Poll: Your sex or gender?

[tiltbillings]

Voted. Female.

Though I'm not sure just how the truthfulness of the posters can be verified - without a full medical.

with metta
Chris

Some of us have lied through our teeth, or are confused, or do not see the issue as an issue.

[Ben]

To be honest, I'm surprised Chownah hasn't voted 'transgendered' in an attempt to be funny or noticed.

[Kim O'Hara]

I wanted to vote 'human' but that option wasn't offered.
Sigh.

Kim

[chownah]

To be honest, I'm surprised Chownah hasn't voted 'transgendered' in an attempt to be funny or noticed.

I was practicing restraint but since you mention it I was going to say that there should be another category..."Does not apply".

If your post was meant to be 100% humor then stop reading here.....if there was even a small bit of non humor intended then read further.

Why would me voting "transgendered" be funny?...I don't get it. I live in Thailand....transgendered people are very common here...they wait on you in stores both small and large even in some of the most upscale shopping centers...you see high school age boys dressed in skirts being cheerleaders....they prepare your food in many restaurants and......need I elaborate more?

And if I did vote tranny who would know that it is me?...I thought that poll's were anonymous....hardly seems that someone would vote in an anonymous poll in an attempt to get noticed....does it?
chownah

[Sanghamitta]

No matter how unpalatable or inconvenient, human beings come in a variety of colours, many shapes and sizes, and ( at least ) two genders. We start from what is.
In the sixties a friend of mine would say that she know longer noticed peoples colour. She told me one day in a state of some confusion and hurt that she had said this to an afro american woman, who had told her that she felt that her identity had been negated. That she was black and proud of the fact.
Women want to be seen as women. Not as honorary men or genderless.
There are good reasons why kammic and biological strands have come together to form men and women.
We start from where we are. Transcending that is some way down the way.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Speaking of racial/sexual delineations and identity, I've always thought this was quite thought provoking.

In an episode of South Park, the children did not see the following flag as racist.



It turns out that they did not see the colour of the person being hanged, and saw only that someone was being hanged.

Later, the flag was revised accordingly...



To quote from Wikipedia...

In the end, ethnic diversity is added to the flag: the black man is now being hanged by a group of people of all races, including another black man, hand-in-hand. Chef delivers the moral of this story: his inclination to anti-racism almost made him a racist himself; perceiving things according to race leads only to further racism.

Likewise with gender?

Metta,
Retro.

[Kim O'Hara]

In the end, ethnic diversity is added to the flag: the black man is now being hanged by a group of people of all races, including another black man, hand-in-hand. Chef delivers the moral of this story: his inclination to anti-racism almost made him a racist himself; perceiving things according to race leads only to further racism.

Likewise with gender?

I think so, but it's tricky. Two more thoughts to throw into the pot:
1. Salman Rushdie, who ought to know, has said that only white people can afford the luxury of being blind to skin colour.

2. Neil Gaiman, one of my two or three favourite authors, wrote a novel set in London, the USA and one of the Caribbean islands (Trinidad? can't remember, doesn't matter anyway). He is white - English - which may have influenced what follows.
I loved it. I read it again a couple of years later and, part-way through, realised that every character in it, apart from a couple who are specifically but casually identified, is black. I still love the book and the characters - and I admire the author even more! - but the realisation changed the book for me. That surprised me a bit, since I don't see myself as being racist, but I put it down to racial differences being integral to the culture that those characters live in.

Again, likewise with gender?


Kim

[Sanghamitta]

If it stays at race or gender then no one is served. But neither are they served by not recognising our unique set of kammic and biological circumstances, including the melanin that shapes our ethnic identity.
It would be wrong to discriminate against anyone in terms or colour or gender...but we start from where we are and that includes a recognition of all that makes us unique and that must ultimately be transcended.
To suggest that we all see ourselves and each other as Ideals in an world that is Ideal is to go faster than is possible.
We start with this breath, in this body, at this moment. And we see no one as inferior or superior to us .
But it is a real man or real woman that we relate to with all their strengths and all their needs.
Not an abstract.

[Sanghamitta]

I think Kim, that without pushing it too far, it is not unreasonable to suggest that only men can afford the luxury of being blind to gender.

[tiltbillings]

I think Kim, that without pushing it too far, it is not unreasonable to suggest that only men can afford the luxury of being blind to gender.

I work in a profession that is still primarily female. I have no idea what being "blind to gender" would mean. It is simply a fact that those who are female are female and those who are male are male. I don't think I want to be blind to that.

[Kim O'Hara]

I think Kim, that without pushing it too far, it is not unreasonable to suggest that only men can afford the luxury of being blind to gender.

I work in a profession that is still primarily female. I have no idea what being "blind to gender" would mean. It is simply a fact that those who are female are female and those who are male are male. I don't think I want to be blind to that.

