• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Gender on the Nexus

Migrated topic.
Mr.Peabody

Mr.Peabody

Rising Star
No, this isn't a poll about the use of psychedelics vs gender.

I noticed something a while back about this forum, and I guess all web forums in general. I know the gender/sex of almost no one here! It's funny, it's something that took well over a year to occur to me. I mean, once I noticed, I have spent quite a bit of time just trying to analyze certain people's writing to figure it out.

With some people, its a sure thing. Myself for instance, I'm obviously a male, right? What woman would name herself Mr. Peabody? But maybe I am a woman. Perhaps it is a way to foil those NSA spooks. They could never quite connect the dots. Agent Bob says to Agent Larry, "Clearly the poster is a man, but you're tryina tell me you think its a woman? I mean, his name is Mr. Peabody! Pshhh, throw out the case and start over!"

No, really, I am a male. Maybe I should have been Mrs. Peabody for security sake, but for some reason that would make me feel like a creeper.

And what about Trav? It's been thrown around that he's an alien, sure, but he may be a female alien!

There are a bunch of people, who I just assumed were males, but when I realized I had no way of knowing I started to second guess myself. Maybe they're women? I guess the polls show that the odds favor males, but you just (almost) never know, and that's how it should be.

I guess the lesson to learn here is that it really doesn't matter, does it? If I have to try to figure out some, no most, of the people here, then there really is no difference. It makes no difference at all! It actually probably makes for a far more productive atmosphere, not knowing the gender/sex of the people we are talking to. There was a Futurama episode to that effect. An alien took all of their sexes away, making everyone the same, genderless people. They all were quite happy and content, and there was no conflict.

I apologize if I offended anyone, as that was not my intent in the least!

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I just find the whole thing funny, and I actually feel like I learned something valuable from it. It's not a starting revelation I have just come to, as I feel I do my best to treat women as equals. It is just a real-life, tangible example of how little it should matter what gender the people are who you're dealing with. The lack of face-to-face contact allows us to be who we really are, and I think that's pretty cool.
 
"A dad is killed in a car accident, his son is taken to the hospital in a rush. On arrival he is seen by the surgeon who says: Son, you're alive!!

How is that possible?"

This riddle works every time.

I completely agree with you that it doesn't matter at all, but in my head unless it is specified you are male. I know it sounds weird and I don't mean any disrespect towards women.
 
I am another male with the pseudo honorary "Mister" in his title. I also assume that most of the people on the Nexus are male. It's probably because when I first got on the internet most of the people on the boards I was on were verifiably male. There was a distinct lack of the female on those boards. And if you were female, you didn't advertise it or you would be set upon by creepy sex vultures. But you know what they say about assumption. When you assume, you're an asshole, or something like that, well, that's what the realization that my general and automatic assumption that most people on the Nexus are male makes me feel like.
I'm aware of several females on this forum. I wish there were more. Maybe there are. The female members of this forum are some of the most powerful and important people on here IMO. The Nexus feels very male to me. I needs more feminine energy.

Strangely (or maybe not so strangely) I woke up this morning and put on an old episode from the Psychedelic Salon that I had yet to listen to. It is called Divine Androgyny and it's a talk by Jae Starfox. They are awesome. You should check it out. (#379)
 
That's a good one Elpo :)

We'll have gone a long way towards equal rights for women when people are no longer puzzled by that riddle.
 
Also, sex and gender are different things even though they are commonly used interchangeably.

Sex refers to biological characteristics, gender is more of a socially constructed identity/identities that often vary considerably depending on the culture(s) involved.

Even sex is not so binary - the rate of pseudohermaphroditism is a lot more common than one might think, and occurs in varying degrees.
 
Amygdala said:
Also, sex and gender are different things even though they are commonly used interchangeably.

Sex refers to biological characteristics, gender is more of a socially constructed identity/identities that often vary considerably depending on the culture(s) involved.

Even sex is not so binary - the rate of pseudohermaphroditism is a lot more common than one might think, and occurs in varying degrees.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm aware of that, and I tried to be sensitive to this. I know I probably failed, but it was not my intent to exclude anyone.

Since I realized that I don't know what most people are here, unless specified, I now have an image of just a grey dark, neutral figure when I think of anyone.

The real crazy thing is, when ever you talk to anyone, what's happening is your brains are actually talking to each other. So, because of this, the Nexus allows our brains to communicate nearly without any influence from our bodies. We are getting closer to telepathy!
 
Facebook is now offering 50 different gender options, listed here:

- Agender
- Androgyne
- Androgynous
- Bigender
- Cis
- Cisgender
- Cis Female
- Cis Male
- Cis Man
- Cis Woman
- Cisgender Female
- Cisgender Male
- Cisgender Man
- Cisgender Woman
- Female to Male
- FTM
- Gender Fluid
- Gender Nonconforming
- Gender Questioning
- Gender Variant
- Genderqueer
- Intersex
- Male to Female
- MTF
- Neither
- Neutrois
- Non-binary
- Other
- Pangender
- Trans
- Trans*
- Trans Female
- Trans* Female
- Trans Male
- Trans* Male
- Trans Man
- Trans* Man
- Trans Person
- Trans* Person
- Trans Woman
- Trans* Woman
- Transfeminine
- Transgender
- Transgender Female
- Transgender Male
- Transgender Man
- Transgender Person
- Transgender Woman
- Transmasculine
- Transsexual
- Transsexual Female
- Transsexual Male
- Transsexual Man
- Transsexual Person
- Transsexual Woman
- Two-Spirit


All those options, yet I fail to see my gender: Trans-Dimensional Fractal (we call ourselves TDF's)
 
null24 said:
112233 said:
I fail to see my gender: Trans-Dimensional Fractal (we call ourselves TDF's)
Click to expand...

