Calling out use of "gender"

upside

There have been cases in which nationality and ethnicity data is thought to have been used to "identify" possible "migrants" by the Home Office. There were a few threads on MN, last year I think.

It's my own personal little protest against that sort of thing.

TheElementsSong

(Incidentally, I have also started putting "Prefer not to say" on questions of ethnic origin or nationality).

Can I asky why?

I worry that selecting "other" and "prefer not to say" just encourages it to proliferate.

Yes! I had that worry with my online form that I talked about upthread, but couldn't think of any other way to register my protest.

(Incidentally, I have also started putting "Prefer not to say" on questions of ethnic origin or nationality).

This reminds me of the time my friends ticked the Sex : Male box at the doctors because she thought she was supposed to be ticking if she has sex with men or women.

But my Dc's school always referes to gender rather than sex and when questioned have always said that lots of kids just laugh at the word sex and they have to keep sex for intercourse or it would be to confusing.

And they could just ask for preferred pronouns instead.

Why would anyone need to know your gender? (Other than to use correct pronouns).

Yup. Crossed out 'Gender' and wrote out 'Sex' on my Ante-natal clinic forms the other day. Had to do it about 5 times too.

Was impressed with DC's school admission form which did have 'Sex'

I filled out a form at the doctor's a few months ago. 'Gender: female (includes trans women) or male (includes trans men).'

I asked how this could be, as it would be a lie and the passport is a legal document. He said it’s primarily a document for identification purposes so having “sex female” on your passport is fine if you’re a TIM.

I can (almost) not believe the fucking doctors and passport office do not want to know if we are male or female.

We've become a nation of "oooh they said sex" 😂😂😂.

So we use gender instead of sex so people aren't "embarrassed".

Last week, I picked up a leaflet in the local pharmacy that explained how, amongst other things, gender affects your risk of high blood pressure

It certainly affects mine

Mine too

I correct it to sex where I can, and if asked what I identify as, I write "I don't identify as anything, but I am a woman".

I worry that selecting "other" and "prefer not to say" just encourages it to proliferate. But hard to know how else to tackle it...

Last week, I picked up a leaflet in the local pharmacy that explained how, amongst other things, gender affects your risk of high blood pressure.

It certainly affects mine

As my favourite lecturer used to tell us: words have gender, people have sex

I suppose they might reply that they actually are asking about gender? To which there needs to be a third box saying "it's a made up construct".

I’ve just applied for a new passport.

Both the paper form and the online form ask for “gender”, yet the physical passport still says “sex”.

I phoned the passport office to ask them about this. I said I don’t have a gender so if I were to check the “gender: female” box it would be a lie. The person I spoke to was very nice and he said I could leave the box blank because my current passport says “sex: female” so they already know I’m female.

He also said if a man identifies as female and ticks the “gender: female” box it is then converted to “sex: female” on their passport.

I asked how this could be, as it would be a lie and the passport is a legal document. He said it’s primarily a document for identification purposes so having “sex female” on your passport is fine if you’re a TIM.

I change paper forms all the time

I leave no gender box unsexed and have now taken to not only writing 'sex' on forms but explaining why.

I'm escalating

My friends are getting very fed up with me going on at them with "don't say gender when you mean sex." But they have started correcting themselves...

Actually it would really mess up figures everywhere if all women started putting 'would rather not say' or 'other'.

I'm glad it's not just me. Today was my first day of doing this, I changed it on a form from 'Gender' to 'Sex'.

I also spoke with my child's school recently as, when telling us about the PSHE stuff, they referred to gender. She told me they do it as they refer to actual sex as sex and it would confuse. I can see that but then perhaps they should refer to sex as sexual intercourse. Anyway I have started educating my 2 on all this so they will understand sex and gender perfectly well.

MNHQ should actually address this themselves, if you look on your account page

On behalf of HQ

I leave comments on YouGov polls - they ask"what is your gender? Male or female".

I explain to them what they actually want to know is my SEX.

HTH

I've just done an online form (a university) which had "Gender: M/F" and then lower down "Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were originally assigned at birth: Y/N/Prefer Not To Say".

They're compulsory fields, so I've done F and then Prefer Not To Say.

If only I could take a Sharpie to the computer screen.