What's your gender?

[Rochellita]

Just to get an idea of the board make-up!

[Oak]

I am Male.

But things seems to lead to some confusion. People constantly mistake me for a girl and i don't know why?

I mean once i was in a toilet (rest room) at a club where all they guys had long hair. I was standing at the urinal, but still they kept on walking in and saying "whoops, wrong toilet"
I don't understand it? I mean, i have a square jaw! and i'm definetly not pretty (unfortunetly).

Maybe it's those pheramone thingys that float throught the air unnoticed maybe i have girly ones?

Oak

[Frostfire]

Oak, I totally know what you mean. I'm a female who has short hair. I think I'm pretty femanine looking, but when I'm in the locker room sometimes some other woman will come in, see me, look shocked and say, "ah, sorry, wrong locker room", then only come back after re-evaluating the "Women's Locker Room" Sign looking MORE embaresed. *sigh* It happens so often!

[Mary]

I get the same thing, unfortunately. Recently I was filling in a form for an A level I am doing at nightclass, when the woman said "you don't have to pay if you are still under eighteen." I was all pleased with myself since I am actually thirty-two. Then my tutor walked in and asked how I was getting on with the paper work. The woman said "I've just about finished with this lad here."

Clang.

I am five foot ten, eleven stone, with short curly hair, and I used to think quite a feminine face. Okay, so I am relatively big and butch looking, but what about the bloody double d's? Don't they give the game away? Nope, I get it all the time. Tonnes of people think that I am a bloke. And I get women at the gym telling me that if I made more of an effort I could "look pretty" - usually to cover their embarassement for thinking I was a man in the first place.

Does this mean loads of people think Neil is gay? I'll have to ask him if anyone has said anything...

[Rochellita]

well, Mary I think you are a pretty babe and not butch at all, no idea how anyone can get confused about your gender! The age bit I can understand- you certainly don't look 32

Rochelle

[Malcolms Billy]

Mary, that story's hilarious!

I've been called a 'mate', 'guy', 'sir' (yep!), 'young man' so often, I'm more surprised when people get it right the first time. I've had all sorts of hair, varying from past shoulder length to none. While I might not have been mistaken for a man when I had the shoulder length hair, that must've been the only time (the fact that I used to do it up and wear loads of make up - believe it or not! - might've something to do with that too). Apparently people don't look any further than what's on top of your head. I'm usually amused by people's embarrasment when they realise their mistake.

See ya,
Billy

[JO]

Excellent thread, Rochelle. As well: Crystal's thread on the slender physique promoted/reinforced by the mass media.

I'm mistaken for a masculine person, sometimes, too, and I think it's because there is such a thing as "visual vocabulary". People see something that's not in their vocabulary and they try to make it fit with what they do know.

So let's make a "strong-looking woman" standard!

JO

[Mary]

I get called "sturdy girl" a lot by my family - my brother thinks it is amusing, but can't bring himself to describe me as a woman, despite the fact that I am his big sister, and he describes himself (accurately enough) as a man. So if he is a man, how come I am an eternal girl? And if a woman is acknowledged as strong, why does she have to infantilised by terms like "girl"? Not that it bothers me too much, but I have noticed that strong men on telly aren't everybody's sex object on the shows. Whereas "girls" have to show their cleavage.

Never mind. Sturdy girl signing off here.

[JO]

I have to add that physical excellence, vitality and spirit transcend gender, of course. Many people have not learned to look past the silly and archaic corral of "gender-specific" qualities that supposedly define one or the other ... or the "other".

JO

[i live in omaha]

aliens:"Hey Vasquez, you ever been mistaken for a man?"
"No. Have you?"

[i live in omaha]

and who the hell put "other"?

[Mary]

I actually think we are all "other" - or mixed up anyways. After all, half of all my ancestors are men, as well as half being women. If I had a black parent and a white parent, wouldn't I be described as mixed race? Well then, it doesn't matter if I am butch - I am mixed gender! Or in other words, a human being.

A lot of people make their first opinion of other people based on gender. What, really, should gender have to do with anything? Apart from who gets to give birth?

That's my bizzare opinion, for what it is worth.

[JO]

aliens:"Hey Vasquez, you ever been mistaken for a man?"
"No. Have you?"

Well I guess it must be Friday ...

Predator
Arnold: "What the f*ck are you?"
Predator: "What ... the ... f*ck... are... you: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" [explosion]

[Malcolms Billy]

and who the hell put "other"?

I'll own up to that! I have an irrepressible urge to be 'different', and with an option like that you can see a reply like that coming.

I'm female tho, btw, even with a name like Billy-with-an-Y (this due to the fact that I was called after Billy Idol, used to have similar white spikes and wristbands, I admit )

I have since learnt that the 'other' option is meant for couples on this board who have registered as one person. See, learn something new every day!

See ya,
Billy

[Shinobi]

I thought that the "other" meant that either someone was being funny, or we had a hermaphodite on board.