Gender analysis
Sep. 8th, 2006 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandora_parrotIsn't it interesting that people don't actually look at a person's gender. Instead, they cache the gender of the person they analyze and then move on. I've noticed this with people, and with stories I've read.
Basically, it appears to be the case that whenever a person interacts with someone else, they analyze and then store a lot of information about the other individual. On subsequent interactions, or even later in that same interaction, if they need to call up that information, they simply look at the stored data, instead of reanalyzing the individual. People appear to do this with gender a LOT a LOT!
For example... I read this story about a trans woman that walked up to a counter twice, with different individuals running the counter both times. Both times she was dressed the same. Both times she walked up to the counter, put her credit card down, and asked to purchase the items she had. The first time, the clerk was looking down, so the first bits of data the clerk received were "big hands", "deep voice", and "male name on credit card" She looked up and said "No problem, sir." The second time, the clerk was looking up, and the first bits of data she received were "female face," "female clothing," "breasts" "make-up" whatever... Her response this time... "No problem, ma'am."
Same event. Same data present in both cases. All that changed was the order in which the information was received. It appears that after the gender analysis had come to a conclusion, the analysis stopped and the gender was placed into the cache. Even though there was more data to be evaluated, it was ignored in the face of the cached data, much as your web brower ignores new web pages when it is set to load from the cache.
We see this constantly with family and friends, as well. People that knew us before transition have trouble seeing us as our "new" gender, because they have already evaluated our gender and have cached the information. Similarly, people that met us after transition find it similarly difficult to see us as our "original" gender, for the same reason.
It really is quite fascinating, ya know?
btw: the idea of this came from something![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ubiquity said to me once. :)
Basically, it appears to be the case that whenever a person interacts with someone else, they analyze and then store a lot of information about the other individual. On subsequent interactions, or even later in that same interaction, if they need to call up that information, they simply look at the stored data, instead of reanalyzing the individual. People appear to do this with gender a LOT a LOT!
For example... I read this story about a trans woman that walked up to a counter twice, with different individuals running the counter both times. Both times she was dressed the same. Both times she walked up to the counter, put her credit card down, and asked to purchase the items she had. The first time, the clerk was looking down, so the first bits of data the clerk received were "big hands", "deep voice", and "male name on credit card" She looked up and said "No problem, sir." The second time, the clerk was looking up, and the first bits of data she received were "female face," "female clothing," "breasts" "make-up" whatever... Her response this time... "No problem, ma'am."
Same event. Same data present in both cases. All that changed was the order in which the information was received. It appears that after the gender analysis had come to a conclusion, the analysis stopped and the gender was placed into the cache. Even though there was more data to be evaluated, it was ignored in the face of the cached data, much as your web brower ignores new web pages when it is set to load from the cache.
We see this constantly with family and friends, as well. People that knew us before transition have trouble seeing us as our "new" gender, because they have already evaluated our gender and have cached the information. Similarly, people that met us after transition find it similarly difficult to see us as our "original" gender, for the same reason.
It really is quite fascinating, ya know?
btw: the idea of this came from something
ubiquity said to me once. :)
