Black Dog Blog

Herm Baskerville wrote:

[of an HTML form page] P.S. Thom, you have my inf^H^H^Heternal goodwill for including an "Other" option for gender. Hit one of my pet pedantries on the head, that did.

Fiona Burrows wrote:

Curious, pray tell exactly -what- did you put into the text box?

Herm Baskerville wrote:

"Neuter-creature from the planet Zog", naturally. :)

Fiona Burrows wrote:

Mystery solved!

Herm Baskerville wrote:

Teehee.

And more seriously (not that I don't seriously identify as neuter, although AFAIK I was born in Chester, UK, Earth), "gender" on forms really is one of my bugbears. It's just so… silly to use it as a polite word because, ooh dear, we don't want to say "sex" on government forms! ;) Inaccurate, too, because in modern usage it's a distinct term (e.g. one dictionary gives it as "sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture") and there are more than two options out there.

Of course, formwriters really can't win. Even "sex" isn't as simple as it seems, because what do you go on? Body parts – well, some folks are born intersexed. Chromosomes – lots of minority conditions there too, Klinefelter syndrome for example (XXY chromosomes). (Aneuploidy truly is a fabulous word, even though it can cause less-than-pleasant conditions.)

Oh, and I'm not on a campaign or owt; I just find this stuff, without wanting to sound too patronising, really goshdarn fascinating.

(quotations end)

Sorry to all activists, all right, but I have no intention of playing the mouthy, humourless "you must all be educated and stop being narrow-minded RIGHT NOW" gender animal. The above's the most you will get, and more than I intended to say.

Moral: On the internet, nobody knows you're a neuter-creature from the planet Zog. (And yes. That really is the phrase I use when asked. Except in more serious contexts, when "neuter" will suffice.)

*collapses in embarrassment*