British Social Attitudes survey. How is best to answer this question?

It's a very difficult and complex question to answer. The way it's posed presumes quite a lot.

Yes. It's unclear whether the survey composers are using "gender" in its feminist sense - a system of power relations which serves to oppress women through gendered stereotypes & roes, based on sex.

Or in the gender extremist ideology as "an inner sense of whether you are male or female."

Thanks for raising the question @TheBitterBoy I've come across those two questions, paired as it were, to be alert to the current trans epidemic (I think a lot of is social contagion).

I'm minded to say that my gender is the same as my sex, but that is so complex, and not really true, because I reject gender. AND it cements the idea as a given that people have a "gender identity" (apart from a personality!)

But if I prefer not to say ... what are the consequences of saying that? Might there be an inference (by researchers) that I'm questioning my sex? or my "gender identity"?

This is the problem with quantitative research in some areas. A qualitative interview or possibility in all questions for open text is better. Open text can be analysed computationally through "sentiment analysis" - there are some very interesting ways of interpreting data through those tools.

So in view of that the boat has sailed.

Most people will take sex or gender to mean sex.

Some will put what they fancy.

This is queer theory in action isn't it? Blur categories.. Dismantle boundaries. Fuck with clarity. Do what you like.

As with loads of single sex things. They have already been turned from. Knowing what sex is and that adhering to the rules is important socially and policed.

To just. Whatever.

Same difference.

And once gone I think it's going to be incredibly hard to put it back.

Cwen thank you for that.

I suppose I'm being s bit defeatist.

Sex and gender is better than just gender.

The hooha over the census was bonkers. Statisticians saying wtf we need sex.
Govt don't care can't have it.

Took a fucking court case to get both. It's unbelievable but it happened.

And even though sex and gender were asked.
And even though answering truthfully is s legal requirement.

High profile trans people were encouraging others to say gender for sex..

And I'm sure many of them did.

Apparently not.

Very very strange that, isn't it.

I don't get why trans people who care about trans rights would want their trans status to be officially disappeared from the record :-/ Surely it's important to stand up and be counted?

Q1 just asks “what is your sex”, many people who believe in gender identities conflate theirs with their sex, so they will answer q1 with their current identity, not their sex registered at birth. Many high profile transwomen answered this question on the census as “female”, and bragged about it on Twitter. Also, sex registered at birth can be retconned by a GRC, and as I understand it, the GRA as it stands means that even the existence of a GRC cannot be enquired about?

Q2 then goes on itself to conflate sex and gender identity, by stating that they can be the same thing - seeing as they are different characteristics, they are by definition not the same thing. This was how the census question failed. It doesn’t allow for plurality of belief on this issue, so cannot gather accurate data.

E.g.
Q1 - female
Q2 - GI same as registered birth sex - no

Is this person:

• a transwoman who believes their sex is female but has no GRC?
• a transman who acknowledges their sex is female (with or without GRC)?
• a female non-binary person?
• a woman who does not believe in gender identity so by definition does not have one that matches her birth sex?

Eg2
Q1 - female
Q2 - GI same as registered birth sex - yes

Is this person:

• a transwoman with a GRC, who believes their sex is female and now has a birth certificate that states that too?
• a ‘cis’ woman who believes in gender identity and believes hers matches her sex?
• a woman who doesn’t believe in gender identity but is trying to game the nonsensical question to be recorded as a woman?

As shown by these examples, both male and female people end up being recorded as female, both transgender and non-transgender people end up being recorded in both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options for q2, just with everyone trying to answer as honestly as they can according to their beliefs. The question is a mess and therefore the data it gathers will be a mess too.

This is the same problem we have with the census.

There should be a "none" option in any gender identity question. "None/not applicable" is not the same as "I don't know" or "I don't want to say".

I'd tick 'no' and then put a comment along the lines of "I don't have a gender" or "Gender is a social construct that should not be on this survey"

AND it says sex REGISTERED at birth.

Far from being questionable this one is a win as far as I'm concerned.

Accurate stats for both sex and trans. Yay!

The second is optional. Just leave it. I doubt they will read comments etc.

Collecting stats about sex and whether trans/ and identity is good.

That's how it should be. Collecting data on the trans population is a good idea. As long as sex is collected as well.

I have no beef with data collecting both sex and gender at all.

Understanding the views/ issues etc of this subset of the population will be useful. And I have no doubt that trans people do experience hostility discrimination etc. I mean those that present as opposite sex esp m2f.

That's my view.

Where things conflate sex and gender (what is your gender/ what is your sex? Male female non binary other for example). Or only collect gender and hope that most people fill their sex in automatically.

That's when it's time to get pissed off.

I wish they would phrase questions with options that allow me to answer honestly. Like, "'Gender identity' is a term used to describe an inner sense of whether one is a man, a woman, or something else, which may or may not correlate with one's biological sex. Do you consider yourself to have a gender identity? Y/N If yes, what is your gender identity? Woman/man/non-binary/other[please specify]."

I always choose no and write either "I do not identify with stereotypes" or "I don't have a gender, I reject stereotypes" or if I'm reallu crabbit "I don't identify with my oppression" and then explain this if they have a free comment box anywhere.

I do not ever say yes to this, because I don't want researchers thinking I have a gender identity. I don't.

I reject the premises of the question

Yes, this. It's not a neutral question.

'Gender' is not something I identify with. I observe it and consider its effects, but it has little bearing on my sex or behaviour. 'Gender', as a concept can't be 'the same' as sex as they are by definition two different things.

It's a very difficult and complex question to answer. The way it's posed presumes quite a lot.

If the "box to enter gender identity" is large enough, then type in the one you prefer.

If I were asked this question, I'd need to reply that I reject the premises of the question and I would comment again in any free text box at the end of the survey.

Tangentially relevant - on the first and second question, do most transgender people accept that their sex is biologically fixed, but record their gender according to the way they now present themselves? Or I wonder if some transwomen, for example, think of their sex as being female?

In other words a transwoman might fill the form in in a way which makes her indistinguishable from someone born female. Unless there's a box which specifically asks "are you trans?" then I don't see how they can reliably capture this.

Just as the OP could interpret these questions in various ways, so could others. Once you start messing about with the definitions of words you make the results of these sorts of things pretty much useless.

That's quite interesting wording. I wonder what the results will indicate when they're published

I guess what you want is for the question to ask whether you identify as a different gender? More straightforward for those who object to the idea or just aren’t sure what it means.

My technical answer would be no, as I don't identify with being a woman (I am a woman). Though I would probably put prefer not to say, though I am actually also quite happy to say! Actually I'm going back to I'd answer no and then say I don't identify with any gender as it oppresses women. At least then if they bother to read the answer they'll know why.

I would say yes, and give feedback on the phrasing of the question separately. Maybe there is an 'any other comments' box at the end of the survey? I would very much want to point out the problem with the phrasing of the question, but it would be more important to me that the researchers understood my responses in the survey to be those of a woman, born female, and that there wouldn't be the possibility of being misclassified as a trans respondent or part of a growing number 'identifying' as nonbinary or whatever.