Pink and blue icons

I know I’ve only recently joined so maybe this has been discussed before but why do we have gender icons?

It puzzled me at the time and I read this today on another site and it made me decide to ask in here.

“Many female writers have adopted male nom de plumes, or otherwise gender-ambiguous pseudonyms, for a number of reasons: to publish without prejudice in male-dominated circles; to experiment with the freedom of anonymity; or to encourage male readership.”

we all know about P.D. James, J.K. Rowling yada yada yada so why do we so blatantly publicise our gender in here?

I’d like to be read as an author, not a male or female author and the stereotypical pink or blue tags (I do see the odd natty yellow one) just pigeon hole us immediately.

is there some deep dark reason that I didn’t get the memo about when I joined?

It's a carryover from the base code and the other site that we seem to be stuck with. Not sure if there is a plan to deal with it

Quote by Ceebees

I know I’ve only recently joined so maybe this has been discussed before but why do we have gender icons?

It puzzled me at the time and I read this today on another site and it made me decide to ask in here.

“Many female writers have adopted male nom de plumes, or otherwise gender-ambiguous pseudonyms, for a number of reasons: to publish without prejudice in male-dominated circles; to experiment with the freedom of anonymity; or to encourage male readership.”

we all know about P.D. James, J.K. Rowling yada yada yada so why do we so blatantly publicise our gender in here?

I’d like to be read as an author, not a male or female author and the stereotypical pink or blue tags (I do see the odd natty yellow one) just pigeon hole us immediately.

is there some deep dark reason that I didn’t get the memo about when I joined?

Great point. I’ve not thought about it like you have so eloquently expressed here. I suppose there are possibly reasons of curiosity, perspective, and insight for wanting to know an author’s sex or gender in terms of doing a deep dive on better understanding what they have written, but do we need that labeling here? Probably not. Again, great point.

Quote by Mendalla

It's a carryover from the base code and the other site that we seem to be stuck with. Not sure if there is a plan to deal with it

Who would know if there is a plan to deal with it?

I understand the mothership symbios has links to more adult orientated sites but Audible doesn’t look exactly the same as Amazon prime so why should a story site open to all including minors contain elements of a swingers site?

It just seems wrong. But I’m new here so pardon me if I’m stepping on toes.

Quote by Ceebees
Who would know if there is a plan to deal with it?

Molly, Sherzahd (hope I got it right), and MagnificentRascal are the admins for this site and work with Symbios on it.

My fingers are crossed that this gets addressed when the design gets updated since Stories Space doesn't link to other sites that could argue needing everyone to be compartmentalized into an arbitrary set of genders. Same with the account registration. Ideally for Stories Space, choosing gender would be irrelevant and eventually not a necessity to sign up. Might be tricky from a coding perspective, but I'm choosing to hold onto hope lol.

Quote by Violet_the_Verbose
Ideally for Stories Space, choosing gender would be irrelevant and eventually not a necessity to sign up.

Agreed. Many other forums do not require it and some do not even have it. Xenforo, the software I use to run Wondercafe2 does not have a Gender field out of box anymore and if you want one, you have to add it as a custom field. And we have ours as "Male/Female/Fluid-Non-Binary" with no flags or colours tied to it.

Quote by Ceebees

Quote by Mendalla

It's a carryover from the base code and the other site that we seem to be stuck with. Not sure if there is a plan to deal with it

Who would know if there is a plan to deal with it?

I understand the mothership symbios has links to more adult orientated sites but Audible doesn’t look exactly the same as Amazon prime so why should a story site open to all including minors contain elements of a swingers site?

It just seems wrong. But I’m new here so pardon me if I’m stepping on toes.

SS has always struggled to break free from the influences of another site. I wonder if it would be worth raising a ticket on the gender issue? At least you should get a response from someone at Symbios. 🤔

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Quote by Ceebees

Quote by Mendalla

It's a carryover from the base code and the other site that we seem to be stuck with. Not sure if there is a plan to deal with it

Who would know if there is a plan to deal with it?

I understand the mothership symbios has links to more adult orientated sites but Audible doesn’t look exactly the same as Amazon prime so why should a story site open to all including minors contain elements of a swingers site?

It just seems wrong. But I’m new here so pardon me if I’m stepping on toes.

SS has always struggled to break free from the influences of another site. I wonder if it would be worth raising a ticket on the gender issue? At least you should get a response from someone at Symbios. 🤔

Actually, there is big discussion of sex and gender and the difference in a thread on changing how profiles work over there so might be a good time to raise it here.

Well I asked if there was any way to get rid of the rather classy 1950s pink and blue options and they said..

“I can see your point, so I've updated your "gender" to "non-binary"which makes your profile icon yellow. I know that's not ideal, and may not be in line with the way you wish to express yourself, so please feel free to change it back, or make it something more acceptable to you.

In the meantime I can confirm this has been raised with the site management to see if they can offer a better option in a future site release.“

which doesn’t address the main point that gender icons and sexual identification are irrelevant on a story writing site.

Anyway, back to trying to finish a story 🤪

Well, it was worth a try, Jay. I agree gender is irrelevant here. let's just enjoy the minds of each and every one of us, regardless.