Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

A friend called one of our co-workers "chicky-poo" 30+ years ago in Anchorage.

I'd never heard it before, and don't think I have since. Is it a common expression somewhere?

\-\/\/

Howard, I don't think it's a common expression, and these days I doubt it can be used as a term for anyone else. As a term for yourself, however...

Well, maybe not *myself* actually ... but I take your point.

(A little Googling suggests it may be more common in the UK).

I find the twelve-gender system entirely too restrictive.

Good point, Seth. The situation could be quickly eased, albeit not solved, if Pownce let us choose several of the options, much as the US Census now lets us check off multiple races. For example, I'd say that I'm 43% gentleman, 24% gal, 8% dude, 2% chicky-poo, and (as one look at me will confirm) all man.

I'm also 12% innumerate.

Why does it have a "gender" category / facet at all? That they have to / want to know a person's gender is part of why they have the options the way they are.

I recently helped create something fun called The Memoirizer that, in order to work properly, had to account for each user's gender. The user gets three gender optons: male / female / other - but take a look and see how that translates to different results. Achieving particular resutls are significantly what drove the choice of options.

"human" might be nice.