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Original poster

What everyday concrete socially-created divisions on sex/gender exist?

58 replies

catscan · 07/02/2018 11:57

  • public toilets
  • changing room facilities at gyms and schools
  • some competitive sports
  • routine cancer tests for cervical and prostate cancer
  • HPV injections
  • retirement age
  • number of times you can donate blood per year

What else is there?

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Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 14:33

I think there’s talk of giving HPV injections to boys, too.

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Justanothernap · 07/02/2018 14:30

Treatment programmes for offending behaviour such as to address sexual or violent offending. Only run for men afaik.

stoneagefertilitydoll · 07/02/2018 14:30

Getting your child's surname changed in the register/on their birth certificate

'as a courtesy' they will change a child's surname from the mother's to the fathers upon marriage, or re-registration, but there are no circumstances where it can be changed from the father's to mother's (well, no, if the couple got married, and the father changed their name to that of the mother, and then they went to re-register the child as a child of the marriage, I think you might manage it)

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 14:28

I didn’t know that either, nor about retirement age or Brownies. It seems a lot of these divides are being quietly removed.

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SnugglySnerd · 07/02/2018 14:21

I didn't know that Helen although as I typed it I did think that I hadn't seen it on any adverts for a while!

HelenDenver · 07/02/2018 14:09

"Cheaper car insurance for women."

No longer allowed in the EU, IIRC

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 14:07
  • I think on some holidays, if you go as a single person you can be put in a hotel room with someone of the same sex
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GuardianLions · 07/02/2018 14:06

How about the Brazilian/American wax?

There was a TIM who wanted to sue the beautician who didn't know how to wax his cock and bollocks (when he'd booked in for a Brazilian) and offered him any other kind of wax instead.

sleepyhead · 07/02/2018 14:05
  • legal right of health professionals to refuse to provide treatment/care (abortion, contraception, MAP - can't think of any male treatment or medication that is included here).
SnugglySnerd · 07/02/2018 14:03

Being made a knight or a dame.

SnugglySnerd · 07/02/2018 14:02

Cheaper car insurance for women.

SinisterBumFacedCat · 07/02/2018 14:01

Primary school teachers - very rarely men unless PE

Judgement and criticism on whether mothers work full time, part time or SAH. Never levelled at fathers.

Tabloids and celeb mags criticising women's physical appearance, rarer if ever men's.

Morning news tv, rarely women presenters over 50, but often the men are.

soupforbrains · 07/02/2018 13:58

Women's only gyms?

terryleather · 07/02/2018 13:57

Recommended daily calorie intake.

It has variables by age ,height etc but men and women's are different.

A teenage boy gets to eat the most calories of all groups, followed by a breast feeding woman at 6 months in iirc...

soupforbrains · 07/02/2018 13:55

sorry I just realised I drifted myself off the point of the thread whilst thinking about it. obviously man-sized things are not segregating actual men and women. sorry sorry sorry!

soupforbrains · 07/02/2018 13:53

what about 'man-size' things?

You know like 'man-size tissues'.... I'm sure there are other things too but that's the only example I can think of.

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 13:53

A smear test is a test mandated by society though. I agree, I’d put it in my ‘based on biology’ category at 1.10pm

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Fifi5000 · 07/02/2018 13:48

Some of these aren’t socially created, but biologically mandated. You can’t have a smear test without a cervix.

birdsdestiny · 07/02/2018 13:44

I have no idea you would have to ask them.

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 13:15

I’d include men’s clubs in there too though eg Freemasons, gentlemen’s clubs

Would that be men’s boundaries?

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birdsdestiny · 07/02/2018 13:13

I wouldn't call it preferences I would call it women's boundaries.

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 13:10

So it seems to me that these fall into distinct categories:

  • based on biology (eg cancer tests)
  • based on religion (eg monks’ retreats)
  • based on protecting the vulnerable (eg staff on residential trips or at refuges)
  • based on arbitrary history (eg which way your shirt buttons up, children’s marriage certificates)
  • based on preference (eg clubs/societies)

Would people agree with that? There’s clearly some overlap in some categories, particularly with preference.

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Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 12:55
  • the WI?
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SeeKnievelHitThe17thBus · 07/02/2018 12:53

Fathers who "babysit" their own children when women only babysit for other people.

Original poster
catscan · 07/02/2018 12:52
  • women’s clinic at the sexual health centre (for all self-identified women) as well as a trans clinic and a men-who-have-sex-with-men clinic
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