Most of the time we really DON'T need to know what sex someone else is, do we?

i like toilet segregation. Having been a cleaner I know men piss all over the seats and floors. How can they not aim?!

I think someone who wants to assault a woman in a public toilet probably won't be stopped by a sign saying "Ladies".

depends on where the segregation is taking place. Safe spaces for women, women's groups should be women only. Men have groups too.
Schools even as girls do better in single sex schools.
IKEA website, toys, clothes etc whyon earth?

John Lewis demand it too (when buying something online from a gift list). I wonder if it's a gift list thing so they can say to the recipient "Trills has bought you a gift, click here to see what she has got you".

Well how else are they going to know if you want pink sofa marketing leaflets sent to your house :)

Ha. I've just registered on the IKEA website to take 'advantage' of its 'shopping list' function, which turned out to be utterly useless as it then decided that my shopping list needed to take up about 14 pages, so I wish I hadn't bothered.

Anyway, one of its compulsory fields of registration was 'gender'! It would not let me register without telling them whether I was male or female. i suppose I should ask them why they need to know this and what they do with the information? Won't bother though as if they do reply it'll be of the bland, cliched corporate marketing business nonsense crapola variety. Grrrr!

I agree that most of the time we dont need to know their sex.Or race,or anything else for that matter.Didnt know people did.
There might be a few laughs from men if say there was a woman fisherman for example,but so what.She just gets on with it.

A few years ago I attended a meeting with three other people I had only spoken to over the phone. A) was a very feminine looking women, B) was a very ordinary, unmade up feminist and c) strolled in, in a man's suit, men's shoes with a short haircut and a gender neutral name.

A) spent the entire meeting with her face in her lap, stuttering and clearly disturbed and perplexed. It obv mattered to her to be able to tell a persons sex, or rather they should, for her comfort, conform to a gender stereotype, to avoid her embarrassment.

C) turned out to be a woman, a fantastic person, super intuitive, caring, huge amounts of empathy.

It did challenge us to look beyond a persons presenting gender/sex and just listen to what she was saying.

SGB, no I don't think I would prefer chromosones. I just think we assume, almost always correctly what sex somebody is (if they are an adult) by looking at the sexually dimorphic features that are visible. The vast majority of people don't realistically go around looking at the vast majority of other people and not know what their sex is. It just strikes me as odd, as it summons up images of everybody having the same body but just with different genitalia.

I think the actual question if very difficult to answer because we treat people differently for all manner of psychological and social reasons, and we base that on a vast number of different things they want to let us know about them, and of course our own stereotypes.

When it comes to gender, people may give us cues if they want us to talk to them about some aspect that could be considered to be part of a gender role or gender stereotype they are involved with, and I don't have an issue with that on their individual level because a vast amount of culture falls under one gender role or the other, so if an individual woman makes it obvious she's into reading Barbara Pym books or whatever, I'm happy to participate in that gendered activity. But if a man wants to talk about the same thing, I'm happy to do that also.

When it comes to internal gender identity, I don't need to know that about a person as it is a meaningless concept to me personally. But then experiencing God is a meaningless concept to me personally, and I can still show some level of basic politeness and listen to the person talking about it, there's probably just not much I can bring to the conversation other than listening as I haven't experienced that myself.

if they are looking for advice or expecting me to sympathise with them or anything else that requires understanding ... it could be relevant information.

I tend to disagree with that. I find folks human before male/female/other. Talking to a fellow human about emotional issues, work issues, DIY, eyeliner, money, politics, whatever ... is uncoloured by gender as far as I'm concerned. With the above exceptions for gender-determined issue. None of the topics I've mentioned are.

I agree about internet discussions! Though I do find some geeks like pointing out that I must be female because of the way I use language. 'Tis true; I speak 'female' but it doesn't generally interfere with my communications. If it does I can speak 'male' or 'machine', no skin off anyone's nose.

Going back to what I supposed was your point, SGB: No. Except in certain situations. Regardless of the contents of one's underwear or even if one is wearing any, it's 100% unnecessary to know the gender identity of a stranger in 90% of circumstances. Wherever possible I call myself "G. Fanjo" omitting the title. I nearly always get subsequent mail addressed to "Mr G Fanjo". Why? Just why? G Fanjo was good enough for me, why do they need to assign me a gender?

(I like that. Might change my last name to Fanjo )

It's true though, isn't it? You interpret what people such differently based on what you know about them. One person saying "I am skint" might mean they have to leave it longer than usual between haircuts, another might mean they can't feed the electricity meter. With no extra info you'd probably assume something in between. With more info the way that you react to the statement would be different.

I don't need to know what's in someone's underwear to talk to them, but if they are looking for advice or expecting me to sympathise with them or anything else that requires understanding (rather than simply having a discussion about an abstract or non-personal subject) it could be relevant information.

your opion SGB. Nothing like negating othersfeelings though

I don't give a damn about it if I am about to 'pour them a pint, buy a used car from them, arrange a mortgage for them, share a table with them in a crowded cafe, have your letters delivered by them, etc etc etc'

I care if I believe I'm in a woman only place. I care if I'm receiving medical treatment or a massage - it's my choice to only have women doctors for anything that requires physical contact. I care if I'm getting counselling - I choose to only see women.