Revealing Gender

[Martyn13]

What does everyone feel about stating each poster's gender on their profile

[James81]

In some cases, I think it's essential that we know whether it's a man or woman when it comes to giving advice, so I think it'd be a good idea.

[spirit4711]

@Martyn13, what do YOU feel about it?

[Martyn13]

Originally Posted by spirit4711

@Martyn13, what do YOU feel about it?

I've read threads where everyone assumed that someone needing help was the opposite gender of what they are, and it was only when the subject was brought up, that they understood the person more clearly.

The reason I asked was that on one occasion, I was involved in a dialogue with a poster, who I assumed was female. This person seemed to react in a 'feeling' way which is quite rare in males It 'felt' like a female.
I 'picked up' something about this person, and told them.
It was only afterwards that I had a niggling doubt as to their gender.
I then took the trouble of investigating it further, and eventually worked out that this person was in fact male.
The relevance of this is that I had 'picked up' something about this person, which I had assumed to be a very 'positive' thing - Unfortunately, my feelings were that, although this 'female energy' would have been good in a female, the genders have 'opposite' rules - it is not accidental that they are known as 'opposite' sexes. They are at opposite ends of the duality.
So this energy which I had 'picked up', whilst it would have been a 'positive energy' in a female, I felt was very negative for a male - Full of anxiety.
But having already told the poster that I had picked up a positive energy, it was quite difficult to know what to say!
Especially when this person replied to me at length.
In his reply, I felt that he was very 'feeling' and it felt very much like female energy, or at least, someone who communicates in a 'loving' or 'feeling' way -
and asked me questions about myself.
I decided that there were one of two possibilities - Either

(a) This person was highly developed in terms of self development, having a 'loving' attitude to everyone, male and female alike - which is quite rare

(b) This person actually thought that I was a female -
Some people might think that the slightly uncommon spelling of my name was the female version - but it isn't!

So I was in a dillemma.

I solved the dilemma by just not responding, which perhaps seemed rude, but I didn't see any 'tactful' alternative.

That's when I had the idea of stating each person's gender on their profile.

It makes a tremendous difference how you react to someone, and especially regarding PM's

Recently, there was a thread from someone wanting advice, and I wanted to answer, but I could not readily ascertain their gender, so I didn't reply.

I feel that it would help a great deal to automatically know each other's gender.
It would save having to try to work it out!
I feel that it would make a great deal of difference in how we communicate, especially regarding PM's
and most importantly, it would prevent misunderstandings!!

Also, I've learned my lesson now, in that I will not automatically assume someone's gender by the way they appear