It would mean treating men and women exactly the same. The more I think about that, the less achievable (and less desirable) it seems to be, at least in meatspace ... but I'm too tired to to work through it now. Late evening here/now ... back tomorrow.


Kim

[andre9999]

female.

I bet your real name is Britney.

you're so HOT!!

She's a fox, alright.

[Ben]

Greetings Chownah,

To be honest, I'm surprised Chownah hasn't voted 'transgendered' in an attempt to be funny or noticed.

I was practicing restraint but since you mention it I was going to say that there should be another category..."Does not apply".

If your post was meant to be 100% humor then stop reading here.....

You can relax! I was half expecting it given the tenor of some of your irreverent posts of late.
And for the record - I am not making any aspersions about you nor do I think there is anything wrong with being transgendered. One of my friends was a transgender male who applied to go on the gender reassignment program to become a woman. Whatever one's gender or sexual orientation is irrelevant to me.
Everyone is beautiful (except the trolls of course!).

[tiltbillings]

I think Kim, that without pushing it too far, it is not unreasonable to suggest that only men can afford the luxury of being blind to gender.

I work in a profession that is still primarily female. I have no idea what being "blind to gender" would mean. It is simply a fact that those who are female are female and those who are male are male. I don't think I want to be blind to that.

It would mean treating men and women exactly the same.

Exactly the same. Well, given that one really can not do that with anyone, I am sure that that is a meaningful criteria.

[Aloka]

Female.

Tilt - I had no idea about your feminine tendancies - perhaps you'd like to go shopping with me and we can choose some nice dresses for each other to wear.

.

[David N. Snyder]

1. Salman Rushdie, who ought to know, has said that only white people can afford the luxury of being blind to skin colour.

Unless you are Black and living in Africa.

I think it has to do with living in a diversified country but being the minority. In that case, it is almost impossible to be blind to skin color, because you get noticed and you can't help but wonder if you will be the only minority when you go to some social function or other program. I am white colored - Jewish ethnicity but I have observed this from studies in sociology and conversations with people of color.

When I was in Africa, away from the urban areas, I was the only white colored person for hundreds of miles. The Africans would look in amazement at me, not that they have never seen a white person, just that is was unusual for them to see a white person. Some would smile, some kids would laugh, some kids wanted to touch me and my hair. The attention did not bother me but it does make you conscious of your color / ethnicity which most white people take for granted in their home countries. On a day to day basis people of European ancestry normally are not conscious of their race, whereas, those of African ancestry are always reminded of it (unless they are living in Africa).

[Sanghamitta]

I am slightly surprised that at this moment it is as high as eight....

[Kim O'Hara]

1. Salman Rushdie, who ought to know, has said that only white people can afford the luxury of being blind to skin colour.

Unless you are Black and living in Africa.

... On a day to day basis people of European ancestry normally are not conscious of their race, whereas, those of African ancestry are always reminded of it (unless they are living in Africa).

Salman Rushdie, an Indian, was living in London when he wrote the essay I pulled that statement from.
Getting back to gender ... the more I think about it, the less I'm sure it's desirable to be blind to it. As Sanghamitta pointed out:

If it stays at race or gender then no one is served. But neither are they served by not recognising our unique set of kammic and biological circumstances, including the melanin that shapes our ethnic identity.
It would be wrong to discriminate against anyone in terms or colour or gender...but we start from where we are and that includes a recognition of all that makes us unique and that must ultimately be transcended. ...
We start with this breath, in this body, at this moment. And we see no one as inferior or superior to us .
But it is a real man or real woman that we relate to with all their strengths and all their needs.
Not an abstract.

In real life it is inevitable that we notice these kinds of things and if we don't respond to them at all we neuter our interaction, make it impersonal. That's not an advance, is it? So what we want is full equality, full recognition of the value of the other person regardless of gender or ethnicity, but not gender-blindness or colour-blindness as such.
In cyberspace it is not inevitable that we notice these kinds of things, or can even discover them, but I think the same basic principle holds true: the more we know about each other, the better we can respond to each other.
There are always going to be difficulties, of course, but that's okay. It has been hypothesised that we evolved our big brains primarily to deal with the complexities of social interaction, so I suppose we'll just have to keep evolving.

Kim

[Jhana4]

I am slightly surprised that at this moment it is as high as eight....

That is out of 44 people who took the poll.

So, in that day there at least 44 people who visited DW and who decided to participate in the polls. It doesn't seem to me like 44 different people decided to post yesterday, so most of those folks were readers/lurkers. I would guess that the total number of people who visited DW yesterday was much higher than 44. I agree with David, most of the members of any forum don't feel the need to participate. That fascinates me as my picture of the internet is colored by the people who do post, but the majority of internet users are invisible.

[Sanghamitta]

And I might be wrong but going on the names of those who appear in the Who Is Online ? box, and going by the fact that most of them do occasionally post, I would guess that the majority are men.