If you're not offending anyone, you're doing it wrong.

[uberreiniger]

Well the flap came and went about LJ allegedly forcing you to specify your gender. Turns out it was a coding mistake or some such. Imagine that! LJ did something that actually wasn't part of a nefarious plot to anger their user bse. Oh wait, actually that turns out to be the case with just about everything that gets people threatening to leave LJ

Comments

[batchix]

I just don't see how it's any of their business to know if you don't want them to? or other than for statistic purposes or tailoring ads to your gender... and if i want to opt out of that I should be able to. Many ads geared towards women i'd just find offensive.

Gender and gender ambiguity is a very hot topic right now. Much of what you assume about a person is related to their gender. How many people have you known on the net that you go, "huh this whole time I thought you were a guy" just because of the interests the person had. we make assumptions based on a person's gender instead of who they really are. Most people by talking to me on the net assume i'm a guy. I don't take it as an insult. I do take it as an insult when people think i'm a guy in person tho. XD;;; I HAVE BOOBS DAMN IT!

Anyway, gender ambiguity on the internet has more to do with breaking gender stereotype roles than anything- at least for me. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean i like romantic movies and want babies. Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you like sports and hooters.

[donkeyjon]

I LOVE sports and hooters!

[batchix]

So does my friend Cybill, but she's still a she. XD

[donkeyjon]

Well, she can be a woman if I can be a lesbian. :)

[uberreiniger]

Actually I've had the opposite happen. I meet a lot of people I assume are women who turn out to be guys. Thankfully not in a dating context, just on LJ and stuff.

I understand people not wanting to play within society's gender boundaries. But then there are people who say the don't have any gender at all and I can't get my mind around that. Bear in mind that a lot of my perceptions on all this really got fucked up early on by Todd and he's still the most exposure I have in regard to this whole issue.

[batchix]

I have a LOT of transgender friends, both MTF and FTM. NONE of them are remotely like Todd. That's why when he said he was transgender I said it was bullshit. They're good people and are otherwise pretty normal.

being no gender can also mean being both genders. it's just being smack dab in the middle. I know a lot of people who are totally asexual, even one of my cousins is. I've also known intersexed or hermaphrodites. Again, perfectly nice people, but neither male nor female. They are who they are.

[uberreiniger]

The only ones I've encountered are ones I find in places like LJ and they all seem at least as fucked up as Todd so I haven't had any experiences that lead me to believe it's a positive or normal thing.

[batchix]

Let's see, one of them is a sculptor, she's very very good. She's applied with GW recently. Another is still transitioning, and he's had some emotional problems- most stemming from the hormones. One is an accomplished comic book author and artist, she most often writes about her experiences as a mtf. She's bitter, but given all the crap that happened to her, i'd be bitter too. Then I know a guy who does fashion for dolls, he's incredibly nice and level headed and so's his partner who's also ftm. He recently moved to the east coast from here because he wanted to be closer to his family.