Mistaken Identity Anyone?

[Aspie_Gamer]

I guess its because I'd rather keep my public and private lives separate, but for whatever reason here lately, people have somehow been mistaking me for a girl even though I'm a guy in real life. Maybe its because I have a girly avatar? (that's of my OC Susan Graham from Life of an Aspie, not a caricature of real life me) I mean don't get me wrong, it would be an illuminating experience if I woke up as a woman for a day, but last I checked, I have male reproductive organs, not female ones. Anybody here ever had their gender or race called into question because of the anonymity of the internet?

EDIT: And to be clear on this for a minute, I'm not annoyed per se by all the people who think I'm a girl because of my avatar and because I write and draw a shoujo-ish comic. I know to take it all in stride as they say, but still...it just...I guess perplexes me a bit that people automatically think I'm a girl because of I guess how I present myself here on Tapastic. Hahaha

[NickRowler]

All the time, online and in reallife. And it is not a recent thing either, I was also questioned a lot in elementary school.

But then again, I sort of got use to it. I guess I have taken on both a male and female persona depending on what site I am using. Avatars and usernames can sway people to think you are a certain way. Heck, look at the TV show Catfish.

[punkarsenic]

yeah ill be honest i assumed loaa was based on your life and that you were a girl. this is a big surprise, even? but hey, shit happens

i get mistaken for a guy a lot, bc im pretty butch, but it reaches a point where its just funny

[60Six]

but last I checked, I have male reproductive organs, not female ones.

Not at all chewing you out here, but just wanna say that doesn't mean anything! ; ) I know tons of guys with female reproductive organs and a few women with male reproductive organs.

As for my own identity, I get about an equal mix of being called a guy and a girl. I honestly prefer the anonymity of my online identity so I don't correct either one and kind of let it remain a mystery. I'm not offended either way since I haven't publicly clarified.

[VikiKuli]

I guess through text it is a little difficult to distinguish whether one is a 'guy' or a 'girl.' I think that since we generally link the voice we see in the text to the icon we see, we generally assume the icon to be a representative of the person speaking, even when your icon represents a character (as in your case).

[serverpanda]

I've only recently started making it known online that I'm female, and only really since I started doing webcomics. Before that I used to intentionally give people the impression that I was a guy just so straight guys would cease flirting with me online. They used to make unwanted advances at me all the time and it made me feel very uncomfortable. They wanted my address or phone number or to buy me things, and it made me feel like they were probably not the best sort of people if they wanted to show up at my house as a stranger. So I used to portray myself as a guy to stop that.

Either way, I'm ok with people thinking of me as either gender. It doesn't change who I am as a person, and at the core of things as long as there's no flirting with me then it doesn't impact our discussion! XD

[nessiefynn]

Honestly, I assumed you were female as well until just now! Sorry! I think it's because of your avatar, as well as your stated similarities to Susan. XD

I used to get mistaken for a guy pretty often online, and I'm not sure why either! Maybe it was because I was on a majority male websites, or because I had male characters as my profile pictures. It never bothered me though, it's kinda fun for me when people don't know quite who I was!

[Kura]

It happens to me a lot as well. I don't generally bother people about it or correct them though, when it comes to the internet it's just not a huge deal to me I guess?

[keii4ii]

Some people told me that they thought of me as a genderless wolf person, and I'm 100% okay with that.

[indagold]

People think i'm a dude all the time online, even when I was using my real name. I have a problem too of mistaking people's genders depending on their icons or art and that most sites don't have an option to show gender anymore.

[lunaartemisasama]

Not here, but I used to have an account in DA with a guy as an avatar (and a genderless name) so people thought I was a guy, I never did try to clear the misunderstanding because I thought it was interesting lol.

[69Michi]

It's a common thing for people to mistake your gender online honestly. I think it's just depend on what sort of environment you are in. Like on DA or artist-wise in general, it's always safe to assume the person you are talking to is a female unless proven otherwise. Only when I came to this forum and learned more about the comic world that I realized there is quite a lot of male artists here. Vice versa when I play MMORPG or gaming in general, people often mistake me as a male and I have no problem with it. I could careless what people use to call me, really.

[shazzbaa]

it's REALLY common for people to kind of subconsciously see your avatar as "you," even if they don't really think about it, and even if they know the avatar isn't a picture of you.

There's a reason all my public avatars are smiling -- one of my first internet communities (Yerf) there was a lady with a picture of one of her characters looking snooty as her avatar. Now, I knew the character wasn't her, but I suddenly realised I had been reading everything she said with that snooty sort of expression without even realising it.

I used to use a fursona as my avatar BACK IN THE DAY, and I got mistaken for a guy a lot just because "Shazzbaa" isn't a, uh, obviously gendered name and it's hard to tell what gender a dragon is usually.

[TheHerald]

I do not know if it is just from being on the internet for a long time, but I just got to the point of assuming that everyone is a dude and/or under 18. Especially nowadays that a lot of people (especially kids) now have access to the internet. One time I even saw a 5 year old with his own ipad at a Starbucks...like what??? @___@

[UzukiCheverie]

If you advertise a burger as spicy, people are going to assume it's spicy.

Just saying, and this goes for everybody - certain characteristics can classify certain topics/people/things and you can't get offended or blame people for being incorrect about who you are IRL when you display yourself as the complete opposite online. Some people might argue that that's being "bigoted" but that's just how it is. It's a waste of time and effort to get confused/perplexed/weirded out when you advertise yourself as one thing and people assume you ARE that thing.

[alaingrey]

I met @shazzbaa and @scullpanda at a convention and both of them said "whoa you aren't a little blond boy" : D does that count? I never assumed that people would assume I'm a 10 year old with braces based on me/my art, but I guess the association sticks : 9

I also tend to assume everyone on art sites is female, just because that's the general demographic. As such, people often mistake the same for me, but I don't mind, because it makes sense to think someone's part of a majority

[sistalsartworkshop]

I get same thing, but because of my only name, Leie Sistal, most people think I am a girl, when I am not, I find this funny XD. but other wise, well I don't really care that much, some times when they insist on the girl part I tell them I am not, but most of the time I don't bother.

[dojo]

To be honest, the majority of people I know kinda pick one gender and assume everyone is of that gender unless told otherwise. On places like tumblr I noticed the majority assumption seems to be female, but then you'll go on furaffinity and everyone assumes you're male. I personally have been trying to stop doing that, myself, and have been trying not to label people as anything until I know what they want people to see them as. (IT STILL HAPPENS, THOUGH.....)

Me, I'm bigender so people picking male or female and sticking with it is 100% okay with me because chances are whichever they call me by is what I'm presenting as anyway, although I will say MOST online circles I am more comfortable with male pronouns, but there are some I prefer female. I really just depends on the environment.

[VermillionWorks]

I use Daniel's deadpan mug as my avatar, but usually my handle is 'SarahN' so I can get away with it since 'Sarah' is a pretty big dead giveaway of me being a girl, even with the guy icon. XD I honestly forget why I decided to use VermillionWorks here on the forums instead...I'd rather use SarahN....but oh well.

...but yeah, I'm a girl, to anyone who doesn't know. XP

[miesmud]

I have a comic about me, with me as the main character. And for some reason multiple people thought I was transitioning or something when I cut my hair from super long to super short. Someone even wanted to interview me about my gender? But I don't identify myself as someone with a cool gender, I'm just a grill, so these comments made me feel a bit weird.

Here on the forums I never have any idea what gender people have. But my brain links people's avatars to their gender, so I will always use they/ them to be sure that I'm not misgendering someone haha.