Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Gender, identity and (dis)orientation

Today I filled in an application for a job at a uni in the UK. Come the equality of opportunity section, the applicant is prompted with 3 questions:

1) What's your gender? Female/Male

2) Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were assigned at birth? Yes/No

3) What's you sexual orientation? Straight, Gay, Bisexual etc

A number of non-mutually exclusive thoughts come to my mind:
- is this a hidden test to check the logic consistency in the applicant's answers!?
- Who assigns gender at birth? And gender identity?
- The implicit assumptions are:
-- gender orientation is discovered or revealed in life, one may scramble and unscramble it or, more simply, experience deep disorientation when filling such applications for jobs!
-- identity and orientation may not necessarily coincide and neither of them may coincide with gender

John, I'm Only Dancing ... Job, I'm only Applying ... lallallala!

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