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Gender specifications on your Mumsnet account: update

193 replies

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 10:29

Morning folks,

Following on from last week’s thread about our asking you to sign up to Mumsnet as male or female, here’s where we’ve landed.

We’ve had a careful read of the thread, and done some more general reading around and investigation into how this is handled elsewhere, and we think the best way to proceed is to add the option “other” to the list of responses to the question of gender. Viz

Female
Male
Other (please specify) _

This is how lots of other sites navigate this, so we hope it’s not too controversial.

As ever when it comes to questions around gender, we’re aware that not everyone will agree, but this seems to us to be the most inclusive and sensible route to take.

Do let us know what you think.
MNHQ

OP posts:
CoteDAzur · 20/01/2016 22:26

Well if seeing your name bothered you so much, I'll ask for it to be deleted and replace it with one that doesn't have your name in it. As if that changes anything, but hey ho.

VashtaNerada · 20/01/2016 22:21

I agree, it's a spectacularly nasty thing to taunt someone trans for what their body can't do. I don't care how 'correct' your wording is, it's fucking bullying and it's not on.

Egosumquisum · 20/01/2016 22:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 20/01/2016 22:17

You will get trans people like Ego utterly convinced of their femaleness ticking the 'female' box. Fat lot of good the ovulation calendar will do then

1- totally out of order to pick on a poster by name
2- I don't think ego is convinced she is female unless I have misunderstood
3- so what if trans people pick the option they feel like picking? The point of mumsnet data gathering isn't to get fully accurate statistics on its users and surely the point of this request to remove gender from the options is symbolic/figurative rather than to improve the quality of their data gathering? I don't care if 95% of mners tick the 'wrong' sex box as long as it doesn't ask us for our gender or refer to male and female as gender options.

VashtaNerada · 20/01/2016 22:11

Bloody hell Cote - that's not on picking on a named individual. FWIW there's plenty of posters of female sex for whom an ovulation calendar is useless.

Egosumquisum · 20/01/2016 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CoteDAzur · 20/01/2016 22:06

It's not meant to be nice or not nice. I'm just saying that asking people's gender and then showing them ovulation calendars if they tick 'female' might not always work.

CoteDAzur · 20/01/2016 22:03

"The question will be worded, simply, "Are you..?", and underneath that there'll be a drop-down menu, which will show "Female" as the default answer (based on the site's current usership). If you click on the menu, you'll be able to change it to "Male" or "Other". If you pick "Other", you'll be shown a box saying "Please specify"."

"Other"? I must have missed that day in biology class.

Egosumquisum · 20/01/2016 22:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CoteDAzur · 20/01/2016 22:00

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

HermioneWeasley · 20/01/2016 18:44

As long as you're not asking specifically about gender, I don't mind.

Egosumquisum · 20/01/2016 18:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SoupDragon · 20/01/2016 16:57

You still don't seem to be getting the point!

Did you not read the last MNHQ update?

BeyondBootcampsAgain · 20/01/2016 16:48

Oo, theres a loaded question!! Grin

Egosumquisum · 20/01/2016 16:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Jux · 20/01/2016 16:30

SEX please. Be a little island of sanity.

I agree with everything HairyLittleCarrot has said.

YouAreMyRain · 20/01/2016 16:17

*SEX!

SEX, SEX, SEX, SEX, SEX!!

NOT GENDER!!!!*

BeyondBootcampsAgain · 20/01/2016 16:03

ItsAll Grin

Sparklingbrook · 20/01/2016 16:00

I would imagine when registering with MN if you could skip any part of the process you would. You want to register and get posting.....

Sallyingforth · 20/01/2016 15:58

You still don't seem to be getting the point!

The other thread was all about using 'sex' instead of 'gender'.
Allowing people to duck the question is not the solution.
If you correct the question people won't need to avoid it.

The correct word is SEX.

Samcro · 20/01/2016 15:53

just like on this thread...when you ask a question

Sparklingbrook · 20/01/2016 15:43

And some will not answer at all because you can skip it. Smile

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 20/01/2016 15:33

I cannot see what useful information will come out of this

But it doesn't offend anybody, that's the important thing Grin

ArcheryAnnie · 20/01/2016 14:54

I cannot see what useful information will come out of this - some will answer on the basis of sex (which would be right as that is what male and "female" refer to) and some will answer on the basis of "gender", which will make the results meaningless, and the other category will not yield much useable information either.

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 14:30

Hey everyone,

I fear I've further muddied the waters here. To be clear - we're not asking for gender or sex. The question will be worded, simply, "Are you..?", and underneath that there'll be a drop-down menu, which will show "Female" as the default answer (based on the site's current usership). If you click on the menu, you'll be able to change it to "Male" or "Other". If you pick "Other", you'll be shown a box saying "Please specify".

Again, to be clear: you don't have to fill ANY of this in.

OP posts:
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