What’s with all these people wanting to be a member of the opposite sex? This old fogy’s world has been turned upside-down and I’m having a terrible time properly using the more than 55 gender-neutral pronouns so I don’t offend anyone. I’m telling you, it’s a mine field out there and politically correct people are just waiting to pounce if you say or write something wrong so they can “cancel” you. Whatever that means.
Being curious, I wondered if other species went through sex changes and you’ll be amazed at what I discovered. There’s a fish species called the California Sheepshead that is capable of changing its sex in mid-life, but it’s from California so you’d expect that. But more widely dispersed ocean dwellers like oysters and the Clown Fish can also change their gender.
You’d think that male seahorses would want to change their sex because it’s the male seahorses that get impregnated, not the females, and the males give birth to as many as 1,500 babies at a time! Whoa nelly! Talk about morning sickness! Who in their right mind would want to raise 1,500 kids? That’s why I have a hard time understanding why men want to be women. Don’t they know that women have to work twice as hard for the same pay, have to raise the kids and manage the household, while all the males do is work their eight hours, come home, sit in their Lazy Boy® and pop the top on a beer can.
Just as Venezualian opossums can choose the sex of their baby ahead of time there’s an old wive’s tale that says humans can select the sex of their baby by changing the orientation of their bed. Also, according to statistics a human can influence the sex of their baby by what occupation they choose. For example, if you want to improve the chances of having a male baby you might want to become President of the United States because they have 60% sons and if you want a daughter you should become a male abalone diver, fighter pilot or anesthetists as they have more girls than boys. Or you could become an Indian like Elizabeth Warren did. A first or second-born Havasupai Indian child is 1.3 times as likely to be a boy as a girl. But a child born fifth or later is 1.3 times as likely to be a girl. Scientists say the sex of Havasupai children is NOT random. And consider that after World War II in France and Britain there was a bizarre huge increase in the proportion of boys to girls that were fathered by soldiers.
Bald eagles and some species of hawks know the sex off their eggs ahead of time without the aid of a sonogram because they lay the eggs of their female offspring first so they can be bigger than the males. And crocodiles also have this female intuition because the sex of their babies is determined by how deep their eggs are buried.
So you see, this whole sex thing is WAY more complicated than previously thought.
If I was a male Praying Mantis you can bet your daddy long legs I’d want to change my sex because the male can’t copulate while its head is still attached to its body and the female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off. Likewise, if I was female black widow spider there’d be no way I’d want to change my sex because the female eats the male after coupling, which doesn’t sound like anyone’s idea of fun. But I was shocked to discover that for most living things sex is supposedly NOT a pleasurable act, in fact, humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure! (Tell that to bulls, dogs and rams.)
Humans are also unique in that the adult males and females live together while most other species live with members of their own sex and only come around the females for one reason and one reason only: a good home cooked meal.
At age 71 I’m thinking of having a sex change operation myself because male baby boomers have a life expectancy of 72 years while females live, on average, to be 76.
At my age and poor physical condition I’d do anything to live four more years.
