Is there a reason why gender is so important to demographics/government bodies in general? What would be the downsides of just not caring at all about this information, just like we don't care at all about so many other pieces of information that people consider a core part of their identity?
Given how complicated the biological reality of it all is (see [0]), why try to model it at all? This seems like a case where we desperately try to make neat categories for the data to fit because we really like having neatly defined labels for everything, even though it just ends up more confusing in the end.
Here's a reason it's very important to me (and thus part of why I submitted it): my whole life, people have expressed confusion about whether I was male or female, regardless of how I was dressed or attempting to present at the time. I'm biologically male (in terms of plumbing; I have no idea about my genetics) but it doesn't matter whether I've been a long-haired hippy, or wearing a conservative haircut and dressed in a business suit. One time I went into a menswear store to purchase a tie, while wearing a suit and carrying my briefcase (I worked for a very conservative accountancy firm at the time), and the salesperson asked 'can I help you madam?' with no trace of mockery or irony. Even at times when I've had a beard people had questioned whether I was a woman transitioning to a man or a lesbian in drag.
Episodes like that are harmless and often amusing, but people's confusion frequently manifests in more negative ways. I've really lost count of the times people have come up to me on public transit or crossed the street not just to ask, but to demand that I dispel their confusion about whether I was male or female. I'm not a flamboyant or extroverted person that dresses in flashy clothes or engages in provocative behavior, and often my inability to give a clear answer on demand was the result of startlement as much as disinclination. On maybe 10 different occasions I've been physically attacked, without warning or provocation, and not because of being in some atypical environment like a nightclub with drunken patrons, but in broad daylight just walking down the street.
As regards my unwillingness to state this, it's not rooted in politics or anything like that. I grew up in quite a conservative environment, but from a very young age I was conscious of not being like other boys, or wanting to be. Of course I was subject to a lot of homophobic slurs in school, but this never bothered my too much - partly because I'm not homosexual and partly because it was so long ago (I'm 46) and in a conservative place (the west of Ireland) that I wasn't aware of homosexuality or any homosexual people and so didn't have any strong opinions about it as a child. Int he 1980s I became more aware of it from television and shifts in the cultural landscape and as soon as I was old enough I lit out for London. Though I joked with my first girlfriend about me being a lesbian, I really didn't have any reference points for my gender ambiguity, and not being homosexual I never got very involved in that social scene. I'm not transgender either - I thought seriously about the idea and researched it as I gradually became aware of the issue, but that didn't seem like the right fit either and since I like sex I didn't want to take on the risks of sexual reassignment surgery in case it messed up my ability to enjoy that.
So I was resigned to just being a sort of in-between unclassifiable person. I can't do anything about the shape of my face or my body type (I'm 5'8" and 125 pounds despite being very fit and able to lift my own body weight). Most clothes I buy require alteration to fit properly, so for the last few years I've just given up and wear stretchy ygoa garments the whole time. I always identified as male for bureaucratic administrative purposes because it was just simpler and easier, and trying to to explain my personal oddity to bored bureaucrats simply didn't seem worth the effort. It was rather depressing and psychically exhausting, but I just accepted it as my bad luck, to the point of not even bothering to bring it up with psychiatrists I've consulted for depression or other problems. I'm not that gregarious so I've never been part of a social scene where there were a lot of peers to discuss it with, and up to today I've only discussed it any detail with maybe 5 people in my whole life.
I had no awareness of this pending legislation and just sumbled across it today by chance, but after picking my jaw off the floor I immedaitely contacted my state senator and asked her to support it (and if you live in California, I'd be very grateful if you'd take 5 minutes to do the same: http://www.ca.gov/Agencies/Secretary-of-State/Agency-Service...).
This seems like a case where we desperately try to make neat categories for the data to fit because we really like having neatly defined labels for everything, even though it just ends up more confusing in the end.
That's ironically amusing to me, having spent my entire life being put into neat categories when I never asked to be classified as one thing or the other at all, and derived no measurable benefit from it. If it helps, perhaps you could think of this proposed new category as equivalent to 'decline to state.'
It won't make that much practical difference in my life - I'll still get queried on a regular basis and occasionally hassled or assaulted for my ambiguous appearance, regardless of any choices I make about how to present myself; again I have no control over my facial features and body type unless I throw down large sums of money for major cosmetic surgery and hormonal treatments (in either direction) that I don't want in the first place. But I would very quite happy to receive some official acknowledgement of how I exist in the world. I hope this sheds some light on the subject, which I agree is quite difficult to fathom for the majority of people.
Just to be clear, I absolutely include "male" and "female" in my remark about making arbitrary categories; my interrogation was concerning why not make it "decline to state" for everyone by default.
Thank you for taking the time to write and share this.
You're welcome. I don't really know the history of how these categories got formalized, I suppose it goes back to the origin of passports or somesuch. Now you've gone and piqued my curiosity :-)
It is important for birth rates. So much of government borrows from the future, its why you hear so much commotion about falling birth rates and immigration. The system needs more bodies to grind.
Good demographics can help allocate proper resources. For instance the types of health services needed for a metropolitan area will differ wildly from a mining town.
Sure, but perhaps good demographics should come from what has historically happened rather than poorly defined categories?
For instance, wouldn't the number of teen pregnancies in a given area over the past 10 years be much more useful in determining how much resources to allocate to reproductive health than knowing how many biologically female teenagers there are in that area?
This would only hold if the demographics stay the same. In 10 years time, half a generation of children will grow into their teens . If for some reason there are more/fewer biologically female teenagers, you might expect more/fewer teen pregnancies.
Moreover, the teen pregnancy rate is impacted by many unrelated factors (sex education, social mores, etc). You could try to model the change these factors might have, but starting from actual demographics gives you an additional piece of information.
I've always identified myself as non-binary, but I have no problem with selecting 'female' in questionnaires, because that is what my parts are. Unless you had a surgery or a genetic disorder (is it possible even?), it is binary and objective, disregard the feelings. So what is the fuss about? Some teenagers's hormone freak-out?
You could read it as both, neither, prefer not to say, or whatever you prefer. I posted elsewhere on the thread about my own experience, and I don't have strong preferences about what pronouns people use. Where I grew up the 'singular they' was a common pronoun that existed long before gender politics were A Thing, as in 'I saw someone walking down the street and then they got into a car and drove away.' Hope this helps.
Governments are huge organizations that handle many things, and is full of many different departments. It's not like someone was going to fix the drought today but got tied up with this instead.
Given how complicated the biological reality of it all is (see [0]), why try to model it at all? This seems like a case where we desperately try to make neat categories for the data to fit because we really like having neatly defined labels for everything, even though it just ends up more confusing in the end.
Curious to hear any thoughts on this.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex