To get irritated by surveys that ask for my 'gender' but not for my sex?

[Oodiks]

If it's on paper I cross out 'gender' and write in sex, if it's a phone survey I comment that my sex is female.

I am my body, my body is me, and my body is female. I do not believe in gendered souls being popped into the 'wrong' body by some foolish god.

Thank you and well said!

😂😂 hilarious

There's often a question now asking if your gender is the same as your birth sex. I'm presuming that would be infuriating too!
It's hard to please everyone when asking these generic questions. I do think the word 'sex' almost became taboo, like if you said the word sex it would make people think of sexual intercourse? Hence why the word gender became more common. But now that's also a hotbed of controversy.
I guess it should just say 'are you female/male/something else?
Though obviously the 'something else' could also be deemed controversial.
I'm glad I don't have to write surveys any more, haha.

There are many sensible reasons for the gender/sex question on forms, but mostly what is required is very straightforward 'black and white' answer, and simply referring to your biological, born form. Unless the particular circumstances of the survey/form/questionnaire are concerned with some personal identity or sexual tendencies no one cares in 99% of the time the question is being asked if you think or feel a version of M or F or have made any mental or physical 'alterations' to your biological origin.

asexualtoadlover

That’s what I’m going to be if anyone asks from now on 😎

Where have you been the last 5-10 years?!?

But all forms have the option 'Ms' Surely? That is the exact equivalent of Mr.

Yes me too. Although bear in mind that it’s likely someone clueless from HR making the form rather than a political statement. Recently I had to correct a draft form that had the “gender” options as: male, female, intersex, gender fluid, and trans. I had to point out that it felt like some concepts were being muddled.

I agree with you i just think gender was used as a near synonym of sex for centuries before the linguistic (male female neuter), academic (socially constructed roles etc) or cultish (gender identity) usages emerged. Sometimes people do use it to mean sex and while that confuses things I dint think it's necessarily "wrong".

Although having said all that I still do cross out gender on forms and replace it with sex.

I agree OP. I had to sign a medical form for my ds's school trip. I scored out gender and wrote sex. If the form is to be used in a medical capacity then it's pretty important the sex of the patient is known, not what they identify as.

What a devilishly whirlwind existence 😳

Don't you worry; we'll keep up the good fight on behalf of womankind.

If there’s no box for “female” I tick “other”. That opens a dialogue box where I am able to impart the irrefutable information that I am a female.

I agree. I’m also confused by forms that ask what gender my child was allocated at birth. All my children were born in the Uk and they were NOT allocated any gender , either in hospital when they were born or when I registered their birth a few weeks later at the registrars office.

They have all now completed 13 years of state schooling and I’m 100% sure that they have NEVER been allocated a gender . So I don’t know at what stage it gets allocated and by whom.

I don’t know of a country which DOES allocate these genders to children and why on official education form would be asking this . It must be very rare and yet often there is no option to say “ not applicable “. I’ve certainly never seen one of these forms with boxes for all the 156 genders, so it must be very distressing and excluding for those people who have one of them that is not mentioned.

And what about the people who have different genders over time, sometimes varying each week? How on earth are these people supposed to answer these questions ?

To the many posters who don’t have (or feel they have) a gender - agender is a valid identification :)
hope that helps

Yes, this is how stupid it's becoming. Telling children at nursery they can pick their 'gender' but then confuse the word on many forms. The thing is children are actually being told they can change sex, leading to a life of massive disappointment when they realise they cannot.

My friend crossed out pregnant person on her maternity notes 😂 and put pregnant women.

That's the thing, gender wasn't used as a synonym for sex for centuries - its very recent. If you read texts from16th C onwards (I dont know about earlier, but I expe t its the same) there is absolutely no embarassment is using 'sex' to refer to women. 'The weaker sex' is bandied about all over the place. I think you'te right though in that, weirdly, its been one of the unintended consequences of feminism that we have focussed perhaps too much on the social construction of oppression & therefore gender and almost denied the biology of it - because if we accept the biology then the danger is people are gue that inferiority is naturally ordained - which is what people in the past believed, but of course doesnt have to be true. We all colluded in the normalisation of gender theory without realising it!

No it doesn't.

That's the problem.

There are different legal protection for sex and gender reassignment.

If sex is invisible in data collection there are implications.

No, its not, or at least not for a gender abolitionist. I don't have a gender, nor am I agender because I don't believe in gender as an identity, just as a semi-useful way of analysing society (though, boy, are we beginning to understand its limitations!)

I do have to write surveys. Putting "something else" or "other" is, of course, othering!

It drives me crazy too.

But if you're a survey researcher, you have to accept that people are going to tell you about themselves - and it won't necessarily match your idea of the world. If you provide M and F check boxes, men who identify as women with will tick F. If you give people a space to self-describe, you'll hear from a couple of Apache attack helicopters. It's all information - just not exactly what you wanted. You can't make people care about the things you care about. Personally, I care very much and I agree with you OP - but life's more complicated than just 'what leafinthewind says goes'.

YANBU gender is a social construct.

No they are two different concepts. Sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 but gender identity is not.
If you are not collecting data about sex but only gender you cannot demonstrate that you are monitoring for discrimination/equal treatment of a protected characteristic.

Sometimes using the right terminology really matters.

I love all the cool middle/ upper class women on this thread saying

“ I’ve got better things worry about [ like my designer shoes and clothes and if my maid or Chauffeur will turn up on time today ] .

We get that you are better than other women.

Its lovely to be so privileged that you don’t need to worry about the safety of women in prison, shelters or hospitals or girls using changing rooms in the local sports centre or Primark ( where accommodation is allocated by gender and not sex ).

Yeah we get that you are not a rape or a prisoner or an NHS patient or an homeless person or an asylum seeker or refugee or a working class woman and that you don’t give a fuck about those who are. Because you know it will never be you.