Survey question - "What is your gender?"

[hian]

Kanax said pretty much everything I feel about the matter.


One quick thing I wanted to reply to though -

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_gender_distinction


If the survey is asking for gender and not for sex then there IS no reason to assume they are asking for the biological sex


of the person though.

Actually there is, since a lot of people use the terms sex and gender interchangeably, and without considering this distinction.


I would actually say that, more often than not, when a survey or some sort of document asks for gender, they are in fact


asking for your sex, as defined in your medical records, or on your passport.

And if the person who is making the survey disregards the entries of anyone who sees themselves outside of the


gender binary then their getting skewed results.

That depends on how relevant self-identified gender is for results.


A survey, for instance, trying to establish the gender/sex divition of gamers for a certain genre,


won't be much affected at all by a lack of additional gender options.


Because people who idenitfy outside the gender binary are such a small minority in most cases, it won't


have a signifact impact on the numbers.


All surveys are skewed in certain ways because they're constrained by whatever


lack of options they will necessarily have anyway for practical reasons.


For instance, a survey trying to find out what kind of music people generally listen to, will usually have the major genres


listed as choices, but will exclude many sub-genres because music literally has endless amounts of them.


So, a music survey might be skewed in the sense that the Ska-punk crowd will be shoe-horned in with the alternative rock


crowd or something to that effect, but for the purpose of the survey, that's perfectly acceptable.


The same can be true for gender identification depending on the purpose of the survey.

Let's say for example the survey was to see what gender is most likely to purchase a product.


They could be losing out on a chunk of their market if they ignore any results from those outside of gender binary.

Not likely, considering how small of a minority those identifying outside the gender binary are.


Secondly, this assumes those outside the gender binary won't pick either male or female if no other option is available,


which many very well might do.

Plus there's no good reason for a survey like that to force someone into one box or the other.

Simplicity and practicality is a good reason. You could have a third option called "other" or something


to that effect, but because "other" could literally be anyone and everyone, and does not lend itself


to simple market assumptions etc. it isn't really pertinent knowledge to have.


If I know whether you identify as male or female, at least in terms of product and market surveys,


there are a lot of often accurate assumptions that can be drawn - Not so much so from a third, unidenitfied option,


making it a wasted effort to catalogue it in most cases.

I'm just going to add that I'm not trying to accuse you of anything; just to watch how you word things.


Saying that the survey results of those who might pick option C are going to be discarded can be read a little hurtful.


It IS a touchy subject like you say, but that's why it is important for people who make surveys and such to pay attention


to these things.

The problem though, is that despite being potentially hurtful, it's true.


With the exception of very specific surveys dealing with things like gender, third gender options don't


really add much of value to a survey, much like the addition of genres like ska-punk and electronic trash-metal


don't add much to music surveys.


I don't really like the gender binary, traditional gender roles etc. but that's because, as Kanax said, personality


is a bigger factor than gender to begin with.


There is sex, and then there is personality. Gender is the messy and unnecessary result of mixing the two,


and adding to that by talking about third genders, or gender fluidity doesn't really help the issue a lot in my opinion.


The best way to resolve these issue to my mind, isn't to start broadening the use of other gender terms, but


to stop using the term gender when what we're talking about is sex, and if we aren't talking about sex, to not


use the term gender at all, because it's irrelevant.

 

[Centipede]

There is no more genders than two. It doesn't matter what you feel like, like how being hypnotised into thinking you're a chicken doesn't actually make you a chicken. You either provide the seed or the egg.

 

[Andar]

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