Activity #6- Gender Aptitude Test

Kate Bornstein is the author of My Gender Workbook, and the creator of Kate Bornstein’s Gender Aptitude Test. In the readings, Kate understands gender as, the categorization of people or the separation of people. These categories can consist of appearance, mannerisms, biology, psychology, hormones, roles, and genitals. When compared to the word sex, gender has several aspects while sex is just one straightforward word. Kate lists that there is a gender assignment, gender role, gender identity, and gender attribution for everyone.
I was not surprised by my test results for a couple of reasons. Kate’s book and aptitude test were created to inform people that gender is much more than sex. She wants you to know that just because you are a boy or a girl it does not mean that you have one gender. Some of the questions that she asked were to figure out how curious you were about same-sex relationships and how comfortable you were with your sexuality. I feel very good about my sexuality and yet I was only considered a “gender novice” according to her test. She also asked a lot of repetitive questions about how many genders you think there are and what gender means to you. The test made me feel like I am not very knowledgeable on the subject of gender.
I think that someone would design a gender aptitude test like this one because they want you to be aware of the fact that just because someone is a certain sex, it does not mean they are a certain gender. I think that we should all be a little more aware of that. I think that we can learn that gender is an ongoing discovery and no one knows everything about gender yet. We can also learn that gender should not be taken lightly and you should explore your own gender. Kate talks about the gender/identity/power system in her book. She is amazed that our culture pushes us to become a perfect gender. She states that the further away we are from the top of the pyramid or, the perfect gender, the less real we are in terms of exclusively male or female. I think that this test does hide what your actual sex is and I think that some people might be tempted to put different answers based on what you want the outcome of the test to be. However, I did find the test and the readings very interesting.