Surge of anger.
Someone wrote…
I always get a small surge of anger when faced with a tick box that says M / F. Last time I just didn’t tick anything. I wonder what the recipients of the form thought.
What’s your experience?
Posted by julian on April 28th, 2010 at 08:00 am
Category: your voice 17 comments »
April 28th, 2010 at 8:39 am |
Why don’t you just check both boxes?
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April 28th, 2010 at 8:46 am |
I hear you. Hopefully the recipients realized why you left it blank, and are working on changing their policies. But since this continues to be a problem, my feeling is that this isn’t the case.
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April 28th, 2010 at 9:55 am |
Sometimes I draw a new box and check that. :)
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April 28th, 2010 at 11:02 am |
yeah I always kind of feel weird and then I think I’m being silly, the people who do data entry probably just guess based on your name or whatever if you don’t give them an acceptable answer, and what did i hope to achieve anyway….?
all that said, i checked both boxes and drew a lil sad face next to the question on the census haha
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April 28th, 2010 at 2:28 pm |
I usually just tick both boxes.
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April 28th, 2010 at 4:21 pm |
If you’re “trying to make a statment” (is that what they call ‘being yourself’ these days?) then ticking two boxes is more deliberate so more effective than ticking neither.
You can forget to tick your gender but you can’t accidentally tick both… right?
Personally it depends if its worth a fuss or not, seeing as I’m telling the truth if I tick ‘female’ and I’m telling the truth if I say ‘hey, I’m outside this binary!’
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April 29th, 2010 at 12:40 pm |
I hear ya. I generally give in and tick the ‘female’ box – with much less anger if they ask for sex and provide male/female (though it’d be great if they’d provide ‘intersex’ too, obv). But when its gender: male or female or sex: man or woman, I get quite irritated.
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April 29th, 2010 at 6:57 pm |
I was on a transgender related website that wanted me to take a survey (I forget which one). I decided that I liked the website enough to take their little survey. The first question that popped up? “Gender: M – F?”
I was so incensed about it I shut the window and didn’t take their silly little survey.
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April 30th, 2010 at 7:54 am |
Oh, hey, this got posted! I agree with Jay, I have much less irritation about boxes labelled as “sex: M/F” than those others (though I also think “I” for intersex would be a valuable addition).
Often I’m not really trying to make a statement as such by not ticking a gender box… I just can’t fully decide what to put there. Besides, maybe I’m just cynical, but why does my employer for a 3 month contracting desk job need to know my gender/sex anyway? So they can discriminate against me? I very carefully took white-out to the form for that job and removed the question. What did they think? No idea – I got the job but it was never mentioned.
@Taylor: That was on a transgender related website? Good grief, you’d think they’d know better than that.
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April 30th, 2010 at 7:33 pm |
I either add another box or I ignore the question. If there is a space for comments, I always put that they might want to include everyone on their forms instead of being elitist bigots by having only two options.
Does it make me angry? It used to, and it used to make me depressed as well. But what good will that do anyone? It just ruins your day and they don’t even care. The best thing to do is either ignore it or tell them to change their form.
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May 1st, 2010 at 1:38 pm |
I just ignore the boxes and leave them blank, unless it’s for the government or something like that. :)
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May 4th, 2010 at 12:29 am |
Ick. I know you what you mean as well.
Yesterday in class when we were given a survey I just circled the / that divided m and f.
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May 4th, 2010 at 7:34 am |
On job applications I’m always tempted to pick “prefer not to answer”, but then I conclude I’ll just come off as difficult and settle with listing my legally-defined gender.
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May 12th, 2010 at 11:25 pm |
Yes, oh yes, to the small surge of anger. I especially hate it when it’s an online form where you ~have~ to choose one. I usually tick ‘female’, because it’s true, but always thinking why the hell do you need to know? I mean really, why? So my doctor needs to know; my phone company not so much. Immigration officials? Random organisations I join? I like the idea of drawing another box – maybe in between the existing ones :)
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June 17th, 2010 at 4:16 pm |
This drives me insane aswell. If possible I usually tick both. Those sites where you have to pick one or the other are the toughest. Why is it really necessary?
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July 11th, 2010 at 12:15 pm |
I usually tick F for female-born, because I don’t really care what they see me as, especially if it’s the government or something official like that. But leaving it blank seems better now that I think about it, I don’t wanna be treated as something I’m not… and I’m not a female. Ticking M would be wrong as well, because me not being a female doesn’t make me a male.
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August 27th, 2010 at 12:17 pm |
I make an extra box and mark it Schrödinger.
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