Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

respond by “starting with a boy.” That preference had already existed, and

indeed was so primitive that it might possibly be instinctual. The result,

in any event, was the world of today, heavily overburdened with males, most

of them useless-at least in the sense that neither the economy nor the

society couldfind places for most of them.

Being a man, jom was inclined to think that the real death blow had been

struck by the release of Selektrojel to the populace as an over-the-counter

or nonprescription item. Possibly if its use bad been restricted to couples

psychiatrically certified to need a baby of a given sex-like, say, a couple

to whom unaided nature had given only a string of five daughters, or, no,

better make it nine … But that would not have worked either. The demand

for the stuff had been far too great. Like alcohol, the trade in it could

be regulated more or less effectively but it could never be restricted in

any meaningful sense.

And all the Stars a Stage 13

All the same, Jorn was aware of his prejudices, and it was clear enough to

him that radical changes in the social mores had been in the making even

back then. Had it not been Selektrojel, it would have been something else.

That had appeared almost simultaneously with another dangerous triumph of

the pharmaceutical research laboratories: a cheap, simple, safe, foolproof

oral contraceptive. This, coupled with the fact that venereal disease had

disappeared (as a natural consequence of the virtually complete conquest of

infectious disease by chemotherapy, immunology, and universal sanitation),