. And when the necessity came, women were said to be less worthy than males. And through their sexuality, women were condemned as dependent to the male to create life. Even when proof came to show that sperm was the weaker one, a woman’s reproductive system was belittled.