Gender bender in a Unisex World

The other day I read that in some cold and organized part of the first world, a group of over funded, under worked engineers had managed to put a female mind into a male body. No, It wasn't Hollywood production. They apparently inserted a chip which was programmed to be a female mind into a hapless male and checked if he stopped watching the sports channel or playing pocket billiards. (Not really, I just made that bit up).

Actually, it was a much duller research project to see whether the technology of gene transfer could be extended into the area of brain. Functions concerning perception. At least that is what I understood, but then I can't add fractions so don't count on me. Now if you have no time for unscientific drivel, go away. But if you have an unfettered imagination, and a propensity to worry about none is sues read on.

Imagine the implications of putting a female mind into male body. If you survive the shock of finding yourself wearing unflattering colors, you may collapse once you've calculated the financial implications of hair removal. The only thing likely to because you joy is the presence of slimmer things narrower hips and hopefully, no stretch marks.

Let's see the impact this would have on society. What would you do if a man walked into the room and, in 10 minutes, no t gets petty bout a new ear that somebody else had bought? Worse still, he won't be smiling foolishly at young women and ignoring the older women. Instead, he would be finding out where you bought that sari, and what the best place to look for throw cushions was.

One could go on making lists of things that a Man with a Woman in his Head (very different from a Man with Woman on his Mind) would be doing but hang on. There are many subjects that have become unisex now. You wouldn't know if it's the chip speaking or whether the original brain has re-asserted itself if he starts talking about cricket, wine or Shashi Tharoor : You will be foxed if he knows the calorific value of cup of sprouts and the long term benefits of Tai Chi.

The truth is that the unisex mind is already among us. We have nurtured it because life now demands that you don the male and female that. If you have reached the age of 50 and believe that the gender of our brains is the gender of our body, then please check out the BBC website. There is a quiz that allows you to find out the gender of your brain. I won't tell you my results but I can tell you that one of my men friends was a borderline male.

It's all very well for men to talk about nurturing their female side, and for women ot believe that they are "man enough". But what if you would happen if men didn't know that when they are being sensitive, it's their female side at work and women didn't know that they were being man enough when they switch off in the middle of a conversation? Losing your gender can be as scary as your hard disk crashing without having saved your files. All the women will break into a cold sweat at the thought of losing their capacity to color coordinate or detect a lie. And you men out there, would you survive if you couldn't compartmentalize your lives and continue to believe that you are emotionally stable? So hang onto your gender because you may be already gender because you may be already on you way to losing it.