Comments on: Pownce wins on gender

By: spock is rubbish at identity politics as well « Beth Granter

spock is rubbish at identity politics as well « Beth Granter — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:34:58 +0000

[...] up. You could let people enter this information about themselves by choice later on. So far Pownce is winning the gender game. I know I keep reporting on all the sign-up dialogues being crap for promoting gender diversity, [...]

By: Plaxo loses for gender diversity « Beth Granter

Plaxo loses for gender diversity « Beth Granter — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:33:09 +0000

[...] An example of gender being handled in a lighthearted and positive way is Pownce. Blogged with the Flock Browser [...]

By: genderoutlaw

genderoutlaw — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:33:36 +0000

Oh, and the easist way to clear up sex vs. gender? “Sex is between your legs, gender is between your ears.”

By: genderoutlaw

genderoutlaw — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:30:15 +0000

Doh! Without knowing it, I just wrote an almost identical blog post to yours. Beth Granter wins on timing!

By: Beth Granter

Beth Granter — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:16:09 +0000

Ah ok I see what you mean. So, if the pownce category didn’t want to put ’sex’ (I don’t think many people are biologically born a chicky-poo!), it could put ‘gender identity‘, which is different from just ‘gender’.
So, your sex might be female, your gender masculine, and your gender identity male.
Yeah?
I wonder if someone could have a feminine gender with a gender identity of male. Maybe a really camp guy who is feminine from society’s point of view, but still considers himself male? This is getting confusing…
…also, yesterday on the phone to my brother, he invented a new gender identity for geeky girls: the ‘femme-bot’, which sounds quite cool to me. But, googling it just now, seems it exists as a female robot thingy. It’s nice of people to build a cool female-bodied robot, but reading the review and comments on that page, it’s depressing – they’re all about sex! I doubt if someone had brought out a new robot that was male you’d get so many people commenting on how hot his physique was, or whether he had bits between his legs. But then, this isn’t just a new robot, it’s a female version of an existing male robot (I think), so its only defining feature is its biological sex, so maybe it’s fair enough for everyone to comment on it from a sexual perspective.

By: Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:22:06 +0000

Right. But…

“So your sex may be female but you might choose your gender to be male.”

Not quite. Your sex may be female but you might choose your gender to be *masculine*.

That Wikipedia article is also doing this, saying “The use of gender to refer to male and female as types is attested throughout the history of Modern English” but then listing examples that *only* mention “masculine” and “feminine” (as opposed to “male” and “female”). I might get in there and do a spot of editing.

Geez, I am *such* a pedant.

By: Beth Granter

Beth Granter — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:08:13 +0000

I thought the difference between ’sex’ and ‘gender’ was that ’sex’ referred to biology and ‘gender’ referred to the individual’s self-chosen identity. So your sex may be female but you might choose your gender to be male.

Wikipedia article on gender

By: Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:27:09 +0000

Yeah, there’s been plenty of jokes here in the office about the similarity to the word “Ponce.”

I find that things like the extended gender list really do a lot to add personality to a service: it’s one of your first interactions with the site and it sets the tone nicely. Kind of like Moo.com sending messages from the “little moo” robot about what the “big moo” robot will be doing with your order.

But…

The pedant in me still gets annoyed at seeing the choice labeled as “gender”. The choices for gender should be “masculine” or “feminine.” When asking if someone is male or female, that’s their sex.

I sound like the comic-book guy from The Simpsons, I know.