What the hell does this mean?

[PJPanther]

More of a WWYD than AIBU.

Completing manadatory government sign in online and instead of sex the question asked is gender (give me strength) BUT the options available are as follows;
Male
Female
Prefer not to say
Prefer to Self-Describe

They are in that order with that exact weirdness of capitalisation/punctuation.

I am leaning towards Self-Describe except it is all tick box and there is no place to write one's description.

AIBU to want somewhere to write how I describe myself in the absence of an actual definitive sex tick box?

Just tick the 'self describe' option if none of the others fit. They can contact you if they need to know what your self-description is.

I would tick male or female depending on what I was 🤷🏼‍♀️ could tick prefer not to say if I was feeling difficult. I don't understand what is meant by self describe

I have no problem with the first three options but what does the last one mean and how is it different to prefer not to say.

If the question was gender instead of sex, I’d personally, for me, tick prefer not to say.

If the question is for sex, I’d tick female

The self-describe is useless without a fill in box

It’s a catch-all term for people who aren’t male or female (agender, gender fluid, nonbinary etc.)

If one of those applies to you, use that box. If you’re male or female, use whichever of those is appropriate. If you prefer not to say, use that box.

I usually tick the 'prefer not to say' and then find the free-type comments box to have a rant about sex v. gender.

In this case I think that 'prefer not to say' is the answer. 'Prefer to Self-Describe' implies that you are buying into the charade.

Don’t be that person

Do you identify as
Male
Female
Non binary /gender fluid
Or would you prefer not to say.

It’s really not that difficult.

My sex is female I don't have a gender

I really couldn’t imagine giving something like this too much headspace. Guess whatever you tick isn’t probably even going to be read, or make any difference to the end result of completing the form?

@InfiniteSheldon if you don’t identity with a gender then you put self describe. If you don’t wish to say, you put prefer not to say.

Is this for real?

Only you know what the answer really is anyway

If “prefer not to say” is an answer then the question is obviously not important. It clearly doesn’t matter to them what gender anyone puts on the form if an acceptable answer is “pass”. So why do they bother with the question?

Literally no one gives a fuck. It's just data for data's sake. Tick all four.

So tick prefer not to say and move on.

i have no gender. i am of the female sex

Did people start saying gender as they were a bit too genteel to say Sex? I can imagine my mil doing this.

I did a survey with these options earlier today - from the Child Poverty Action Group Scotland.

Nope self describe isn't right my biology determines my sex not my opinions

What is the point of collecting information about gender identity though? Why is that useful in any way? Sex, or gender reassignment yes, as they are protected characteristics and public organisations have a duty to monitor them but gender as in self-description rather than actual sex?

But, they didn’t ask what your sex is. They asked what your gender is.

Therefore, they probably don’t care about your biology.

What's the point in the question then @Goatinthegarden?

Nope self describe isn't right my biology determines my sex not my opinions but they didn’t ask about your sex. They asked about your gender which is determined by opinion.
In your opinion, are you male, female, neither or other?

And its standard to gather this information for analysis of demographics.

Tick prefer not to say

It's a bit like being asked for religion when you're an Atheist and the options being

Christian
Muslim
Prefer not to say
Other faith

You want to say 'none' but it doesn't quite fit anywhere.

I'd probably go with 'prefer not to say' if there was no free text box.

Its just there so people dont get annoyedthst they have to choose between male and female. Your input wont even be included in the analysis unless there are massive numbers as there will be too few people ticking that box to make any kind of meaningful statistical analysis. Basically it doesn't matter and get over yourself.