"As a scientist, my greatest fear had always been the world's ability to take any invention or discovery, no matter how well intentioned, and turn it something deadly. I know now that the greatest danger is the world's ability to turn it into something ridiculous." - Dr.Gustav Pedersen at the Nobel awards, 1996.
The following passage is from the Encyclopaedia Humanae; 128th edition, copyright MMIV.
"Dr. Gustav Pedersen developed Chromozine22B to provide a safe way to determine the gender of fetuses. He believed that it was the ancient bigotry favoring sons that led to over-population in the developing world, and he feared it led to infanticide in those countries that had adopted strict limits to the number of children a family could have. A cheap means to guarantee a son would stop much of this suffering. He sold the drug to Marsh Pharmaceuticals for $1.00.
Marsh, however, discovered the drug had a side-effect. It caused a 20 to 50 percent enlargement of the male genitals. This only occurred with Chromozine22Y, the derivative which caused male fetuses. They marketed the drug as a safe, inexpensive method of penis enlargement. Needless to say, Marsh Pharmaceuticals became the richest corporation in the world. Like the birth control pill of the 1960's, Chromozine22 caused a social displacement. Men married later in life, secure in their ability to have a son at will. Women became more subservient and docile. It is believed this was caused the increase in the frequency and intensity of their orgasms. As expected, sales of men's pants and underwear shot up briefly (no pun intended) as the men replaced now, ill fitting clothes. An unexpected economic effect was a 87% drop in the sale of sports cars, and the NRA almost ceased to exist.
Within a generation, however, the male/female ratio had shifted from almost 50/50 to more than 70/30. As the number of women decreased, malls began to go out of business. There was now a shortage of females for horny, well hung men. Ironically, homosexuality was not perceived as an option. Chromozine22 enhanced the mating drive, too. Women were virtually driven from public life and expected to return to 'traditional' female roles so as not to compete with men for jobs, and presumably, get married, stay home and have daughters. Marsh Pharmaceuticals developed a 'solution', a drug to turn men into women. They hoped to duplicate their financial success with Chromozine22. The public was outraged.
A class action suit was brought against Marsh by the ACLU, NRA, NOW, Porsche, Ferarri, and Bloomingdales. They won. Marsh Pharmaceuticals was ordered to set up a revolving fund to pay men to become women and housewives. And so the FemCorps was started. Any healthy man could volunteer to become a woman. He, she, would receive a generous annuity which would increase with each daughter she bore (fathered by men using Chromozine22X, the derivative which produced female fetuses), and free medical care, for life. She also had to agree to stay out of the job market. The ratios have been trending back to normal but it is too .................."
I re-read the pamphlet for the millionth time. Was I doing the right thing? My friends were all going to college next year. I always found school difficult. I wasn't a screw-up. I just wasn't very smart, I guess. Even my friend Jake, who was a major screw-up, was going to the community college for a year to get his grades up. Screw-ups can change their ways, but dumb is forever. I was kind of a runt, too. Just 5'7 and 110 pounds, so a trade like plumbing or carpentry would be hard for me, physically. My only real future was a career in retail food marketing (You want fries with that?), video rental customer interface technician (Have it back by Thursday and please rewind) or.......... the FemCorps. I had been thinking about it ever since they started, 4 years ago. Don't get me wrong. I'm straight. I love girls... crave girls, but with men outnumbering women better than 2 to 1, they can afford to be choosy. I had to face it. Poor, unattractive guys don't make the cut. In four years of high school not one girl had ever accepted a date from me. Not even the ugly girls. That would be the story of my life unless I scored some major bucks somehow. I didn't have the nerve for crime so I was doomed to involuntary celibacy. After a while I began to resent how unattractive girls still had their choice of dates, then I guess a form of Stockholm Syndrome took effect. I began to identify with them. If I joined FemCorps I'D be the one with more dates than I knew what to do with. I never told my buddies that I had applied. I didn't tell them when I was accepted either. I wasn't sure when I would tell them but I knew that it would be easier after I was female. Heck, my whole life would be easier after I was female. At least, that is what I hoped.
© 2000
The above work is copyrighted material. Anyone wishing to copy, archive, or re-post this
story must contact the author for permission.