World Without Men

When Spring comes, it is time for all living things to focus on reproduction. Flowers bloom, birds sing, and chipmunks chase each other in the meadow. Pollen is the love grain to help plants have sex with each other. Nests are built. Burrows are dug. A blue sky fills with sunlight and the air feels warm. For people, Spring is a season, not a time for reproduction. People control the planet and most aspects of their lives. Being in control of most things, a person still has feelings. Everyone enjoys the feeling of the sun’s warmth.

Young teenage girls strolled into a small neighborhood school after their outdoor lunch break. The sunlight felt good on their skin. Hummingbirds chirped in the air, looking to impress. Ducks swam in circling pairs on the pond. Squirrels ran up and down trees, sometimes performing stunts. The sweet smell of the soil reminded everyone of life and freshness.

Today was a special day at school. After years of learning basic skills, it was a day for a rite of passage. Time to learn something controversial - something for the older girls. It was time to make sense of how things were and how they came to be. A much-anticipated lesson on human history was planned that afternoon. Each of the students heard stories about the lesson. It was a lesson about the history of the world.

The young women walked together into the classroom. They wore simple, earth-colored clothing, pants, skirts, shirts, and shoes. Their clothes looked alike because it was the style- they were not uniforms. Clothes were meant to be comfortable and natural. The students listened to each other respectfully, finishing their conversations from the break. Their seats were arranged as a semicircle. Their instructor, an experienced woman in her early 40s, walked to her place in front of them. She appeared younger than her age. She smiled and nodded at her students.

“As you know, this is a special day today,” the teacher started. “This is the day that we discuss our world and its past. Today is the day we start talking about sex and our culture. Who can tell me what sex means?”

Hands went up.

“Sex is an old word for gender, such as male or female gender,” one student answered.

“That is a word that could mean either gender or the act of sex, which was something people did to reproduce,” another girl answered. Smiles and giggles from the class followed.

“Both are correct,” the teacher said. “But as you know, it is a word that is not used as much now. As you know, we have a special way of reproducing ourselves. We are going to learn about it, and we are going to learn about what it was like before. Let’s begin.”

The teacher spoke a command word to the listening AV equipment and the presentation began.

The lights in the room dimmed. A hologram presentation appeared in the air before the students. The colorful hologram was three-dimensional. The students were familiar with this device- it often showed them portrayals of lessons in art, music, biology, or other subjects. The teacher spoke the words “World as We Know It” and the presentation began.

“People- your attention please,” the teacher said. The students went silent.

An older female voice within the hologram began to narrate.

“In the beginning, people lived in small tribes. The people were co-reliant, seeking shelter and food.” Images showed women living in caves and camps, helping each other to make tools, gathering food, or farming. “Women lived in small groups, sometimes with men. They had few resources, they lived off what the land made for them.” Images showed women picking plants and wearing animal skins for clothing. Sometimes they worked side by side with men. “They were simple farmers, hunters, and gatherers.” The students watched in wonder.

The narration continued. “In time, people realized how to coax the earth to provide for them. Plants were raised specifically for food. Animals were tended and their products fed the people.” Images showed people tending crops with rudimentary tools. “Cattle were used to plow fields.” A woman milked a goat. Images of early agriculture were shown. People gathered in small bands, living in small homes. Some of the girls smiled or laughed. Others looked surprised and opened their mouths.

One of the girls asked a question and pointed. “Question-“ the hologram presentation paused. “She is taking milk from that goat- did the goat agree to share?”

The teacher politely answered. “That is a good question. We think people assumed the plants and animals agreed to share their wealth with them. Sometimes the assumptions were incorrect. There is a lot to take in - try to watch the entire program. We will take time to watch this part again and discuss the details.”

The presentation started up again.

“Some communities became wealthy, while others struggled. People became unhappy. This sometimes led to violence.” The video showed angry men and women yelling, sometimes trying to take food from each other. The video showed images of people pushing and shoving each other.

“Men who could defend their community held power over others.” The video showed men being given special privileges, special food, or being allowed to sit on a special chair.

“These men had status, and some of them were called kings.”

Another girl had a question. “Question-“ the presentation stopped. “I thought King was a name- like a pet’s name.”

“Yes- that is true. In the past, that name had other meanings. Please make a list of your questions so we can finish the introduction,” the teacher replied.

The girls continued to watch. The narrator continued. “Resources for food, plants, animals, land, water, were precious. People sometimes traded each other for resources, using gold. People were unhappy.”

