Gender specifications on your Mumsnet account: update

Thanks, Tiggy. It's a bit like Kingdom of Loathing, isn't it? I used to play that a bit.

Jux, it's called Fallen London. Give it a Google.

Link about sex and gender
https://notthenewsinbriefs.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/we-are-all-non-binary-now/

Tiggy

That spunds an interesting game, too. What is it? (do you mind me asking?)

Gender is a construct of which I do not HAVE.

Tiggy

And my response to all the above would be none.

Just trying out a text steampunk browser game set in Victorian London. The choices when you log in are:

*A lady
*A gentleman
*My dear sir, there are individuals roaming the streets of Fallen London at this very moment with the faces of squid! Squid! Do you ask them their gender? And yet you waste our time asking me trifling and impertinent questions about mine? It is my own business, sir, and I bid you good day.

It's interesting that they ask these kinds of questions with the reasoning that they can show tailored content, but have not, to my knowledge, showed any tailored content in the 10 years of being operational.

The only tailored content I get is the emails, which I was asked to sign up to (and like). Which reminds me I haven't had a child development one in a couple of years, do they stop at age five or are they supposed to continue?

Is there gonna be a "Are you a troll? Yes/No" section?

Excellent - seems Vashta and Cote have it covered there

BTW Mine were both the still waking 5 times a night at 2 ones - the velcro babies

MNHQ - please let us know if you change the box to 'Sex'. Until then I'm remaining as male.

Vashta - If your advice catches on, it will be interesting to see if MNHQ will love you or hate you for the drastic reduction in traffic on this website.

Breastfeeding vs formula feeding? Let's all feed our babies how we want and not worry about what other parents are feeding theirs.

SAHP vs WOHP? Let's all work or not work and not worry about what other parents are doing.

CC vs attachment parenting? Let's all sleep-train our babies or hug them to our bosom all day & night, and not worry about if other babies are crying or waking up 5 times a night at the age of 2.

Etc etc. Expect no more than 3 posts per thread from now on, as we all decide to never comment on what others do

You can change it on the page where you nc. The new options aren't available yet though.

But we have as already signed up members of MN ticked our boxes already.

It's a question for the newbies to wrestle with/ignore as required.

I often disagree with you, Vashta, but that makes sense to me, given the changed wording of the question!

Okay here's an idea, let's all tick (or don't tick) the box we want, and not waste any time worrying about what box other people tick.

Cote tbh I think transwomen will still tick "female" whether it's a question about sex or gender because they truly believe they are women.

Cote

There was an update stating that "prefer not to answer " will also be an option.
And that simply skipping the question has always been possible

""Are you male or female?" is a better-worded question than either "What is your sex?" or "What is your gender?" "

Yes, "Are you male or female?" would be a great question. It would be asking posters what their sex is. But that is not what MNHQ plan to ask.

However, SarahMumsnet said that they question will be "Are you male, female, or other (please specify)?". That means they are asking people their self-proclaimed gender, because there are no "other" sexes one can specify than male and female.

The difference may seem insignificant to some, but it is very significant to others and especially significant for targeted advertisement.

Cote If that helps I didn't read the "like Ego" bit as a personal attack. Unless someone saying "for example the poster named xyz" is a personal attack.

And back to the original problem, I don't know if it's been clarified or not but from what I know it seems to me that "sex" means what your DNA is, what you were born as, so male or female (unless someone has XXX or XXY chromosomes) so as long as the question is "what is your sex" I don't even get what the problem is.
That question doesn't ask whether someone identifies with their biological make up or not.
And now it's possible to choose the "rather not answer" option. Or just not answer it at all.
Sarah Olivia or any other of you gin soaked party animals up there will you please make sure the question states "sex" not "gender"?
Please? I beg you.

Because gender serms to mean what you identify yourself with. And right now I feel like a big slice of carrot cake. Doubt it will be there as an option

(The gender thing - whoosh, totally over my head.)

Back to the point?

I think it's a good change. "Are you male or female?" is a better-worded question than either "What is your sex?" or "What is your gender?" even without getting into discussion of what means what.

Agreed Cote There was a HUGE misunderstanding of your post and tbh I've really no idea why Archerys posts were deleted

I saw quite a good one recently on a clothing site;

'What gender clothing do you usually wear?' They got their marketing box ticked without having to ask their applicants to do anything as distasteful as signing up to a particular gender

How about, 'if you were in M&S and you needed the loo, would you head for the men's or the ladies?' or wet yourself because being forced to make such a decision is oppressive

Because let's face it, the actual question is just about marketing isn't it?

Maybe that's what you should ask;

'Would you rather be targeted by stereotypically male or stereotypically female marketing campaigns, or would you be happy to be hassled by either?'

I'll get my coat...

Thank you, Archery I was wondering if anyone would take a stand against the personal attacks and name-calling directed at me on this thread.

Funny enough, not one person noticed that calling someone twat, and utterly vile etc is a personal attack. Irony can sometimes be subtle but hypocrisy should have been easy enough to see.

If anyone actually remembers why, SarahMumsnet said:

SarahMumsnet (MNHQ) Wed 20-Jan-16 11:51:50
it's useful for us to know a bit about you as we hope, at some point down the line, to be able to tailor useful/relevant content to individuals - ie not to show you an ovulation calendar at the side of the thread you're on if you're male.

My reply to this was that asking for people's SEX (M/F) would be better than their GENDER (M/F/Other) because otherwise they will still end up showing ovulation calendars to male MNers, because transwomen will tick 'female'. And then fat lot of good your poll will do for targeted advertisement.

And for that, villagers showed up with torches and pitchforks.

I didn't think Ego would get so offended at her name as an example of a transperson but when she kicked off, I asked MNHQ for that post to be deleted. Tonight, I reported it again.

Other than that, I can only assume that some people misunderstood my post as mocking Ego for not ovulating. That would have been in bad taste but was not what I said.

Not that I expect a good mob to just accept the error of their ways, so feel free to continue your attacks.