If you could chose sex from birth would you live as a man?

I would totally choose to be a man.

No periods, bigger, stronger, faster, can be a parent without having to go through pregnancy and birth, living without the constant background fear of sexual assault, no big deal if you need a wee when no toilets are nearby.
I do like being a mum and I enjoyed breastfeeding (after a difficult start) but on balance being a man seems better to me

"See, this is exactly what I noted in one of my posts. This centering of sex. Easy sex, quick sex, lots of orgasms, sex as the criteria for happiness and the good life. IT IS NOT. At least, for many of us it is not."

THIS in spades. After all, who invented and propagates porn and prostitution. Those who seek more and more reliable orgasms for men. Because they are still stuck in thinking that is what sex is and should be and anything else is messy emotional relationships and girly stuff.

Actually, gay men are pretty hooked on casual sex as well, but unlike many men, who actually do see the women they use as not quite human, gay men at least seem to have a little more respect for each other.

And even women who like casual sex don't see the need to insult men in the street, or invent a whole industry around it. So, there we have a whole load of stuff, men who envy women because they supposedly have it easier when it comes to getting casual sex, is often pretty close to resenting women who have the ability to say no and reject them. Whilst not mentioning in the least the very skewed possible consequences of sex when it comes to being female or being male.

But hey, what do I know, I'm just a lesbian who perhaps seeing the extremely skewed mess that is heterosexuality for many women, is jolly glad she isn't! I'd never be a man either, because then I'd have to be straight as well.........

@Lamaha

I don't deny men are more obsessed with casual sex, but I know plenty of women that like a casual fuck. These are the women I'm saying have it better. This point is obviously not relevant to you, or any other man or woman that is only interested in relationships.

I have no idea if I would like to be a man because I have no idea what it feels like to be a man because I am a woman.

I like being me. I like being a woman. I like men too but can't imagine being one any more than I can imagine being a donkey or a tree.

I would like women to be treated differently by male prioritising society but that is another conversation entirely.

I also massively envy the ease of getting casual sex as a woman. Plenty of each sex arn't interested in this, but the women who are can sleep with a new guy each weekend, and some of my friends do this.

See, this is exactly what I noted in one of my posts. This centering of sex. Easy sex, quick sex, lots of orgasms, sex as the criteria for happiness and the good life. IT IS NOT. At least, for many of us it is not.
I do not see how "sleeping with a new guy every weekend" is an advantage of being a woman. It would be easy, yes. But for most women it's not something to strive at. And for many men, it is.

Might get hate for this but I don't really think men have it easier overall. Yes all the things mentioned in this thread are true, but most of you would stay women for a reason. Personally what I don't like about being a man is I feel invisible, I think there's a huge empathy gap, and it's easy to feel that no one cares about you as a man. I also just get on better with women, I find men kind of intimidating and I think women have much much more fulfilling friendships. Plus I love kids and I'm sick of constant judgement for this.

I also massively envy the ease of getting casual sex as a woman. Plenty of each sex arn't interested in this, but the women who are can sleep with a new guy each weekend, and some of my friends do this.

Also wtf is with some of these comments. Men are ugly, women are superior... Do you lot think men talk about women this way? I guess you can see my point about feeling unvalued as a man.

I struggled hugely as a man in many areas, especially career. If I were a woman i would assume this was to blame, maybe if I were a woman I would have struggled more. You can't know can you.

Overall I think I would probably chose to be a woman, I think the bad outweighs the good and being one would suit my personality. There are things I like about being a man though.

I don't think I'd mind that much either way, to be honest. I'm quite happy being female, so I probably wouldn't choose to swap. But there are advantages and disadvantages to both, so I really think I'd be fine with whichever I was.

Obviously waking up suddenly as the opposite sex would be quite traumatising. But a lifetime of one or the other? I'm good either way, (especially in the UK).

Hey, what about those life boat seats - women and children first! No I suck up the problems of being a woman and accept that life isn’t perfect.

Exactly. Plus we are not expected to fight wars (or at least, it wasn't so in the past); ie, society regards men as more expendable than women. Not that it was a good thing to send men out to kill and be killed. Today being D-Day the horror of what young men had to do still makes me shudder. Nothing can really compare to that.

No I wouldn’t.
Far too much pressure. For eg. Have you seen the father’s race at school,sports days? Some desperation on show there.Then what about the time I had trouble reversing into a driveway. A neighbour came over to give advise. Would he have done that for a man?
Then the impossible situation where you can’t possibly ask the Way anywhere! Then you have to provide for your family. So does a woman but when things go wrong there is less pressure on her than the man from society’s point of view.

Hey, what about those life boat seats - women and children first! No I suck up the problems of being a woman and accept that life isn’t perfect.

Without a doubt.

I think my life would have been easier; I would be unlikely to have experienced 3 sexual assaults before I was 30. I could have pursued my traditionally male interests and career aspirations without getting discouraged/sexually harassed. My autism might've got diagnosed earlier as it often is in males (which put the rest of my life very much in context and helped me develop coping strategies).

