to object to MNHQ forcing a MALE/FEMALE gender binary on my account.

[HairyLittleCarrot]

I don't have any GENDER.

My MN account forces me to pick from two 'genders'.

I can't even opt out, it's a forced binary choice.

I'm not agender, pangender, cisgender, transgender, male gender, female gender or ANY GENDER.

If you want to know my sex, I am happy to provide that information. But you'll have to add that in as a field, because it doesn't exist currently.

Sex and gender are not the same thing. If you insist on collecting data by gender and making it a forced choice I would like an option as follows:

"Reject gender as a harmful, made up, bullshit concept".

Then when you analyse your account database you can say
X% identify as female gender
Y% identify as male gender
Z% reject gender as a bullshit concept.

AIBU to request MNHQ to alter my account details so that they do not misrepresent me?

I am pretty woo so am open to spiritual explanations in theory! But I'd really like SecondViola to explain how they seee it.

Apologies, I always know I haven't had enough sleep when I make stupid typos! Have bad insomnia at the moment.

Do they request gender? I don't know if I chose the right one! There was a programme about a little boy who became a girl on tv a few days ago. His mom said he had always wanted to be a girl because one of the indicators was when they went to the hairdresser he cried because they made his hair shorter and he wanted longer hair "like a girl". (Males must not need to go to the hairdressers because they must have naturally short hair). And he wanted to wear dresses! (Like men do all over the world do anyway, in traditional dress, and the kilt).

Now this has must define as a man because I am wearing jeans rather than a dress or high heels and make-up. My mother sent me to school in jeans and anorak to keep me dry and warm. Obviously the "woman" didn't know diddly squat about how to raise someone of the girlish gender. Mind you, my mom had short hair, albeit 'waved', so maybe "she" was really of a suspect gender too!

If growing your hair and wearing dresses is what makes you a woman, what does a jeans wearing, fleece wearing outfit make you? Oh gosh, no make-up or high heels either.

The op from the other thread must be suffering from some type of munchausen by proxy thing surely.

Feel quite disturbed by the op of the other thread.

I'm hoping it is a troll, to be honest.

"I just can't believe it's good for the child's mental health to be told he can be a girl, when he never can be. It sets the child up for a lifetime of disappointment."

There are children who - with extensive psychiatric counselling - are being given puberty blocking treatment so that their innate sex characteristics never develop, then when adult age, if they are still insistent, surgery and hormone treatment to make them as physically close as possible to their self-identified gender. You would never know that their innate sex was the opposite to how they now appear. Obviously they would be infertile, but so are many non trans people.

I'm not necessarily saying that that's right or wrong, but perhaps life like that is preferably to constantly feelng "wrong". I'm not going to judge because I'm not living their life.

And before anybody says "they can't be this or that sex because they don't have the 'right' chromosomes", I don't believe people should have to hang their entire existence on the presence of the things. Nobody would tell a woman with AIS that she wasn't a woman.

BTW I haven't yet read the other thread, so don't know who is telling whom in that case.

"I absolutely don't think that when my body is gone, "I" will still exist."

Ah, but when you've had the experience of having someone who died several years previously make it perfectly clear that they can still see and hear you, then it changes your view completely. But you (and all of us) will find out that in time.

"you and I, and everyone else, are souls, not bodies"

Really now. Has anyone discovered evidence for the existence of a soul, then?

gender is a social construction instilled by gendered social practices that exaggerate differences and cause gendered social behaviours
something like that
but where biological appearance, chromosomal sex and gender identity fall - on a medical level before we get to issues of sexuality or preference - it's really not a M/F distinction in the first place
so the coding needs to be different

I know about puberty blockers etc. Personally I think forced infertility is a massive price to pay. And after all that, the person still won't be the opposite sex. It's very very sad and should not be even talked about wrt a four year old.

Ah, but when you've had the experience of having someone who died several years previously make it perfectly clear that they can still see and hear you, then it changes your view completely. But you (and all of us) will find out that in time

I think, at this point, I need to extricate myself from this line of conversation

Smillas - what is mansplaining?

I've not read the full thread butI agree with the general view of the op and others concerned about transfer activism encroaching on women's rights but if you are referring to the other poster as a man when she had just said she doesn't like that then you are very cruel.

If I was fat and said I don't like describing myself or other people describing me as fat then it would be pretty nasty for you to then make a joke calling me fat.

I may have misunderstood what the words mean but the whole tone has really turned me off to your argument and I actually agree with what I've seen of what you've said

"Has anyone discovered evidence for the existence of a soul, then?"

Well, you won't find much in the way of scientific "proof" in a way that would satisfy you, I don't imagine.

What you will find is plenty of sworn testimonies from people that point to ever growing evidence of continued consciousness following death.

Of course you could just ignore that and dismiss them all as liars and nutters, but then, you could equally dismiss any sworn witness statements in courts too, couldn't you? Just to suggest a parallel.

But anyway this is another matter so I'll leave it that.

It certainly is another matter.... and of course, people's sworn witness statements are called into question every day, especially when they are utterly inconsistent with fact

Liz - souls are probably very much like gender, an idea invented by man, something that lots of people have some belief in but because it's absolutely devoid of factual evidence it's the sort of thing that should be treated as a theory and not relied upon.

maybe MN could have another tick box under the gender one
do youse have a soul Y/N

I find it incomprehensible that in a bazillion threads and posts, and given the urgency with which "gender" is beginning to dictate our lives

Nobody has been able to define the bugger.

What is Gender?
How many genders are there?
Does everyone have one?
Can you change it?
Who gets to decide what other people's gender is?
Can you challenge another person's gender?
Why is gender more important than sex?
Does it make sense to group people by matching gender?
How many gender-specific facilities should we provide as a society?
What do you do when the gender rights conflict with sex rights?
Is there ever a time when grouping should happen by sex instead of gender?
Who gets to decide this?
What should happen if a sizeable chunk of the population won't play along with the idea that they have a gender?

Is anyone who feels strongly that GENDER MATTERS prepared to have a pop at these questions?

Yes I want a soul question when you register.
Do you have a soul? yes/No/WTF

hairy carrot.
Marketing people are in the business of making money, if they get it wrong they go bust. They do not collect useless data, its in their interest to be slick and efficient.
As far as your other questions - I will answer them when you tell me how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. and WGAS

Under cracker
I used to be employed by the biggest direct marketer in the UK at one time. In the marketing department.
I'll be sure to pass along your useful advice to my colleagues.

Oh, and the answer to your question is fifteen.

Meanwhile...

ego - exactly
and they follow the trends. It's NOT a survey, which is where hairy carrot is going wrong

"they've ticked female or male.These are the things most male / females are most likely to be into"

it depends how much information they have available to subdivide people down further. If none, then yes.