We being internet researchers and all, we've probably all read one article or another about gender-bending on the net, about gender being socially constructed, about the many non-conventional genders that some MUDs offer, etc. I wonder though, 1) the registration form asks for the registrants gender, why? who cares? and 2) the registration form asks you to choose between either male or female, why? who cares? and more importantly, why force the answer? Forcing in 2 ways: making the 'choice' binary and forcing registrants to answer. If you don't fill out the gender, it says: "Error, please go back and fill in your gender." Hey, that's not _my_ error, that's _your_ error for not being able to think outside of the box. I guess Butler was right when she wrote, "[t]he tacit collective agreement to perform, produce, and sustain discrete and polar genders as cultural fictions is obscured by the credibility of its own production. The authors of gender become entranced by their own fictions whereby the construction compels one's belief in its necessity and naturalness." (1990: 273) As a nice exercise I urge you to try to fill out all forms you encounter in the next month or so without stating your gender. It's not easy. So... I registered, but what was the cost apart from the registration fees? Frank. -- Fragments Blog == http://fragment.nl Cyberculture Resources == http://fragment.nl/resources/