The ideal, of course, would be to be my female self and do as I pleased without all the bullshit - but since that doesn't appear to be feasible, if I had the choice, I'd be born male. I'd be tall and handsome like the men in my family and have a killer waistcoat collection.

Definitely yes

Haha a male friend made me laugh, years ago, when he said "how can women find men attractive? They're all fucking hairy and horrible-looking.". Hard for him to grasp that that's what makes them attractive 😂

No, because I don't want a man's facial structure or body.

On the orgasm question, women can have miltiple orgasms in quick succession, can have more powerful orgasms, and are capable of getting turned on by a wider range of things. I think we have it better.

...so the answer is no, I've never wanted to be anyone other than who I am, and especially not to be a male

My earliest memory of 'a thought' was thinking that I felt sorry for men and was glad I wasn't going to be one. I couldn't see that they had a function, but that may have been because my mother was a SAHM so everything revolved around her. Men did seem a bit peripheral to life though, that they were doing things just to fill in the time because they were a bit surplus to requirements. I cringe a bit now when I think back, at how little I thought of men. And my dad was a lovely man, I don't even have the excuse that he wasn't.

No.

I wouldn’t like the fighting, being called up to fight in wars, not feeling able to express my feelings, being part of the whole toxic masculinity thing. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on being pregnant and breastfeeding. The whole mothering thing is something I’d never have missed.

I like being a woman - it’s the patriarchy that creates the only downside. That needs to change - not me.

Yes! No monthly hormonal fluctuationsculminating in a messy period.
Easy peeing when there are no public loos
Often more attractive as they get older rather than fading into invisibility (which I am actually embracing but some friends are not and I appreciate the unfairness of it)

I like being me so if I could change now I wouldn't (well maybe except for the Hilly hormones) but i think men have an easier time of it in general.

I am not at all desirous of the advantages of males, and the power- and sex-obsession which many men demonstrate. I think the latter shows them up to be the inferior human beings, unable to find satisfaction simply in being who they are, in their own truth.
As for the advantages -- any disadvantages I have experienced as a woman have only been stepping stones to overcoming them and thus becoming stronger and wiser. I would not swap those qualities for all the power and orgasms in the world.

The sex-obsession in particular shows those men who indulge in it as being pretty primitive.

As for the physical advantages -- they don't come near to the wonder of being able to give birth.
I've not really experienced much oppression* as a woman; my mother was an early feminist, a trailblazer in my country. The worst was during the ages of 14 to about 24, when I was confused by aforementioned male sex obsession. Boys and men wanting my body constantly, even though I was not even particularly attractive. Boys and men being unable to actually be friends, appreciate me as a human being. This truly put me off.

Here's an analogy:

As a mixed-race, dark-skinned person I desperately wanted to be white for the longest time. I grew up in a country where we were the majority, whites sat on a pedestal above us; and in a time (50s and 60s) when it was totally accepted and openly acknowledged that we were inferior. It was self-evident. I felt it and suffered from it terribly. I "knew" that only white people were smart, beautiful, confident etc, and for a long time this sense of inferiority was the burden I carried.

I truly "identified" as white -- something in me rebelled against that sense of inferiority. But as we know, it is not possible to identify out of an oppressed class! It was as if I KNEW my inferiority was not true; that deep inside I was just as valuable and worthy as a white person and eventually I was able to shake off that sense of inferiority at the deepest possible level.

Now I'm glad I went through those struggles. A person born white can never know the insights I learned, just as a man can never truly understand the insights a woman gets just because of her biological sex, her limitations, her struggles, her ability to grow beyond those limitations. These are very valuable lessons. If you are inherently assured of your place in the world you simply cannot get it.

I'm sorry that so many women on this thread would choose to be male, because I believe that all the so-called advantages of being male are only superficial. Women are by far the superior sex -- we (most of us) just don't have the need to shout it out to the world and bully others into accepting a submissive position.

(Menstruation was a drag, but I was lucky in that mine was pain-free. And now I'm free of it -- hooray!)

No. I see the power men have in the world but I don't think that much of it. I also see the power women have, I have produced three other human beings from my own body. Dh needed me to do this so we could have our children. He couldn't doit.

Every human who has ever set foot on this earth has come out of a woman. The relative power positions are worth fighting for (I am an utter feminist) but let's face it - women are in ultimate control as no baby can be born without a woman (which is why men hate us so much imo)

Yes, definitely. Being pregnant and giving birth was hellish. My husband got to be a parent and have a close relationship with his children without sustaining permanent damage to his body or the psychological torment of PND.

I detest having boobs too - huge and uncomfortable and until the age of about 40 everyone seemed to feel free to comment on them and a significant number of men felt entitled to touch them. For the avoidance of that alone I would prefer to have been born male.

I love being a woman. XX chromosomes for me every lifetime, please.

I love being a woman. Yes, it has it negative part but for me without being a woman I would not have carried my children especially ds2 who was stillborn. I feel like I got to know him more than anyone else. It was a pleasure to having had the relationship I had with him. I feel privileged I was able to have carried him.

Even though my life would be easier, I think men are mostly pretty boring so nah.