Worthless Poster Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 A bisexual friend told me he read an article somewhere that the government was thinking of creating 5 genders instead of two: Male, Female, Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual. This brought up a few concerns. Firstly, when filing out important papers, can they legally force you to out yourself? Me thinks not. Also, your legal identity would, in essence, change between a time you were in the closet/in denial/questioning and the time you were out. Also, it makes it seem as though "male" and "female" are correct and the rest are deviations. Male and Female, too me, are just saying what you PHYSICALLY are, the rest are personal information. What about bisexuals? It doesn't say if they have male or female genitalia. They would, or should, techincally add "asexual" as well, but that would face the problem of bisexual as well... which physical gender are you? Besides, many asexuals consider themselves hetero or homo sexual as well, it's just a matter of what kind of attraction you're referring to. If they were going to expand the legal gender scope to include sexual preference, they would have to have Male and Female, and then subsections of homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, and asexual if this is something they were set on carrying out, although even that would not solve everything. To me, it's just not necessary information. However, it may become so as anti-discrimnation laws begin to encompass sexual orientation as well. It may be something that is necessary to be legally classified as, in order to reap full advantage of your legal protections, but "sexual preference" would have to be a totally seperate file, NOT a part of gender classification. Gender= physical characteristics What do you all think? Link to post Share on other sites
cronos Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 I agree with you completely on this. Gay, lesbian and bisexual are definitions of sexual orientation, not gender identity. But to include other genders, you would have to consider whether to look for the actual physical gender (male, female, hermaphrodite (sp?), etc.) or gender identity (masculine, feminine, androgyne, etc.). Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 5 genders . . . Pwahahahahahaaaa! :lol: :lol: That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while! That pretty much answers it. Link to post Share on other sites
bard of aven Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 If 5 was funny, try 6. Male, female, true hermaphrodite (having both testicular and ovarian tissue in the gonads), male psuedohermaphrodite (ambiguous genitalia with testicles, internal or descended), female psuedohermaphrodite (ambiguaus genitalia with ovaries), and no distinguishing genitalia. (The three types of hermaphrodites together account for about 1 in 2000 live births.) Those are the broad patterns of physiological gender we humans produce when we couple, and there is a wide variety of individuals in each of them. Leave it to the government to confuse these issues in quite this way. And that's without getting into the genetics of it, about which I know nothing. Where I work right now, a branch of the US Navy, the online pesnonnel database has three genders, Male, Female, and Unknown. (There are a lot of people who are Male or Female but who have first names commonly given to either, who got entered as Unknown and never had it corrected.) If I have to fill out a form like that, I think I will check Male and Lesbian. boa Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 Whoa . . . Those are big words :shock: Hehe I'd check unknown myself ^^ Link to post Share on other sites
tomboy Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 it could be a mutliple choice questionaire: external genitalia 1) vagina 2) penis 3) both 4) neither internal reproductive organs 1) ovaries 2) testes 3) both 4) neither gender identification 1) female 2) male 3) both 4) neither attracted to 1) females 2) males 3) both 4) neither sexual activity 1)asexual 2) hyposexual 3) sexual 4) hypersexual 5) omnisexual then it could spit out a barcode for each type of person. others can probably think of more parameters, these just came to mind quickly. by this version i'm 11331. Link to post Share on other sites
AVENguy Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 It gets even better.... Biologically speaking we like to divide people up into "male" and "female." As BOA astutely pointed out intersex births (births where a child does not fit the exact standard assigned to either group) are more common than most people think (there's a great bit on asexuality and intersexuality up in the links section.) So depending on how you slice it you could have as many catagories to describe genetalia as you want. In many academic circles "gender" actually has nothing to do with physical characteristics. "Sex" refers to someone's physical layout while "gender" refers to how they identify and behave (do they refer to themsevles as "he", do they act in a way that is socially considered masculine?) Since gender is about performance it can really appear in almost any form, so we've got an INFINITE array of possible gender expressions. (Though interestingly enough, gay people were considered a seperate gender in parts of Europe in the victorian age.) Link to post Share on other sites
VivreEstEsperer Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 Yeah, gender has absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation. boa's makes more sense. but if we want to expand genders, we should have something like Male, female, FTM, MTF, neither, both , something like that. Kate Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 And Mutant. Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 WE WANT 6 GENDERS! *burns down the White House* *Bush dies* *everyone heralds me as the savior of the United States* Link to post Share on other sites
ogbg Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 (everyone except the pie-haters) :lol: (sees them coming down the street, carrying signs that say "Forget the pie!! We want to have our cake and eat it too!!") lol Link to post Share on other sites
VivreEstEsperer Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 *heralds Pie as the savior of the United States* Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 Yay! Followers! Link to post Share on other sites
ogbg Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 *grin* Ah, why not? (follows Pie, too) :D Link to post Share on other sites
cronos Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 *shrugs* I am a pawn in his plot for world domination, after all. *follows along* Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 Hey now! . . . Calmly step back in line behind me. Single file, children 8) Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Yay! Um, walls, didn't you say I should...baseball..cupcakes...right! Got it! cronos, go buy us an apartment! Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Anyway, to get back on topic, this is the funniest thing i've seen in a while. If they do this and don't put asexual, I think i'll put lesbian just to spite them. Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 I'll put my little X in an imaginary box on the side :D Link to post Share on other sites
ogbg Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 I'll make a rude picture of Jean Cretchien and tick off ALL the boxes :D Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Wait, I have a better idea! I'll check every box, and then i'll make a VERY crude sketch of George Bush being attacked by me with a sniper rifle. Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 *LOL* I remember when some kid drew a pic of Barney the Dinosaur getting killed in one of his school books . . . This was only a few months after columbine, so the kid got expelled for a year and was sent to a psychologist. *hangs head in shame* Adults :roll: Link to post Share on other sites
Plasmatica Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Pfft....they can't even get the idea in their heads that biracial people actually exist...try having some of your medical records say you're White, others say you're Native American....then there's the forms where you "Check the one box that best describes you"...when you pick 2, you either get an error if it's on a computer, or you have people laugh at you and be all amused like those 2 old bimbos at the library did to me a few months ago. Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 I draw lots of pictures of Barney getting killed in my school books. Gory ones. Link to post Share on other sites
Hats Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Okay, time to "out" myself. I was born with a condition known as Klinefelter's Syndrome, this means that although I am anatomically male I am genetically female so that makes me either hetero-asexual male or lesbian-asexual female. I wonder where I would fit into the 5 Genders thing? :roll: Link to post Share on other sites
Gorax Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 *LOL* You go, Hats :D I draw lots of pictures of Barney getting killed in my school books. Gory ones. I drew lots of the Teletubbies :mrgreen: Link to post Share on other sites
Zorui Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Same. Basically all annoying children's TV characters. Link to post Share on other sites
Orpheus Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 I'd mark all the choices just to fuck with em :twisted: Link to post Share on other sites
whirlygirl Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 i am preferring just one Gender; person [ ] tick this box 8) Link to post Share on other sites
Worthless Poster Posted September 7, 2003 Author Share Posted September 7, 2003 person [ ] other [ ] *checks "other"* Link to post Share on other sites
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