Some of you with long memories may recognize “Meechee Goldman” as the hapless Brian Grey from Death P#rn. Yup, that makes for the second cameo from a Death P#rn character in this comic (you may recall that Toad guest stars as Bob, the A.I. on board Jetta's spaceship). Isn't it odd how he somehow managed to find work, but Carmen and Angie still languish in unemployment! Well, maybe those two will drop in at some point as well…
I may have opened a can of worms by leaving my survey up, because I got a lot more responses, and now I don't know what to make of any of it! So I'm going to leave it up for a little while longer to see if we can get any more clarity. If you haven't taken the survey yet, be sure to click the link overhead. It's six multiple choice questions, and it'll probably take you all of thirty seconds to fill out. And thank you to everyone who's already taken it… if I've learned anything, it's that no matter what I do going forward, I'm going to irritate a lot of people! :P
I've mostly stuck to “hard” science stuff for these science blurbs rather than speculative futurism, but this is something that really made me think. It seems we've all but reached the point now when surgeons will be able to transplant uteruses (uteri?) to women who aren't medically able to have children. This has raised a tantalizing question: If you can transplant a working uterus to a woman, then does that mean you can transplant a uterus to a man? Are we nearing the day when men are capable of giving birth, a la Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior?
Well… it seems like yes. In fact there are already rare cases of men who are naturally born with a functioning uterus. It's a condition known as Persistent Müllerian Duct Syndrome (PMDS). What are the Müllerian ducts, you ask? Well, both male and female embryos have them, but hormones produced by the developing testes arrest their development in males, whereas in women these ducts develop into the uterine tubes, uterus, cervix, and part of the vagina. But some males don't produce the right hormones, so they end up with a uterus. PMDS is not unique to humans in the animal kingdom, and a male with PMDS could, in theory, carry a baby to term… though the birth would need to be by Caesarean section.
It's an arresting thought that in future generations, couples may argue over which one of them is going to bear the child.
Bringing that idea forward to the world of this comic, it makes one wonder what significance would be placed on gender in the very distant future. It's maybe an uncomfortable thought for some, but we're all fundamentally female by default. That extra y chromosome does a number on your hormones; your body grows differently. Hormones determine whether your genital tubercle develops into a clitoris or a penis; whether you develop testes or ovaries or both. These are all things we accept as biological destiny, because it's crucial to our survival as a species… but what happens when that's no longer the case? If sex no longer has any biological or reproductive significance… does it become just another fashion accessory, like red or blond hair? Do we continue giving birth to boys and girls, or should we have gynandromorphs instead and allow them to choose a sex when they're old enough to decide? Do genitals become nothing more than recreational toys to be interchanged at will? Heady stuff. And probably not what you wanted to think about before breakfast.
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