Ha! Yeah, All-Is-One-Universal-Love!

:d

But yeah, here in this three-dimensional reality I'm a guy. .
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm.... I don't see "guy" on the list. Is that a new thing? Facebook should be more sensitive to people who identify themselves as guys.


That list is really long, by the way. I had no idea. Now I'm super duper confused about who/what all of you people are! I think I'd like to stick with trans-dimensional fractal for everyone now. Thanks 112233!
 
I thought I got elpo's joke for a few minutes, thinking that surely a non-related male can still appropriately refer to a child with 'son'.. But failed to connect the dots, I could not see how it was relevant to the topic.

I read everyone as male by default, for the obvious reason put forth above. But of those cases that it is in a female hand, I know almost immediately. There have been few exceptions, one example being a rather precocious 13 year old girl who I sincerely took for a man in his 40's or 50's.. I was dumbfounded.

I identify firmly with my sex, but for the reasons you pointed out Mr. Peabody, I find my sex should be irrelevant on the net and especially here at the nexus.

I too have noted introspectively in the past this thing of the telepathic evolution - an intuitive connection from our use of the internet to the idea of telepathy, and the suspicion that this is just the beginning. It is, anyway, an entertaining concept. I'm a little surprised anyone else would have arrived at entertaining the same thing-- and then to SAY it, though certainly I should not be.
 
Funny, I'm a male but have been mistaken for a female here on the Nexus more than any other place on the internet. My initial name on here was Melodic Catastrophe and I always used really colorful profile images. Not sure if there were any other contributing factors.

I've always felt like I was in touch with my feminine side and could always relate better with most females vs males.

I have to admit though, for the few known women that are here on the Nexus, I personally greatly value their presence here, their insights and contributions. I especially love when I read about women doing extractions and chemistry related stuff. Not sure why I feel like that but it definitely makes my heart happy.
 
Elpo said:
"A dad is killed in a car accident, his son is taken to the hospital in a rush. On arrival he is seen by the surgeon who says: Son, you're alive!!

How is that possible?"

This riddle works every time.

I completely agree with you that it doesn't matter at all, but in my head unless it is specified you are male. I know it sounds weird and I don't mean any disrespect towards women.
Click to expand...
This one was really good, :) I love riddles! Is the answer that the surgeon is his mother?
 
There's a difference between "gender shouldn't matter," and "everyone is male by default."

If you're reading The Nexus and tacit assuming every poster is male, you're not really saying 'gender shouldn't matter.'

Blessings
~ND
 
Nathanial.Dread said:
There's a difference between "gender shouldn't matter," and "everyone is male by default."

If you're reading The Nexus and tacit assuming every poster is male, you're not really saying 'gender shouldn't matter.'
Click to expand...
If you are referring to me I will clarify.

By 'reading everyone as male by default' I mean that I read everyone as my sexual neutral, my being male. And that the question of sex or gender does not occur to me either - re mr. peabody, unless it is at once obviously female. But you are correct, I am not really saying gender shouldn't matter. I'm saying that it simply doesn't. /
 
Mister_Niles said:
It's probably because when I first got on the internet most of the people on the boards I was on were verifiably male. There was a distinct lack of the female on those boards. And if you were female, you didn't advertise it or you would be set upon by creepy sex vultures.
Click to expand...
This. For some reason forums/bulletin boards have a history of being male dominated. I remember back in the pre-internet era when groups of geeks and nerds would gather on the BBS'. It was almost unheard of to see a female on there. Even now there are dark, hidden areas of the internet that females dare not go. :lol: I don't know exactly what it is, but I remember reading a post on here once about this very same topic. How females prefer to communicate differently than males. This thread had a few of our resident ladies weighing in on the topic. I can't seem to find the thread though.

I think the reason a lot of women shy away from forums or places of discussion that are predominately male is because of the incessant creepy sex vulture thing Mister Niles alluded to :lol: They kept their gender hidden by necessity, otherwise they wouldn't be treated as an equal. I remember doing an experiment for a friend (a female) to prove why she shouldn't let guys on the internet know she was in fact a female. I set up an account that used a feminine sounding name and put some 'girly' stuff in the profile and I had over a dozen guys messaging me within 24 hours. And no, this wasn't even a dating site.
 
^^^ That's so true!

I have actually talked a bit to some friends about why poeople are such bastards on the internet(trolls, and people who generally love to spread misery). I think the reason is, the anonimity coupled with the lack of empathy of not seeing someone face to face creates a more real interface with people. I have seen studies that show that road rage comes from the simple fact that people cannot communicate by sub-conscious facial expression. In a crowd, people bump into one another, cut each other off, and do many things which on the road send people into a spiral of rage. Seldom do people feel this rage when walking around others, because they communicate.

So, a female being openly female is just inviting a more rude interface with the men of the net, since it is so much easier to be a jerk.

Now if only there were some kind of place with polite, respectful people where we could gather almost nothing but cool people.......


If only......😉
 
This is way bigger than just some internet phenomenon.

I would posit that the concept that is being discussed here, without actually acknowledging it, is patriarchy.

The "assumed maleness" that's being discussed is endemic of patriarchy, as is the hostility towards women, ominous sexual overtones, sexually intimidating memes, etc.

To loosely quote the tumblr format:

Patriarchy. The thing you are talking about is patriarchy.

A few, hastily compiled, resources on Patriarchy:
Feminist Class Struggle
Patriarchy, Civilization, And The Origins Of Gender
The Patriarchal Science of the Corporate Media
To Abolish Rape, Overthrow Male Desire
The Revolt of Adam & Eve: A Green Anarcha-Feminist Perspective
 
Back
Top Bottom