Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Female Only Future -- Utopia or Dystopia?

I recently read an article online that stated for every 2 men that graduate from college, 3 women will get degrees and that for the first time in history, family planners are choosing women over men essentially because the job climate favors social networking skills (in which women dominate). Already, some 80% (or more)of publishing is controlled by women and the fairer sex reads most of the books.  This kind of thing intrigues my sci-fi mind and makes me consider, what would a world be without men? Being a man, I for one wouldn’t want to live in this world but I guess, it’s going to happen someday in the far future (not very long as far as geological time goes).

Take a look at this article here. It indicates that the Y chromosome will disappear entirely in about 125,000 more years. The solution is that sperm will be produced in labs, but that doesn’t intrigue me so much.  It’s the social implications of a world without men that interests me.
Now, I know there are a lot of unsuccessful relationships out there but there are also some really golden ones…where two heterosexual souls have found each other and spent a lifetime together.  It's the stuff of romance novels really. However, if what some scientists are saying is inevitable, the world of the future is going to be an extremely lonely place (in my opinion).  If you aren’t lesbian, and want a boyfriend, it’s never going to get easier than it is now.  It’ll just get harder and harder from this day forward as men become less and less a percentage of the population (sure we're talking thousands of years through natural means but it could be hastened by conscious genetic manipulation made by family planners who prefer girls over boys).
So my question is a hypothetical one kind of based on the articles I’ve linked above.
1)   What would your reaction be if you were taken as you are right now completely unchanged education-wise and relationship-wise, and were suddenly put into a world (that was earth) but where men were essentially, extinct and had to live there?
DISCLAIMER: Your responses could feed the muse that is wanting to write a short story. :)  Shameless exploitation, I know.
STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD: 
Brooke R. Busse over at Paper Mountain awarded me with the stylish blogger award. She describes herself as blonde, petite, slightly-different-colored eyes with a love of writing, books, friends, Japanese steakhouses, and paper ( I would assume the fancy kind and not just the stuff you tear lose from a spiral notebook).
This little award basically works like a chain letter, only without the "Fifteen kittens will die if you don't pass it on" requirement.  Here are the official rules taken from her blog:

Requirements:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 10 or so recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.
Seven things about me:
1) I work for the Utah Center for Assistive Technology installing voice-activated devices. I monitor the computer loan bank for vocational rehabilitation, and install/troubleshooting A.T. devices including things like Dragon Naturally Speaking, X-10 technology, and environmental controls for extremely disabled individuals or those suffering from A.L.S.
2) I enjoy playing online games like World of Warcraft.
3) I like fine dining.
4) I used to draw but haven't done so in a long time.  Writing is funner.
5) I'm a democrat that lives in a republican state.
6) I'm atheist.
7) I'm single but always hopeful.
Ten Bloggers who deserve this award:

20 comments:

  1. You sir, have given me a very tempting sci-fi idea that threatens to lure me away from my novel.

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  2. I would have to say, mother nature is stronger than any scientific advancement out there. She's the final decision regarding the future of the male species. Life has a way of going to extremes and bouncing back from said extremes.

    Y the Last Man, a graphic novel written by Brian K. Vaughan and published by Vertigo, is based on this exact premise. Fantastic story. I loved it. Vaughan was also brought into the writing and production of the TV show Lost in it's last two seasons.

    I love reading sci-fi because I I don't think that way (murder and mystery solving). I think you should give the story a try. I'm curious to see what world you create and how it will play out. Will the male species vanish?

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  3. Marjorie...hehe I was thinking the same too.

    Laura...As far as my own story is concerned, I think I'd just write a short story...say about 2500 words or so. Dunno quite yet what it would be about but I think it could be either humorous or very sad. Maybe it'd be like Futurama, where women have managed to harvest male brains and just insert them into robotic bodies when they feel they need companionship but when the male brain starts acting up, they just turn the machine off and pop the brain back in the fridge.

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  4. I think there's a novel (mg?) out already with this premise. I don't remember the name, though. I think that'd be a kind of scary world... It'd be like beauty school real-life-ified. Eek. Talk about drama.

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  5. Congrats on the award.
    I think the world is a much more interesting place with men in it. I don't always agree with r understand the way the men around me think, but I do appreciate their presence. Can't imagine a world without men.

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  6. Hm, that's an interesting thought. I don't know. Without men, the world would end, because there would be no way to produce and create a future. Unless of course, women were just impregnated with sperm from super gene men that were growing in a lab somewhere, which would be an interesting idea. Hmmmm. Now you've got my dystopian mind wondering...lol

    <3 Gina Blechman

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  7. I should put myself in stasis and emerge in 125,000 years. I'm not much of a catch now but if I'm literally the only man on Earth then I think I'll have a chance!

