I thought about adding a 3rd option but don't want to start a controversial post/poll.

EDIT: Added it on public demand.

Seems like it's too late for that.

You should just add another option and ignore the haters.

(edit: thanks)

Not sure if it would be a big deal. Some things are bug deals if treated as one. Transgender has been a long existing thing, the awareness of our particular civilization might not be high.

>Transgender has been a long existing thing, the awareness of our particular civilization might not be high.

Now I'm curious about the fraction of "other"

You already did (start a controversy). If you can add "other", I suggest you do so. It will reduce some of the fallout.

ok i added the "other" choice without trying to come up with a cute/smart description.

The problem with other is that people are clicking it for fun.

I quite doubt there are 15 other to 42 female (to 735 male).

But, um, why do you assume people are clicking "other" for fun and not clicking "female" or "male" for fun? Do you have data about people's reasons for clicking? Is there some data on HN's readers' gender distribution with which you can disprove - oh wait, that's what this poll was intended to provide...

it happens: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18394621

the last 2 polls also had only 2 options. so for comparisons sake it will be better to leave it at that, i think.

The wording hints more at a biological sex binary.

How so?

Other than http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ and specific gender/sex studies, I haven't seen studies that make a distinction between gender and sex. Of course, if you want to make the distinction about biological sex, then you have to define which of the biological criteria and categories you're using, and even then you need more than two categories (http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/marriage.html).

"male/female" sounds like more of a biological taxonomy than "man/woman", to me.

However, man/woman suggests biological/legal adult. Previous polls have established that there are legal minors using the site as well.

This is getting ridicoulus

I honestly do not see why my observation should be viewed as any more ridiculous than yours.

When someone asks if you are male or female, 99% will interpret it as "do you have a penis or a vagina?", not "do you identify as a man or a woman?", nor any other

You seem to suggest that my interpretation is arbitrary, while I think it is the most colloquial. Do you honestly think that a 15 year old girl/boy would see this thread and think "well I am neither of those"? Or are you just deconstructing a very straightforward question by its edge cases to prove some kind of point that I'm missing?

I think my point is more along the lines of "no matter how you ask it, someone is bound to be unhappy, feel discriminated against, etc". I know at age 17 I was not comfortable saying "I am a woman." That meant something to me that I felt I had not yet attained. I suspect minors mostly feel left out as is, just like transexuals feel left out in a thousand subtle ways by all kinds of linguistic implications that there is only male or female.

Sorry it's such a big deal to you.

Fine then. I thought you were willfully splitting hairs, but that's not the case.

"Identities"? Go fuck yourself. You don't "identify as" male or female. You ARE male or female, because you have a cock or a vag. Simple as that. Why do liberals like shit like this?

Ok, obviously a troll, but just leaving this here in case someone sincerely holds this opinion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex

I wish it were that simple. It would save a lot of people a lot of misery. Unfortunately we organisms are unimaginably complex, and it turns out that, although the vast majority of the time it comes down male/female, things do land on a spectrum in terms of biological sex.

(heterosexual male upper-middle class white American here...)

So a combat veteran born with a penis, but who lost it in combat is no longer male, simply because he no longer has a cock?