The opening event at this year's Taipei International Book Exhibition was a screening of Changing Sides, a film about a couple unhappy with their lives who decide to switch roles for a year. Each takes to the other's world like a fish to water-the husband becomes more feminine as a jewelry salesperson, while the wife becomes more aggressive as a machinery salesperson. Fortunately, it's just a film. Though the confusion of their roles almost results in their breakup, they ultimately reconcile, return to their original roles, and carry on.

Gender roles are reversing in the real world as well, leading to growing numbers of "herbivorous men" and "carnivorous women." Women are gaining control not just of their own bodies, but of their families and careers. In many of the world's advanced nations (Taiwan among them), more women than men now pursue higher education. Women's purchasing power now affects the global economy, and their political power is said to be the only hope for fixing the political shambles men have created. (German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an excellent case in point.)

As women's domains have grown, so too have their burdens, their aspirations, their impatience, and their exhaustion. On the surface, the women's rights movement is about gaining equality for women, but women, who have sacrificed themselves through the ages, are as lacking (or even more lacking) in freedom and autonomy as they have ever been.

We don't want to see gender reversal play out this way, so this month's Taiwan Panorama looks at the dreams of today's women and offers a variety of models and examples to get people thinking about the possibilities and perhaps dreaming different dreams.

Before we started work on this feature, I asked myself if I'd ever had a grand dream, and, if so, what it was.

I was born in the 1960s, when collectivist thinking dominated and doing your own thing and listening to your inner voice were frowned upon. I was also shy and reserved by nature. As a consequence, I never so much as thought about what kind of "different" life I might lead, much less aspired to become a journalist.

Though my entry into the media was a complete accident, over time I learned that a journalist who was willing to listen could, over the course of a two-hour interview, extract the essence of 20 years of the interviewee's life, could write about the best in someone and pass on the best of that person's thinking to others, and could broaden and enrich her own life. Though I didn't make a conscious choice to become a journalist, the profession has probably brought me more happiness than any dream I was likely to have chosen for myself.

I've been worried my whole life that I might take "the wrong fork in the road." Though I haven't regretted my choices, I still feel an urge to try something different as my 50th birthday approaches.

In my own mind, I divide life into three phases. I see our first 25 years as a developmental phase; the middle 25 as a period in which we are dedicated to a goal; and the third 25 as a letting-go phase. While I love natural scenery and verdure, I recognize that realizing a pastoral dream requires learning many new things. It's a good thing that the third phase of our life is long enough that we still have time to dream.

In Honeymoon Sacrifice, Dulan resident Dou Xiaohua asks the world to take a fresh look at women. Women not only differ from men, but differ from one another in their flexibility and diversity of talents. Those willing to work hard enough can nurture their own unique charms.

This issue also explores the personal flowerings that can follow incarceration. The feature includes a piece on a lacquerware course at Taichung Prison, and shines a light on prisoners' painted screens and elegant calligraphy. Their artworks aren't the only exceptional pieces coming out of the prison system; recent articles for the Ministry of Justice's Drugfree Journal have also been deeply moving.

Regardless of gender, there truly is a creative muse in everyone. If we are able to discover her, cherish her, and put her to good use, she can foster the liberation of our selves and set an example for humanity.