Gah fed up of gender everywhere

[Believerinbiology]

I'm in Ireland so there is the whole mess of gender and sex used interchangeably in law. There was also a push to replace sex with gender in the healthcare setting and initially people seemed to think it was the whole "oh its just more polite" and there was still only male and female categories but this is changing allowing other categories. I have stopped opening healthcare related research surveys (sent by healthcare professionals) as they asked for gender identity rather then sex which was particularly galling when looking at female specific issues or reasons for imbalance of participation in particular fields. Colleagues were told by ethics boards that they had to switch sex to gender for their research proposals to be accepted...in healthcare.

I just tried to book my 10 year old child into an event which is for ages 8 to 12 only and it asks gender: male/female/nonbinary/prefer not to say (oddly the adult version has other instead of nb).
There is no free text box or options to put sex. These are children, its so frustrating.

Sorry just venting as even when you are actively trying to avoid thinking about gender crap it creeps in to your day.

There's a local cafe where the toilets are labelled as 'any gender' 🙄 Wtf is wrong with 'toilet?'

This shit is unraveling but it's taking a lo g time. My mid teenager says her and her peers are bored rigid by it. We have to put some faith in kids coming up now to kick it into touch.

I was asked the same stupid gender question for an medical procedure.I asked if my chosen gender pronoun would effect the outcome of the procedure, was told no. I asked if not knowing my biological sex would, I was told that that biological sex was important as the issue I am having is more common in females than males (joint issue, non gyne). Given that that is the case, what the hell does my chosen gender pronoun have to do with my medical care? If anything, it hinders my initial care if my doctor does know what sex they are dealing with.

My 7 year old is confused about it all.

At a event recently he was asked "do you want to be known as a boy/girl/non-binary or other" he looked so confused and before I could interject he replied "I'm a boy silly, do I look like a girl!"

Event person then got all flappy and was trying to find a badge and would now no longer make eye contact with a 7 year old...

World's gone mad!

I then had to endure 50 questions over the space of 3 hours along the lines of "why would she ask me that?" "What did she mean?" "I don't look like a girl do I?"

I had a large glass of wine when I got home...

Oh dear. I'm just filling in a Health Service form which does indeed ask for my gender. In this case I don't have the luxury of binning it alas. I may have to see my local TD ( MP ) on something unrelated. Thinking of lending him Trans by our sane and rational compatriot Helen Joyce.

I've jist filled in a form for some funding for an organisation I work with. It's a council pot of money and they asked my gender with a choice of male, female, non binary. Wtaf.

I do think it's a bit over-the-top where pre-pubescent children are concerned! Let children get on with exploring the world without too much navel gazing (I am probably not allowed to say that nowadays, am I?)

Another thing you are probably not allowed to say: I am far more interested in what people do then what they identify as. Quite happy to be friends with someone who identifies as a goat as long as they are doing something interesting and converse about it!

@ObjectionHearsay

Imagine if the tables were turned and you asked a TW if they wanted to be known as a man or a woman- you would be slaughtered for having the temerity to not recognising their inate gender. Yet its perfect okay to confuse a child who has no understanding of this trans tomfoolery. I hope the lad wasn't too upset by such a moronic question but fair play to him for answering in such away. It takes the innocence of a child to highlight the ridiculousness of some adults

Object. At every stage, as loudly as you dare.

See this makes me really angry. Adults shouldn't be confusing children like this it's cruel. They're treating children like small adults and ignoring how children view the world and their place in it. I think it's really harmful.

I said to him in the end, don't worry about it, people ask silly questions sometimes, you answered you where a boy with a reason. It's fine, you are a boy, you look like a boy.

But yes if you dared to ask a TW or TM I think you'd get slaughtered on the spot 🤦🏻‍♀️

Just leave children alone I think. The world is mad enough with wars, energy crisis and so on, let's not make them worry about what gender they are because 99.9% children have a very clear idea if they are a boy or girl generally!

"I'm a boy silly, do I look like a girl!"

It's sad when a seven year old can see it's nonsense and an adult can't.

@StopStartStop
I do. I know very politely ask, why do you need to know, will it make a difference. It I can't make the point there and then e.g. a questionnaire for example, I write to them afterwards and ask what was tge purpose of the question. 9 out of 10 times, I don't get an answer to my email but if enough women do it, they might beging to understand how pissed off we are over this nonsense.

At 7yo my daughter was being teased at school for liking "boy" things. (Because she had a very cool dinosaur lunch box that she loved...)

Being asked if she was a girl or boy by an adult would have really upset her. What's wrong with just asking their name?

Uch. I mean how hard did we all work to get rid of this idea of "boy things" and "girl things" they are just "things, interests and hobbies!" Boys and girls can like and do whatever they want. Girls can be mechanics and like dinosaurs makes no difference.

I do feel like we have made a massive step backwards in all this, and I'm only a 90's child!!

Quite. We're back to telling little girls, if you have a female body (which you're not allowed to name or talk about or admit to in a public place, it's a filthy fact that is nasty to refer to), you may only stay in this box and like and do these assigned things that girls may do, otherwise there is something wrong with you and you're not a girl.

While telling little boys, if you don't perform appropriate masculinity then there is something wrong with you (and definitely not wrong with toxic masculinity) and you are not a boy and are in fact a girl.

Awful. Absolutely terrible. I shall be telling all girls as I was told: a girl can do and be anything she wants to and still be a girl. And a boy can do and be anything he wants to, it never stops him being a boy. And anyone silly enough to try and force you into boxes they need for their own personal agenda or their own ability to make sense of the world is not someone you should be giving your time to, this is their problem and not yours.

I do so hope so, but having 20 yr old and 18 yr old relatives who are between them trans identified, and fully "trans-ally" I don't have the same feeling of positivity... sigh.

Just had to complete a form for my CRB check (teaching gig) so this is an official government document. Details asked for include gender. Sex? forget it. Bah!

It annoys me enough when its aimed at adults but as others have said its the putting ideas in young children's heads. I have always told my children (of both sexes) that they can dress how they want, play or have whatever interests they want. They have encountered the it's a girls/boys toy crap from adults but were happy enough to ignore. They know what sex they are. I do not want them being confused about something even adults fail to explain which can have such drastic consequences for later life.
FFS I had a full meowing conversation with the child in question the other day

Also will contact the organization to question this but its awful that I'm hesitant due to possible repercussions on my membership/children

On a more positive note, at my dental check up yesterday I had to update their registration form (usually done annually). It said: sex : with boxes for male and female.

Nothing for gender, nothing for other and nothing for various twinkly shit.

YES!

I was at a community event and asked to fill out a survey I declined on the basis that they asked for my gender and not sex.

That's the thing...its hard to know what's best to do for surveys and the like. If possible can write sex=female bit often there is no option so the choice is to go along with it or decline to participate. Either way they won't be getting accurate data.

Wow, well done! What did they say??

There's over ten years left for the mainstream education system to indoctrinate him the way it did the adults; to accept things without question and appeal to authority.