What personal pronoun do you prefer to be called?

[davewe]

It's not just feminism that has screwed us up in the West. I'm in the doctors office yesterday; actually an accupuncturist in an alternative medicine type clinic. I am filling out the standard medical forms asking for insurance and what conditions you have or have had. Normal stuff. But then I come across the following three questions:

1. What was your gender at birth? Male Female
2. What gender do you identify yourself with currently? Male Female
3. What personal pronoun do you prefer to be called? He She

Now I'm a pretty liberal type of guy but this had me chucking. And we wonder why men and women in the West can't connect.

[adam917]

For me:
1. Male
2. Genderqueer (close to male though)
3. ANY!

As a side note, I regularly attend a local transgender support group & I can't believe that some of the people there get upset at being 'sir'd'/'maam'd' if they look like a particular gender (usually the one they're transitioning AWAY from!). even then, a simple correction is all that's needed. If the person causes trouble, ignore them & don't bother with them anymore.

[All_That_Is_Man]

And we wonder why men and women in the West can't connect.

I believe that feminism is the sole root of all this skewed/confused sexuality shit. I don't mean any disrespect, but I'm just altogether irritated with the insanity already.

[mehendicant]

I am male, have always seen myself as male, and find females attractive (as long, of course, as they don't mess up their appearance or their minds). I also have breasts, have hair down to my tailbone (when it's loose and stretched; it's usually up), henna my nails and hair, and am mistaken for a woman on the phone.

A few days ago I was walking around the neighborhood, thinking about house plans or some computer program, and met some kids. They complimented me on my beautiful hair and referred to me as "she". In response I pulled out my beard, which is two dreads extending past my belly button (and is that way only because I henna it, which strengthens it and prevents it from falling into a mass of splits). They kept saying "she" and one of them suggested a flat-iron. I thought "Not on your life!" but kept quiet. Yesterday or so they found out from my across neighbor that I am a he.

As to the other pronoun question, I address anyone in my family (both biological and church) as "tú" except a few who prefer "usted". Officials such as the gals at the apartment office I generally address as "usted". I once met someone who said "vos" to a single person, which I found funny (it's not funny in French, but French doesn't have "usted"). I've met a family from Puerto Rico who addressed each other as "usted", which I found weird.

Some years ago I wrote a program for a database which had a table including people. Instead of a boolean for sex, I used a character. So besides "M" and "F", they can enter "S" or "N" for spay or neuter, or "A" for AIS (a sex-linked mutation which affects sex organ formation), or any other letter.

There are cultures which are quite accepting of intermediate genders - though their languages may not have such a gender.