The foundation of your personality


Want to take a goofy online quiz? Here’s one that claims to be asking What Is Your Gender Identity? Only, that’s odd, because I answered the questions as truthfully as I could (as usual with goofy quizzes, many questions offered zero replies that really fit) and I got “you are Cis-Male.” Well, no, that’s not right.*

But the questions are fatuous anyway, because they’re mostly about superficialities. To be accurate my replies to several of them would have had to be “I don’t care one way or the other.”

But then it’s understandable that the questions are fatuous, because the opening claim is fatuous squared:

Your gender is the foundation of your personality and indicates how you choose to express yourself.

No, it isn’t. That’s completely, comprehensively wrong. My gender absolutely is not the foundation of my personality, and I bristle angrily at being told it is. It’s part of it; I can accept that much; but it’s absolutely not the foundation. And thank fuck for that, because really, why would it be? Why should it be? Why does it have to matter that much? There are other foundations of personality, to put it mildly, so why should I think my gender is the one and only? Why should anyone?

I could give you a considerable list of other things that are much more foundational to my personality, but I won’t, because it would be tedious and narcissistic. But my point is basically fuck gender. Gender needs to get over itself.

*I saw the quiz via a woman friend who also got the Cis-Male result. The quiz is probably a parody…or maybe just an unconscious parody.

Comments

  1. theobromine says

    My result was “Warning: unresponsive script”. Now I’m wondering if that might be significant somehow….

  2. anat says

    The first question asks about anatomy, yet somehow it manages to label people answering they have female anatomy as cis-males. I wonder if it is really a parody quiz that classifies everyone as cis-male regardless of their responses.

  3. theobromine says

    I ran it again and got to the end successfully this time, with a result of trans-masculine:

    As a “masculine center”, you actually possess a female body but prefer to enhance your physical traits as man.. Perhaps you even identify as a man when we consider hobbies, interests, or overall emotional behavior. However, this does not necessarily mean that you don’t feel like a female now and then or that you always and entirely feel like a male; there’s the possibility that you are extremely in touch with your masculine side and choose to express it depending upon circumstance.

    I see one or two points consistent with my answers, but for the rest, it’s pretty much ambiguous statements that are set up so they can be interpreted in many ways – reminded me of a newspaper horoscope.

    (For the record, I more or less present as a cis-woman except that I never wear makeup or high heels and only wear skirts or dresses once every few years. My profession and some of my hobbies and interests are stereotypically male, but I would not consider it accurate to say that “I identify as a man” when I consider those hobbies. I identify as a person who likes trains and electronics. People who enjoy pink frills and makeup and high heels should also feel free to like trains and electronics.)

  4. iknklast says

    I got transmasculine, which is probably because I refuse to assume that the proper way to be a woman is the way I was raised. I can be a woman any way I want to, and I think it’s very bogus to assume that the traits I exhibit are masculine. They’re my traits, and I am female, so as far as I am concerned, they are female traits. I have not objection to transmasculine people, only to assuming that if I have certain traits I must be transmasculine.

    This is similar to all those times my mother told me to “act like a girl”. What the hell does that mean, anyway? I was a girl, I was acting like I act, so therefore, I was acting like a girl…me.

  5. says

    I’m stuck pretty early in… my personal style.
    Someone help me out here. Since the first answer is “yes, I dress like a man” I’m assuming that by personal style they mean how you dress, etc.

    So tell me… is a t-shirt, jeans, sneakers and long hair male, female, or a combination?
    When I let the stubble grow out enough to be called a beard due to laziness, does that mean my answer is “it depends on how I feel each day?”

    Well… I’m further along now… I think they are confusing opinion with gender identity.
    It’s like trying to guess someone’s political position by asking them “Conservatives are more likely to be in which party? A. Democratic B. Republican” etc.

    For example the question about whether or not gender roles can be stifling… If I answer that they can be stifling, how does that acknowledgement of reality reflect on how *I* personally fit in with a particular role?

    If I’m taking a health quiz and choose the answer “Lack of exercise can lead to weight gain” that doesn’t tell you my weight.

  6. says

    I got Pangender. So I looked it up and I’m kind of nope. Supposedly that means I embrace all genders. But I don’t think of myself as genderqueer, but as a cis-woman who likes a lot of traditionally masculine coded things and rejects a lot of traditional femininity.

  7. says

    I took the thing twice, and got the “unresponsive script” response each time. I also found that “many questions offered zero replies that really fit” and that “I don’t care one way or the other” would have been the honest answer for a number of them.

  8. sambarge says

    I got cis-male too and that makes no sense because the first question determined that I was anatomically female (which I presumed was the quiz’s way of asking what gender you were assigned at birth).

    Another FB quiz thing determined that I was left of Karl Marx.

  9. says

    I got mescaline.

    (Blinks…)

    Who wants some?

    (/Dear random surveillance agency scraping the web for criminal and/or incriminating communications: the above is in no way meant to imply I genuinely possess and am selling such a substance. Rather, it is meant to imply my gender identity is hallucinatory, and/or will cause alarming flashbacks. However, by all means, put it in my file anyway. Should liven it up a bit.)

  10. sambarge says

    Too bad you can’t “like” or “recommend” comments on FTB, because AJ Milne made me laugh out loud.*

    *No “LOL” here. I literally laughed out loud.

  11. johnthedrunkard says

    Transfeminine…?

    Fatuous doesn’t begin to cover the silliness. Not to mention browser hanging and anti-virus warnings in cascades. Bizarre coding which forces scrolling even if you zoom out etc. etc.

    And why, in the ‘cute’ divided face graphic, does the girly face have horns?

  12. tecolata says

    I am transmasculine!
    You are Transmasculine! As a “masculine center”, you actually possess a female body but prefer to enhance your physical traits as man. Perhaps you even identify as a man when we consider hobbies, interests, or overall emotional behavior. However, this does not necessarily mean that you don’t feel like a female now and then or that you always and entirely feel like a male; there’s the possibility that you are extremely in touch with your masculine side and choose to express it depending upon circumstance.

    True that I possess a female body, that’s about the extent of the correctness.

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