Again with the gender thing...

[strange_tomato]

Gender is weird, huh?

I've noticed that people on lj (and other places online, I assume) tend to make something of an issue out of people getting their gender wrong. Someone made a secret about me at one point, saying that they always thought I was a guy, and I wonder how they thought I was going to react to that. I don't really care. If anything, I

Comments

[kin_thalas]

Yes, animals have a gender feeling, they do react differently, in feelings and behaviour. But I would not go with the old crap like 'girls need to play with dolls and boys are supposed to play with cars, not vice versa'. I really dislike this stereotypes.

In the interwebs or the MMORPG I 0play I'm often mistaken as a male, and if I tell closer friends/teammates that I'm a female they're surprised. Dunno why, maybe I lack the 'typical' female speech/actions? It's true, male players have a different speech and after a while you can say who's a male and of what age the one might be. I'm mostly right with my assumptions and so are my (mostly female) friends.

Does it matter?
No, I don't think it does, but sometimes it's fun to roll the typical gender-based jokes about the males in the chatrooms to the female friends.
Heh.

[delirium23]

Altered cats do retain sex-based behavior. It is difficult for us humans not to anthropomorphize them. Cats don't act like male and female humans, they act like male and female *cats*; in my experience, their behaviors and interactions depend more upon number of cats, gender ratio, age and seniority than whether or not they are fertile or altered. I suspect the spaying/neutering just tones down the intensity of the behaviors.

I tell all cats they are pretty, and children, the few that I have opportunity to interact with, that they are smart or creative or do X or Y well. Now that you've made me think about it, I cannot remember ever remarking to a child on his or her looks. I hated it when people said anything about mine. Embarrassed. Self-conscious. And it was none of MY doing. I wanted to hear about aspects of myself I had some say in.

[madame_ugly]

I've always seen the "quick to correct gender" thing (in the sims community) as more of a "I know so and so better than you" type thing then a "eww, don't call him a girl" thing. Simmers tend to have a "I knew it/did it first" hard on, so knowing playerX is a BOY would be a great "I'm a better simmer than you" trump

[meetme2theriver]

Heheh, all the sim versions of the male True Blood characters (and various other hunky TV show men) were the main tipoff for me about fanseelamb. :) (They're all very well done, too.)

And I think you're right about the 'I knew it first'/'I know a RARE BOY' thing in the Sims community, especially (but not exclusively) among the younger members.

[madame_ugly]

Yeah, the Mulder sim (but no Scully) was a blip on the girl radar for me, too (re: fanseelamb).

[pixelcurious]

Just the name fanseelamb sounds female -- both the "lamb" part, as you noted, and "fansee" -- not too many guys are going to dub themselves Fancy anything. And if they do, they're probably not the kind of men who mind a little gender confusion. *grin*

[leskuh]

I can only think of one time that I've personally corrected/told someone another's gender. And the reason I did it is mostly because... it's nice to be in the loop? Haha, IDK. Like, I know their real gender (or I at least know how they identify online whether or not they identify that same way in their real lives) and this other person isn't aware of it and so there's this knee jerk reaction to correct them for I know the ~truth~! Or something like that.

Generally I try not to think too hard about other people's gender identities. I wouldn't be offended if someone referred to me as male, but I probably would correct them, because I don't identify as male at all and I don't particularly want to be identified as male. But then, that's just me and I realize that a lot of other people are going to care more/less about being identified as one specific gender.

I know nothing about cats sooooooo... what everyone else said! :D

[fantasyrogue]

It is funny that in the sims community one tends to automatically assume someone is female but in the mmo games I play(ed) people generally assume the other players are male. And I have been mistaken as male on numerous occasions (more often outside the sims community, but it has happened in the sims community as well), whether or not I will correct someone on my own gender depends on how much I care at the moment (if it's someone I know I will spend more time talking to, I'm more likely to correct.. though I think I may have corrected people through a comment left somewhere before, I cannot recall). I've gone with gender neutral options in places that have you list your gender before but mostly to avoid the whole "omg it's a "girl" (woman, thank you very much) on the internet!" thing