nourishing obscurity

22 Responses to “Discrimination”

1. no! no! no!, on February 4th, 2010 at 16:57 Said:

   There’s a 2 word reply to that load of crap.

   
   
2. MadPiper, on February 4th, 2010 at 17:00 Said:

   It appears that gender confused and sexually mutilated are considered to be disabled. WTF indeed!

   
   
3. WitteringsfromWitney, on February 4th, 2010 at 17:55 Said:

   One has to ask James – did you tick their boxes?

   
   
4. James Higham, on February 4th, 2010 at 17:58 Said:

   It was online so the typing was as you see.

   
   
5. MadPiper, on February 4th, 2010 at 18:03 Said:

   It was online so the typing was as you see.

   Well done!

   
   
6. angus dei, on February 4th, 2010 at 18:47 Said:

   Isn’t that positive discrimination:)

   
   
7. Eurodog, on February 4th, 2010 at 19:30 Said:

   I was selected to do jury service a few years ago in a murder trial. I had to fill in a paper and the first question at the top of the questionnaire was: “Can you read?” Answer yes or no. Second question: “Can you write?” Answer yes or no. This is even before we got into the Flemish or French bit. I’m afraid this is not a joke. Oh yes, I am writing from Brussels, the seat of the EU and the European Parliament. NATO and SHAPE headquarters plus European headquarters of numerous multinational companies.

   
   
8. James Higham, on February 4th, 2010 at 20:14 Said:

   From the heartland, so to speak.

   
   
9. dearieme, on February 4th, 2010 at 21:11 Said:

   Unless you are a pronoun, James, you do not have a gender. You have a sex. My old employer had to withdraw one of its idiot forms when so many people crossed out “gender” and inserted “sex” that the forms became hard to use. Probably what they really wanted to know was something like “Are you male?” and “In spite of which, do you plan to insist on using the women’s loos?”.

   
   
10. britologywatch, on February 4th, 2010 at 21:53 Said:

    What on earth does ‘the gender assigned to you at birth’ mean? I doubt this is supposed to mean ‘the gender you were born with’ or ‘male or female as God made you’! Conjures up visions of God-like health workers or registrars duly decreeing that newborns are male or female, almost without due regard to whether they are actually male or female.

    Why can’t they just be honest about the information they’re trying to extract and ask: Are you male or female; Are you transgendered; and Have you had gender reassignment treatment (and if so, which way: male-to-female or female-to-male)? That’s what they’re actually asking. It seems as though they’re afraid that even asking those questions could be construed as implying a negative attitude or discriminatory practices towards those of a particular, or no particular, gender. So they have to dress it up in ever so empathetic, PC circumlocutions.

    But wouldn’t it be better to just not ask any of these questions at all, if they’re supposed to be of no consequence whatsoever to a person’s eligibility for the job in question?

    
    
11. Barking Spider, on February 4th, 2010 at 22:26 Said:

    And Labour plan to introduce this Lefty invasion of privacy into the next census – well, they can Foxtrot Oscar, as far as I’m concerned. I hope Cameron has the common sense to do something about it. >-O

    
    
12. Wolfie, on February 4th, 2010 at 22:30 Said:

    “Any Other White?”

    - Chablis.

    
    
13. britologywatch, on February 5th, 2010 at 03:56 Said:

    @ Barking Spider: my understanding is that the Tories are opposed to the 2011 census in its present form but will probably not scrap it because the government is rushing it to the printers ahead of the election, and they don’t want to be painted as wasting money by re-doing it from scratch. Another case of the government rushing things through before the election and tying the hands of an incoming Conservative government.

    
    
14. Steve Hayes, on February 5th, 2010 at 05:11 Said:

    Is there a special official whose task it is to assign genders to babies at birth?

    What happens if your parents failed to apply for one? Does that mean you have to go without a gender for the rest of your life?

    
    
15. Moggs Tigerpaw, on February 5th, 2010 at 07:16 Said:

    I generally try to avoid answering lots of those type of questions. I think it is intrusive.

    If it is a paper form I sometimes put “None of your business”

    Sexuality or color do not make any difference to how good a worker a person is as far as I am know

    A good employer should have a “prefer not to answer” box too, or it is bullying.

    
    
16. James Higham, on February 5th, 2010 at 10:08 Said:

    Glad to see that others are equally as underwhelmed or even less.

    
    
17. Lord T, on February 5th, 2010 at 12:29 Said:

    I like ticking the white other box. It makes interesting times when someone is asking the questions in front of you.

    I can see the next census is going to be fun.

    
    
18. BobG, on February 5th, 2010 at 16:08 Said:

    I have to wonder what kind of laborious thought processes went into putting together that mess. Is it a government job? I ask because it is the kind of idiotic thing that one would expect from the sort of halfwits only found in a government bureaucracy.

    
    
19. HisGirlFriday, on February 5th, 2010 at 20:53 Said:

    I was hoping this was a joke….

    
    
20. Sackerson, on February 7th, 2010 at 12:42 Said:

    When my Dad was accommodated in the Officer’s Mess his room contained an inventory board on which the first item listed was “Board, Inventory: 1″.

    
    
21. James Higham, on February 7th, 2010 at 16:58 Said:

    Blog, for the annoyance of others: 1.

    
    
22. CherryPie, on February 7th, 2010 at 22:56 Said:

    I am expected to complete a similar questionnaire as a matter of routine from time to time. I ignore them until someone stands over me and insists I complete it.