Gender

[ysabetwordsmith]

Sex swap in seconds: The fish that takes charge and changes gender

Remove the top male spotty fish and, within minutes, the next-in-line female morphs into the tank s new tyrant charging and nipping rivals while her body quietly begins a weeks-long transition to male.


Sex and gender are more fluid than most humans realize. Transition is a natural and normal process.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Tompot blennies do it too, not to mention slipper limpets.

[siliconshaman]

It would do people's heads in if there was a sentient species that did that.

[cmcmck]

There is- they're called humans! :o)

[siliconshaman]

*face-palm* well yes... but I meant *without* surgery, spontaneously, and in the same time frame.

[cmcmck]

Chance would have been a fine thing! :o)

[siliconshaman]

side eyes CRISPR lab kit on ebay

Wellll.....

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have a roleplaying guidebook -- I think this is in After the Bomb -- where the contemporary setup came about from genetic engineering as a readily available technology in the past, so almost anyone could play with it in their garage as well as at work. Hence my tagline for unwise gengineering: "They're chickens, man! Just optimize 'em!" From this:

Customer: "We want you to optimize chickens."
Gengineer: "How would you like them optimized?"
Customer: "They're chickens, man! Just optimize 'em!"

The setting winds up with not only anthropomorphic chickens but also throwback velociraptors. 0_o

Re: Thoughts

[scrubjayspeaks]

*cackle* Oh, that's going in the lexicon for the ever so helpful requests I get at work sometimes.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy I could help. I've found it useful for so many dumb requests and ideas that people have.

Re: Thoughts

[tornir]

Reminds me of the joke about the farmer who bred six legged chickens because he had a large family, and everyone liked a leg when they cooked one. The guy he was telling was very impressed, and asked what they tasted like.
"Dunno."replied he farmer, "Haven't been able to catch one yet."

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

*laugh* Believe it or not, that is the kind of gengineering that pops up in a lot of worlds -- extras of desirable parts on livestock.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's a popular motif in genderfic science fiction, occasionally appearing in genderfic fantasy too.