This has happened to me only once, I think, but I've noticed it twice happening to others in the last few days, both times to babble women whose handles are not obviously either feminine or masculine.

I have happy news on that front. My daughter happens to have women serving her as doctors and dentists and she makes the assumption that all doctors and dentists are female.

When a friend said 'I went to the doctor for a needle' my kid responded with 'did it hurt when she gave you the needle?'

She recently referred to her fish (who is named Professor Peoplebody) in a casual convestaion with her aunt and when the aunt asked if my kid took care of him all by herself, she responded, "actually, Professor Peoplebody is a woman"

With Smith however, I was picturing a middle aged male with a grey beard! I have no idea why. Now I like to think of myself as pretty pro-feminist, but maybe on a sub conscious level maybe it was the aggression thing skdadl mentioned. As you know, our Smitty is far from shy about expressing a point of view.

I guess the guys forget that there are Girl Scouts too, mind you in Canada we are Brownies, Girl Guides and Pathfinders. Not very cool handles. I chose mine to be gender neutral.

It amuses me most of the time, especially as it is listed in my profile that I am of the female variety.

I was not nice to the rodent. I think it was the name. I only managed to get a rise out of it once.

angela, you do know that Wingy actually is a gyu, like of the male persuasion? I couldn't quite tell whether you'd been persuaded -- by his impeccable feminism, and I agree, it's impeccable -- that he is a gril, but I am thrilled to tell you that he isn't. He's just enlightened.

(He's really cute, too.)

I'm not going to confess completely, but I discovered, when I went back to check, just in case, that one of the babblers I have been imagining as a gril for over a year is actually a gyu -- ! I had to do some quick backpedalling there, having already scolded someone else for making sexist assumptions about him (as I discover he is). Sheesh.

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An aside to oldgoat, you saw the pic I sent you. Was *I* like you imagined?

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Hard to say kiddo. I always pictured you in full kelvar body armour waving an inflammatory placard

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Armour is for wimps. It is said around my place of work that I am "tougher than a Ford truck." I will only explain *that* one to you in PM's or email. However, I have waved quite a few inflammatory placards in my day.

After all, the nick of "Catalyst" is a euphemism for what several of my supervisors have called me to my face.

As far as I know, I've only been really wrong once, but whewww......

To echo Michelle, I thought because the babbler had such good ideas, etc., I assumed she was a he. That's bad enough, or probably worse, than the degree of shock I felt when I discovered their gender. I felt really confused, and I'd consider myself quite gender fluid.

The last year has brought home the the violent power of of the ideology of gender.

While trying to challenge or suport challenges to gender norms, I find I fall into the gender norms and engage in male supremist dialogue aand activity.

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angela, you do know that Wingy actually is a gyu, like of the male persuasion? I couldn't quite tell whether you'd been persuaded -- by his impeccable feminism, and I agree, it's impeccable -- that he is a gril, but I am thrilled to tell you that he isn't. He's just enlightened.

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And I do tend to assume posters are female, actually, probably because the first few forums I was on had a female majority.

My handle on other boards, "Mr. Smith," is, well, you could say, calculated to confuse. It's a nickname someone gave me, but I kind of like the gender-bending ability of the Internet and I was on a very anti-essentialist kick at the time.

[ 07 February 2003: Message edited by: Smith ]

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then you assume everyone is human? What are you, some kinda extremist?

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But I guess that is an unfair question, because difficult to determine.

[ 10 February 2003: Message edited by: darkhorse ]

I don't look up profiles every time i respond to a post and i've made a few incorrect assumptions. If i like someone's views, i tend to think of hem as female. The late, unlamented rodent's sex/gender was a shock: i'd have much preferred a person with such views to be male. She thought i was, too. The discovery of this prejudice in myself was quite embarrassing, so i've been more careful since that time.

[ 13 February 2003: Message edited by: nonesuch ]

Duuuuude.

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"Dude" has become non-gender specific, it's an expression of...hmm, of what? Not disgust exactly. Not shock exactly.

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What about race? Do you assume everyone is white, unless they say otherwise?

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I never thought about it before, and if I had, I probably would have adjusted my silly perception, but I do assume everyone is white

By the way, i assume that anyone who doesn't specify gender is under 30, probably under 25, and more likely male than female. These assumptions are based on political climate, not psychology. So maybe age does matter.

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The late, unlamented rodent's sex/gender was a shock: i'd have much preferred a person with such views to be male. She thought i was, too.

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I remember the Hydrophobic Rodent. If it's any consolation, nonesuch, I'm convinced he was a he, posing as a she because he thought he would have more credibility trashing feminism if everyone thought he was a she (if you follow).

RG posted on another board, Straightgoods I think, and was plainly male, young, and unmarried. Later he'd repeat the same anecdotes here, only changing them a bit so that he wasn't relating his experiences, but "my husband's." Or so I recall it.

ps I suppose people here are whitish, some shade of ocher or brown, because that's what i see in the shopping mall. The colour of particular persons isn't an issue, unless they make it so. Like gender, it's relevant to some topics.

[ 13 February 2003: Message edited by: nonesuch ]

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Not quite disgust, you say. Uh huh. Sort of ... ?

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I'm never shocked to be "wrong", because I'm just upgrading my default position when I discover real facts about people. Until then, I'm just not thinking about it in any clear way and don't have any solid assumptions.

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RG posted on another board, Straightgoods I think, and was plainly male, young, and unmarried.

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Then I linked to "his" home page (which I quite enjoyed, by the way, Smith) and was surprised to find a young, red-haired waifish female.

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I know a guy here who have been assumed to be female too. He felt it was a huge compliment.

I try not to assume because I've been posting around the Internet a long time and have been wrong before.

I think that many people assume that women are always trying to attract men, even on the net. So if you act like a doofus, tell crap pirate jokes, and have a dorky nickname you must be a man. Women flirt with the male posters, use lots of winky smiley faces and have cutsie wootsie names. If you are female and don't do any of that junk you must be uptight. Or a lesbian. Or both. Shock gasp theskyisfalling.

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. The late, unlamented rodent's sex/gender was a shock: i'd have much preferred a person with such views to be male.

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audra: I asked the race question,...

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Everybody here looks Verdana-bold to me.

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Now Rasmus_Raven is one who initially confused me. I pictured him as looking sort of South Asian, but the guy posts in Urdu, so I think it's forgivable. For those who haven't met him, R_R looks pretty Norwegian too.

I did, however, recognize right away that oldgoat is in fact a SpringChicken. Those who haven't met him yet: boy, are you in for a surprise!

[ 17 February 2003: Message edited by: audra estrones ]

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I just want to admit I thought Zoot Capri was a boy type person, and pictured her as looking a bit like Leon Redbone. Such a cool handle.

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I'm much cuter than that! I even have my photo on my profile now, thanks to The Amazing Audra.