We missed the memo
Just got a breathless e-mail message from Portland City Hall about the upcoming Sunday Parkways, on Mothers Day in Northeast. All well and good, but it included this:
Take it even further and join the Cyclo Femme ride at 11am beginning at Woodlawn Park, NE 13th & Dekum. The Cyclo Femme ride celebrates and empowers women in cycling. All genders are welcome on this ride, just look for the Women on Wheels banner and booth.
"All" genders? Do they mean "both"?
| Posted at 4:42 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (23)
Coming from City Hall, I'm pretty sure they meant "all".
Posted by PD | May 3, 2012 5:09 PM
Male, Female, other
Posted by geneb | May 3, 2012 5:09 PM
No, they don't. They're just being polite. Not everyone subscribes to there being a dichotomy. Both would imply there are two discrete gender identities. Some people consider themselves neither, gender-neutral, or are transgender. Some people biologically are XXY or XYY.
Posted by Aaron | May 3, 2012 5:11 PM
The computer form I'm filling out is taking only M or F.
Posted by Jack Bog | May 3, 2012 5:27 PM
A form generated by a non-gendered entity, you mean.
Posted by Mojo | May 3, 2012 5:35 PM
If you're unsure I'd pull out your driver's license and just use whatever they put on that to be safe, Jack. Or leave it blank and see how badly they really need that information.
Posted by Aaron | May 3, 2012 5:39 PM
What do I do on the line that asks "Gender of spouse (if known)"?
Posted by Jack Bog | May 3, 2012 5:41 PM
At least they aren't trying this in our neighborhood. As we are STILL suffering with their STUPID Garbage/Food Scrap Initiative, I don't think it would be safe here for the Sam/Rand twins or their minions to show their faces here without a MOB gathering and coming out to let them know what we really think.
Posted by Mark | May 3, 2012 5:45 PM
Throw out the gender studies handbook and recall your dusty marriage manual, and never ponder that as an uncertain.
Posted by Aaron | May 3, 2012 5:48 PM
Some people are nuts....
Posted by tankfixer | May 3, 2012 6:24 PM
There is no computerized option for -- to be on the safe side -- a homophilic heterophile? "Man" and "woman," "male" and "female," "M" and "F" indicate a strong biogenic bias, which is inappropriate for a discourse regarding gender in the contemporary world.
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | May 3, 2012 6:46 PM
Good point. I've never known a "T" who was an avid bike rider.
Posted by Newleaf | May 3, 2012 6:47 PM
I'm still confused. Maybe Bob Costas can explain it to me during the Olympics.
Posted by Jack Bog | May 3, 2012 6:49 PM
There are in fact three (3) genders, according to the city of Pootland. I kid you not. Evidence is found here in the draft of the Title 17 Code Update. See page two "pronoun."
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=55105&a=353650
Masculine, feminine, and nuetral(sic) neuter. Brilliant, I tell ya! Brilliant!
Posted by PDXLifer | May 3, 2012 6:49 PM
I think the number of genders is related to the number of dimensions you're in - if that helps.
Posted by Bill McDonald | May 3, 2012 7:24 PM
There are some people out there who don't identify with the primary gender roles. (There are also some medical conditions, in particular those caused by missing or extra sex chromosomes, which cause people to exhibit physical characteristics other than the two common gender templates).
I don't have a problem with this.
Do you?
Posted by EngineerScotty | May 3, 2012 9:03 PM
No, but I do wonder how many genders there are now. Apparently, more than two.
Posted by Jack Bog | May 3, 2012 9:25 PM
(There are also some medical conditions, in particular those caused by missing or extra sex chromosomes, which cause people to exhibit physical characteristics other than the two common gender templates)
Like polydactylism?
I give this one the finger.
I just can't figure out which finger 'cause I'm dactylically neutral and the common finger templates don't apply.
*anguish*
Posted by tinker | May 3, 2012 9:57 PM
Just think of it as a continuum with a very strong bimodal distribution, Jack, and you'll do fine.
Posted by EngineerScotty | May 3, 2012 10:30 PM
You don't want to know...
Posted by Richard Thruster | May 3, 2012 10:32 PM
Many see gender as a sliding scale. So they are trying to be inclusive.
Posted by Jo | May 4, 2012 3:27 AM
Every one wants to be normal.
Posted by David E Gilmore | May 4, 2012 6:31 AM
Normal? Consider an Ivy League grad from NJ who may well have been actress JoBeth Williams's first boyfriend:
"Author of the 1994 book Gender Outlaw and a veteran performance artist of her own shows, such as Hidden: A Gender, [Kate] Bornstein has managed to both anger and delight most camps in the LGBTQ universe; a male-to-female transsexual lesbian, she has felt rejected by both the transsexual and lesbian communities at one time or another while she has tried to educate the rest of us that people don't have to be either men or women. It was one of the many revelations in Bornstein's revelatory life that she came to the stunning notion that she was really neither."
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-05-02/news/kate-bornstein-amazing-voyage-gender-scientology?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_medium=email
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | May 10, 2012 11:56 AM