In your humble opinion, how do you tell the difference between men and women?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I once watched a PBS documentary about IBM’s Watson, the artificial intelligence supercomputer. I was very impressed at how quickly and smoothly Watson replied the asker’s questions, and I giggled at the sarcastic host who kept making fun of Watson’s naivete and lack of common sense, especially the part where Watson made a mistake of describing Richard Nixon as “first lady”. The documentary said that usually people would get offended if they were referred to by the wrong gender. Apparently, Watson, the supercomputer, knew no difference between male or female.

As a human being and native English speaker of the United States, I realize that my language is gendered. Therefore, to be politically correct, I think I should address everyone, of whom I do not know the actual gender, as “he or she” or use the singular “they” or stick with only one of them or alternatively use both “he” and “she”. With so many choices, I find it difficult for me to stay consistent with one!

Therefore, I make an attempt at differentiate male and female, men and women, boys and girls by resorting to characteristics, generalizations, and stereotypes. Often, I see women and girls having longer hair than men and boys, so I classify “long hair” as a feminine trait. Now, this classification can be confusing, if I suddenly view a man or boy who has long hair and thus does not fit my classification of the feminine traits. So, I have to rewrite what I define as “masculine” and “feminine”. Over time, I have given up all hope at classifying men and women due to certain traits, because the human population is so diverse that any trait just can’t fit anybody. I would have said breasts are feminine, but then again, there are some women who have their breasts removed due to breast cancer and some men who have enlarged breasts. I could say that women give birth to babies, but then again, it’s the 21st century and apparently “male eggs” exist. With all these exceptions, how in the world am I supposed to classify men and women?

I obviously see a difference for me as a human being. But to a computer like Watson, I feel sympathy for it (I am using it, because Watson is a computer, and computers have no gender).

In your humble opinion, how do you tell the difference between male and female? Can you offer any suggestions?

2

There are 4 pretty absolute differences between men and women.

Men impregnate.

Women menstruate, gestate, and lactate.

Even with individual exceptions due to disease or accident or the genetic crapshoot, intersexed individuals, and genetic engineering, those particular lines haven’t been blurred much at all.

3

Gender, like face recognition, is one of those things that humans are really good at determining and we’re really not exactly sure how we draw those sorts of lines. It’s undoubtedly many subtle features that play into it and it’s at such an instinctual level that it’s often difficult to pull out exactly what the key features are. For instance, women’s faces tend to be softer and men’s faces tend to be more angular, but I’ve also seen faces of women with very distinct angularness or men with soft features, and both are considered attractive.

So, probably not very helpful, but I guess I just tell because… I can. I do think you can start with certain social things like hair, clothing, mannerisms, and certain physiological things like bust, shoulders, adam’s apple, waist-hip measurement, or anything else that’s often associated, but you’ll still end up with having some features wrong for just about everyone short of some hyper-genderized example. You simply won’t be able to pick a single feature, or likely even just a few features and get sufficient accuracy.

4

I check for their penis/vagina when I greet them. Removes most ambiguity.

5

and the black eye only lasts for about a week!

6

Women are sexually attractive. Men are the repulsive ones.

7

I just refer to anyone smaller than I am as Mary. If they want to fight about it, that’s their problem.

8

Boobs.

In the case of “man boobs” or “moobs,” in my opinion, the difference is obvious.

I’m sure there are many instances of confusion in the world, but in my very limited portion of the universe, I have yet to be mistaken.
~VOW

9

I agree with Blaster Master. There are many subtle cues that we interpret on a subconscious level. Often, I’ll be out on the street, and see a figure walking toward me in the distance, far too small yet to determine gender. I’ll stare and wait for either “boy” or “girl” to pop into my head as it gets closer. Usually, it does long before I can discern any facial or clothing details. I suspect it is in the gait, the swing of the hips, the overall subtle movements of the body.

10

Pat, is that you?

11

Reminds me of a short, personal story. I was dating a biker-type girl once with long hair (and she was ALL female, believe me), but she often tucked her hair in her black leather jacket. She bellied up to the liquor counter once and the clerk said something to her appended by “…Sir.”

She unzipped her jacket and thrust out her ample chest.

Said the startled clerk, “Oh, excuse me, m’am. I didn’t see your boobs.”

12

Boobs. High heels. And they smell kinda pretty.

13

Unfortunately, the gender to whom you find most sexually attractive is subjective. Some individuals are sexually attracted to men. Some individuals are sexually attracted to women. Some individuals are sexually attracted to both men and women. Some individuals are sexually attracted to neither men or women. Finally, there are some individuals who just don’t care or have never experienced sexual attraction in their lives, so they are uncertain to which gender they are attracted. That said, I think it would be impossible to put men and women in a beauty pageant together, because the audience who is attracted to men will probably choose the most handsomest man, and the audience who is attracted to women will probably choose the most handsomest woman. And the individuals who are attracted to neither gender will probably judge by physical attraction, rather than sexual attraction, OR they may be indecisive. Finally, there could be some individuals in the audience who really don’t give a F**** about the beauty pageant, because beauty itself is subjective.

14

Man = Dos Equis - The Most Interesting Man In The World

15

QTM, You are absolutely correct, but in a casual social setting when trying to identify a person’s gender, these criteria are 100% useless.

16

Hold them upside down and look between their legs.

17

I’d like you to meet my 85 year old grandmother.

18

You can do that to animals. Humans are animals, but they are a special kind of animal. You can not hold a human being upside-down and look between the legs.

19

Using this method, I have been absolutely wrong at least once. A figure walking toward me said “woman” in every subtle, perhaps even subconscious, way. However, when he got close enough I saw he had a full beard. I’ve seen him several other times and each time, he looks, and moves, like a woman to me. Asked their perceptions, others have the same reaction: he looks like a woman until you are looking directly in his face. Very mysterious.

20

Why not?