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  8. Congrats to you and your awardees for the Stylish Blogger Award!

    Even if the inability to procreate were no longer an issue, I doubt a world with only women would survive long. Same for a world with only men. Women tend to be detail thinkers, vexed by petty grievances and caught up in their own baggage. Men are better at the big picture and separating themselves from the personal stuff in order to get the job done. Yeah, these are stereotypes (backed up by biology), but they hold true for every male and female I know. Without natural selection or a drastic change in socialization, I don't think either sex would fare well alone on this planet.

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  9. I talked to my friend Tomeka by phone yesterday about this topic and she said, "You know what? I would be just as happy as I am now. I would go to the clinic and have my girlfriend impregnate me with the clinical manufactured sperm and a turkey baster if I decided I wanted to have a child." I nodded, then said, "You do realize, that in a world with no men, there would be no Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson."

    There was silence on the phone.

    She replied, "Okay...now you made me sad."

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  10. Interesting! A few years will bring social changes but a few hundred or a few thousand years will bring far more fundamental changes to our world. Doesn't it raise some fascinating possibilities? Hmmm. Off to make a few notes...

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  11. When Earth has no Y – 127,011 A.D.

    The world is at peace. Earth has become a static planet with civilization content to be as it has been since the Y has disappeared. No wars, very little crime, political disagreements are talked out. People say “I’m sorry” and try harder to understand the others point of view. Beauty abounds. Nature is back in balance with the humans that live on this planet. Animals are no longer killed for their protein...salad reigns.

    There are no muscle cars, no ostentatious displays of superiority, no competition for the best or the most to impress a female. X no longer worries about who is the prettiest but focuses on intelligence, talent and nurturing the muses. There is no poverty because X shares what she has. There are no deep desires to explore the outer reaches, no strong opinions that are based on competitive emotion. There are of course a minority of Xs that fill the aggressive void but not with the same strength of purpose as when Ys participated. Ys are not missed but they are grieved.

    Earth has become a static world...with no surprises.

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  12. Interesting question, but to be quite honest, if I was put into a world like that, not much would change ;) I feel like men are extinct right now as it is LOL

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  13. I would be even more of a novelty than I am now...not sure if that would be a good thing. I would be content being somewhat famous, but the ONLY man...that is way too much fame.

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  14. According to what may be a misinterpreted statement in my genetics class last year, it's not that the Y chromosome will disappear and the entire male species with it, it's just that the Y chromosome will disappear and everyone male and female will share the same XX chromosome structure. This is because the information presented in the Y chromosome can easily fit into a second X chromosome. I have no idea what this will mean evolutionally or genetically, but I still think this is interesting.

    Mary Shelley's book "The Last Man" is a free ebook on Amazon, if I recall. Also, I love "Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan. Haven't actually finished it yet, but I still love everything that I've read of it (up to volume 8). One of my high school friends read a book where women ruled the world and men were given the inferior status that women used to have Back in the Day. She said it was pretty awesome.

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  15. This is an interesting one. To be honest, I don't think the world would be that different at all. I've heard people say that the world would be a better place if women ran it, but are we sure that's true? I'm fairly certain that the middle-aged white men who currently rule the world would just be replaced with middle-aged white women, wouldn't they?

    Also, gender is such a fluid concept. It's not all about the chromosomes.

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  16. Congratulations on your award.. great getting to know you better :)

    AHh.. you pose a very interesting question... I've always believed in balance though, and I think you need both genders... I'm not sure how the world could exist with just one, not literally, of course.

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  17. Hi Michael, Thanks for the comments on my WIP! I appreciated it!

    Fascinating topic you have going here and could definitely make for some interesting sci-fi stories or novel. I'm not so sure people will be around that long as we seem intent on using up our resources and killing the habitat upon which we rely but what the heck, sci-fi is nothing without room for plenty of time and space in front of it, eh? Oh and nice to see a fellow atheist on the crusades! Cheers!

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  18. I think my life would be much simpler without men around, but I'm pretty sure I would miss them. At least occasionally. But I'm not too worried about them vanishing any time soon.

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  19. I've been thinking about this since I read it yesterday, and I have too many thoughts about this. It's an interesting idea to play around with for a story. Good luck with it.

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  20. Thank you for the award too, by the way. I am devising something clever to do with it...hopefully it is clever.

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