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Changing shape

How do four attractive young women — Helen, Lisa, Fiona and Reshma — transform themselves into strapping lads Bob, Lee, Adam and Abdul? As with the boys, the transition for girls begins with reshaping. While the boys had to tuck away their genitals, the girls have their chests bound to flatten their breasts. The girls seem less upset about this than the boys were about hiding their genitalia. For some though, it is easier than others: Fiona, who has a double D cup bust, presents more of a problem than the others.

Next, the girls don boxer shorts and stuff them with a sock. The sock is a revelation: immediately it changes the way the girls hold themselves — they take up more room when sitting down, and swagger when they walk.

For the girls, stripping off their make-up is difficult: it is so much a part of their everyday image. When they put on men's clothes, they feel uncomfortable at losing their femininity. Almost immediately they start to describe feelings of insecurity.

Make-up

Having stripped off their own make-up, the girls must now be made up to look like men. Eyebrows must be thickened and complexions roughened. A novel use is found for mascara: it is excellent for imitating stubble.

Made up to look like men, the girls' insecurities increase. They feel unattractive and unhappy.

Hair

Two of the girls had to have their hair chopped off for the sake of the programme. A third refused, but did agree for it to be put in braids in order to make her transition to a man more convincing. Again, the girls felt they had lost something significant when their hair was cut off. They felt that while the men were adding things to their physicality, the transition from female to male means losing aspects of their physique.

Behaviour

Teaching a woman to behave like a man is very similar to teaching a woman how to assert herself: she must take up more space, square her shoulders, lift her head and look at people directly. When she walks, she needs to be more cocky. The toughest thing for the women when learning to walk, is to get rid of the feminine hip-wiggle.

The girls find that being asked to behave like a man changes the way they feel. They immediately take on a more aggressive attitude, become surlier and less fun. 'We're really miserable as guys,' says one of the girls.

Voices

As with the men, the women find learning to speak like the opposite sex extremely difficult. There is so much to remember. The girls must lower the pitch of their voices, but not so far as to make their speech monotonous and humourless. They must learn to be more direct, to speak with greater strength and confidence.

When the girls venture into the outside world, they find they slip up in speech. When one comments on how she likes another's haircut, she realises she has made the remark in a tone and pitch that a man would never use.