What do you think of "brain gender" quizzes and gender stereotypes?

They're mostly harmless fun, but they rely more on gender stereotypes than the children's toy industry does.

I'm pretty secure in my identity, but I can see how getting the wrong results might distress someone that's uneasy about their feminine/masculine traits.

 

Absolutely flawless. Backed by scientific theories and countless amounts of research. The ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to gender, especially in regards to assigning the appropriate label to an individual. There is not a single area to allow imperfection or flaws to fester, because they are constructed by people -- and as we all know, or should know, people are the best God damn thing to ever come into existence.

 

I think they should be re-named 'how stereotypically male/female do you act?' Plus we need to encourage people to be themselves, within reason.

I'm a trans guy and I consider myself to be pretty middle of the road, in terms of gender expression/behaviour. These tests/quizzes obviously don't paint a full picture. I also agree with what you say about online IQ tests.

I've done some dumb things for 'man points.' Sometimes I felt that I had to be more of a man than my cis male peers. Although almost everyone thought I was very outgoing... I was an insecure wreck in my late teens. It wasn't even until last year that I decided it's okay to cry and that it doesn't invalidate my gender identity! I could go on.

 

Whenever I've taken these tests in the past, I always get the result that my brain is somewhere between 75-90% male. I don't mind this in the slightest, but what irks me is that I know this result is based on the stereotypes. I preferred toy cars over dolls as a child, because they were more fun. I played video games as a teenager instead of doing make-overs, because I found them more engaging. I watch horror and action films but not romantic comedies because they are less likely to be an irritating pile of horse shit more to my personal taste. I'm good with spatial reasoning and map reading but not so good with the emotional tests.

They're just bloody annoying quite frankly. The silly ones that rely on stereotypes are merely eye-rollers because they're clearly intended for fun, but the ones that really get on my nerves are the pseudo-scientific ones that claim to have some merit because some qualified idiots decided to waste their PhDs coming up with various factors based solely on the evidence that there is statistically a SLIGHT correlation between a behaviour and a gender.

They make TV science programs based on this crap, and I've never seen a single one that acknowledged LGBT or even mentioned transgenderism. They're designed to be a bite-size taste of what the mainstream wants, a mini battles of the sexes that all comes down to the same genius conclusion that men are from Mars and women are from Venus that the audience can nod and laugh irreverently about.

 

this

 

Yea. Harmless fun, if you can call it fun.... I haven't taken any because I don't really care what a game thinks the gender of my mind is. I don't even think of my mind as having a gender! I agree with whoever said it should be "how stereotypically male it female do you act."

 

They're trying to push people through pre-defined goalposts. I don't really agree with defining or labelling people's personalities into groups, everyone is complex and unique. Whether you fit a stereotype or socially constructed 'ideal' or not is irrelevant, you should simply be known by the whole individual you are.

 

It's like any other quiz, all just fun and games. Don't take it too seriously, it can't read your brain. You're asked a series of questions and not all of those questions add up to who you really are because sometimes the selections don't fit you as a person. They then calculate the answers you've clicked, add the numbers and put you in a category.. and that's out of what.. 8 answers? I say just have fun with it but at the end of the day, decide for yourself. You know you best.

 

They're pretty accurate for me.


But they are not to be taken seriously, and should not be taken by questioning or easily offended trans people.

 

"female/male/x brained" isn't based on good neuroscience. https://neurobollocks.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/the-worst-neurobollocks-infographics-on-the-web/

also read Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. Regardless of how "fun" these gender essentialistic quizzes may be, they are harmful as the perpetuate bad science and bad stereotypes about gender roles, in addition to promoting the idea that gender roles are biological engrained (which is laughable biological determinism) which give you a basis to discriminate against people of genders based on supposed neurological basis.

 

Well, anything's harmful once it's taken seriously. If you look at it and say, "this is a test based on gender stereotypes and outdated roles and obviously it isn't something to formulate any strong opinions around", then it's just a silly test, comparable to any other silly internet test, from "which vegetable are you?" to "which cliche tattoo should you get?". Nobody is going to take either of those internet quizzes and start personally identifying with a vegetable, or go out and get one of 8 substandard over-done tats because a quiz told them to. Likewise, I find it unlikely that anyone is going to take a gender quiz and mistake it for good neuroscience.

If anyone does happen to mistake a brain-gender test for something based in any level of science, then I think they have other underlying issues going on, or they're highly impressionable. And if anyone was going to use the "gender differences" outlined in those tests as a discrimination factor against people of other genders, then they're probably douchebags to begin with.

 

Kinda interesting, but yes, very stereotypical. Just because, I am a transgirl, doesn't I like men. I am a lesbian and proud.

 

Most gender quizzes I have seen do not ask of sexuality.

 

I'm pretty androgynous; I could be classified as a masculine female or a feminine male. However, I go as male, so often when I take these type of quizzes, they call me androgyne and it frustrates me.

 

That's impossible. Seriously. Let Toys Be Toys | Let Toys Be Toys – For Girls and Boys

 

Well all the ones Ive taken say my brain gender is predominantly or wholly female so I'm not sure whether they are any good or there is something about myself I reasly need to reconsider.

Happy days

 

Harmless fun, I guess. Shitty internet quizzes shouldn't be taken too seriously.
They're based on gender stereotypes, but in the end, you really shouldn't "identify" as a gender because of stereotypes anyways. I normally test male or neutral on these kinds of things.

---------- Post added 22nd Feb 2015 at 07:29 PM ----------

Are you saying that gender roles are not intrinsic to the brain(I'd agree with you there) or are you saying that gender identity is not intrinsic to the brain ( I would disagree with you there)? Just asking for clarification.

 

I take them lightly in terms of being controversial. I'm not offended. We took one within the recent past on here and people posted their scores. I think I got about 74 masculine / 39 feminine / 60 androgynous. Ok, I see myself as mostly masculine. Fine. I am in touch with some traits considered as being feminine - articulate, good listener, etc. BFD. I'm cool with that. The guy who scores under 25 would then, by comparison, be scary. Androgynous means traits common to both genders or sort of gender neutral, so that's ok, too.

They couldn't construct these tests if they didn't have some baselines in the way of stereotypes. I'm sure the stereotypes are somehow scientifically or statistically observed. That's why I'm not as bothered by them as some other folks are. Whenever you see a scholarly psychological publication that arrives at a conclusion, there is always a bunch of statistical testing to back it up. There could be some flaws in it. They're never perfect. But it's certainly not about shooting from the hip.

The same thing also applies to career testing. They do a lot of analysis of the types of people either in fields or who want to go into fields. That also involves some stereotyping. If a person scores super high in one field and super low in another, it's because they might really belong in one field and don't at all fit in another.

 

This.