To think most people don't know what gender identity is?

[crunchymint]

At work we now have in our equal opps monitoring forms questions about gender identity. The vast majority of people have no idea what this means. AIBU to think most people have no idea what it means?

[Jasmina456]

What's confusing about it?

It literally says what it is on the tin - it's the gender you identify as.

[mnxnt42]

Well I understand it to be a person’s sense of ‘themselves’ as intrinsically male or female, but I don’t know if that’s strictly accurate.

I am a person of the female sex who doesn’t believe in souls. I don’t consider myself to have a gender identity

[NotMeOhNo]

I don't have a gender identity either. I'm a woman with a personality.

I don't identify with the hierarchical system of gender which places masculinity as superior and femininity as inferior.

[Sillydoggy]

There never seems to be an option to tick ‘I don’t have one’!

[crunchymint]

Outside queer culture and universities, most people over 30 don't know what all these words mean. If the option was female, male, transgender, they would understand. But our form just asks the question and ;eaves the reply box blank - to be more inclusive. And few know what it means.
Words like cis that seems mainstream in some groups, are unknown by most people.

[Metoodear]

I don’t have a gender identity
I am just a women I don’t need to identify as one because I am one

[MyOtherUsernameisaPun]

I don't think people are as confused as you think but if they are it's the work of seconds to Google.

[crunchymint]

Honestly lots of people who use this language live in a bubble where everyone else does too.

[RainOnATinRoof]

Most people have no use for the concept and few understand what it means.

Even trans activists and queer theorists struggle to explain it without inconsistencies

[MyOtherUsernameisaPun]

Almost nobody in this country is in so much of a bubble they can't research what they don't understand online. There is no need to pander to ignorance when people can so easily find out. What's the alternative? That we just pretend gender identity isn't real?

[FurryDogMother]

I'm 59 and I think I have a handle on it :)

[DieAntword]

Identity is not something self defined and if it was there would be no fight - it’s precisely because identity is created through community that people fight for communal recognition of their desired identity.

[crunchymint]

Gender identity is not real.
It is a new concept that has only existed for a relatively recent amount of time.

[FurryDogMother]

I just love what DieAntworld said - whether or not you agree with it, it's a succinct summation of a widely held opinion. I'd go so far to say it was elegant.

[MsSensibleWay]

I think the term gender identity is a nonsense. I don't identify as a gender, I just am female whether I like it or not.
I agree with the OP, I really don't think this language is widely used out in the real world.

[pourmeanotherglass]

Where is the the box to say I don't fit the stereotypes of either gender, and am female.

[Poloshot]

Isn't the answer male or female?!

[jay55]

Gender is made up bollocks to keep us in boxes.

[BeyondSceptical]

Female with a personality here, I don't have a gender identity.