The teacher interrupted. “See this part – it’s important.”

The narrator within the hologram explained how some men became powerful enough that women competed for their attention. “Some women chose to compete with each other for the attention of powerful men. They dressed differently. Some families sought to marry their daughter to an important man, or the sons of men. Maintaining wealth and resources within a family was important. Some of the women supported this society, others were absorbed by it. Sometimes women were treated as property, sometimes they had no rights of property ownership. Women were not allowed to vote.”

“Question-“ another student stopped the presentation. “How this be? Men are not powerful. Women are not property. We have the right to vote!”

“Yes- keep watching,” the teacher answered.

The narrator summarized thousands of years of human history with several sentences. The images in the presentation changed. “The world continued to change. The population of the world grew, straining its resources. Some people had much better access to resources than others. Pollution became a problem. Microscopic plastic particles polluted the water. Over time, plastic pollution altered fertility. Male babies were born less often than before, and the surviving males struggled to reproduce. Fertility assistance for women became necessary. Within a generation, the human population declined precipitously. In particular, the male population declined.”

Images within the hologram showed an animation of the male population declining over time. Then the narrator described a key development- a technology that saved the human race. It was a cell biology treatment, making a sperm cell from a skin cell The procedure was shown in animated form. This solved the problem of fertility. Now human embryos could be made whenever they were needed. Men were not needed for reproduction, even two women could make a child.

The girls were shown how babies were made. A skin cell is selected from a donor, transformed into a sperm cell, and then combined with an egg cell. A human embryo formed when these two cells were combined. The embryo was implanted into a mother’s womb, and the mother carried the embryo until the child was born. Most of the time, the carrier became the child’s mother.

“Hologram stop,” the teacher said. The presentation stopped. “Lights.” The lights turned on. “Ok- let’s discuss what we just saw in this presentation.” The teacher looked around the room for questions.

“Question-“ one of the girls asked. “Is that how all babies are born? What about the animals?”

“This shows how human babies- like all of you- are born. It has been that way for many years. Sometimes the animals find their own way of making babies,” the teacher answered. “When the animals are struggling, we help them with our way, in order to ensure their survival. Without our way of reproduction, an animal population might not survive.”

Some of the students nodded.

“Question-“ another girl asked. “Is it possible for us to have babies in some other way?” She shyly looked down after asking. The question felt embarrassing.

“Yes- but no – not really. With other ways, the results are hard to predict. As you saw, the way animals conceive can be unpredictable. We cannot tolerate that. As you saw, our human population was threatened. Old-fashioned reproduction – sex between a man and a woman- often results in failure. Most of the time, nothing happens. Other times, the baby is not healthy, or it comes out sick. Some diseases come from sex. We are going to talk a lot more about this next week. We will visit a fertility center tomorrow, to learn what they do there. You will get to see how they do it.”

There was more chattering and excitement. The girls had heard about how babies were made before. But the teacher had used the word sex. That was a word that was not often used, and they were curious about it.

“Question- so what does sex mean?” one of the students asked.

The teacher paused for a moment. Then she answered. “Sex is an inefficient means of reproduction between a man and a woman. It nearly eliminated the human population, and now it is practiced by only a few small groups of political dissidents.”

The girls nodded, having heard this definition before.

The teacher went on to answer some of the other questions. The goat had given consent to be milked, it was a trade for food and shelter. There were male leaders called kings in the past, but not for a long time. It was illegal to possess a person as property, whether they were a man or a woman. The teacher gave short, simple answers, matter-of-fact; there was no doubt about the truth. The students were used to this. The presentation brought up so many questions. The teacher promised to show the presentation again, as well as explain the history in more detail. She said that would come later.

“We are going to review all of this information in more detail. Now let’s change to the next subject. Who can tell me about how plants affect our human environment?” The teacher looked around, ready to review some of the lessons of the previous day.

The students began to answer excitedly, wanting to show what they knew.

“Plants take water and carbon dioxide and make it into sugar and oxygen!”

“Plants perform photosynthesis!”

“Plants contain nutrients and vitamins, which are healthy for us to eat!”

“Yes, very good,” the teacher said. “Let’s talk about how plants reproduce.”

The discussion went on, describing some of the ways plants make seeds or sprouts, or use wind or insects to spread their pollen. To the girls, it was interesting to think about what the plants were doing. Earlier that day, they could smell something different in the air. Now it made sense that what they smelled in the springtime represented an annual ritual. It was time for reproduction.