Is your profession or passion stereotypical of your birth sex or target sex?

[Nero]

Hey guys and dolls.

What is your profession or main passion and is it stereotypical of your birth sex or target sex (true gender)? In other words what sex is your profession (or primary passion if it is not what you do for a living) traditionally associated with?
If it is normally associated with your birth sex, has that ever bothered you? Have you felt almost guilty for it? For doing something considered feminine or female (or masculine or male for the ladies)? Do you think you might not be doing it or interested in it if you had been born your target sex?

I know we often seem to be held to higher standards of masculinity and femininity than cisfolk, so was wondering how this plays out with what we do.

[spacial]

I work in building. Women in building are sufficiently rare that, when one is onsite, everyone wants a look at her ass.

I've worked in predominently women's professions. I find that women expect me to take a male role and get quite bitchy when I can't be a sort of alpha type male.

Most women I've spoken to say they don't really like working in predominently female environments simply because some women are so very bitchy. 

[Wendy1974]

I am in the Canadian Army as what the US Army would call a armored cav trooper. I joined precisely because it was a mans job. I thought it would cure me, it didn't. I volunteered for combat tours three times thinking that would surely cure me or kill me, it didn't. If  my birth sex was female I never would have joined the army, I wanted to be artist when I was a kid just like my Dad was. Now I've been a soldier for 11 years and I still want to be a artist when I grow up

[rejennyrated]

I started as a physicist/engineer - not exactly a typical female job, but at the time (late 1970's) it came with a better salary and better employment prospects as a graduate.

I did that for only a couple of years.

By the time I had transitioned I was working in Television, admittedly in a techncial role, but in my job there were almost as many men as women, so i would say it was gender neutral.

Finally I moved through archive work into writing, which whilst open to both sexes, does seem to have more women than men these days, and indeed on our MA course the men were heavily outnumbered.

So I've done all three - Male Female and neutral.

[sneakersjay]

Traditionally my profession is predominantly male; when I got into it it was roughly 50:50 (20 yrs ago).  Now it's more like 90% F and 10% M of those entering the profession.


Jay

[Sinnyo]

Games design is largely male-oriented; women tend to dominate production and marketing more than development. With that having been said, I've discovered it's actually quite a transgender-slanted industry; there are a few of us about in there, and I've often discussed the theory it's simply because (trans women in particular) share a passion for empathy, creating worlds and escapism. In that regard, I'm quite stereotypical!

I specialise in writing though, and have noted that all bar one of the books I have on writing for games are authored by women. I take some pride and odd reassurance in that fact.

[cynthialee]

I am a housewife. When I was a kid all I wanted was the imposible. I wanted to be a housewife. I of course would say house husband and insist I was going to find a woman who would propose to me....(yeah denial is fun isn't it?)
I did work as a chef and a drug dealer (both gender nuetral jobs) for many years back in the male incarnation but those days are long gone.

[FairyGirl]

I'm a professional artist, the people I know and work with personally seem to be perhaps more females than males, but it's not by much. All my immediate work partners are females. I also consider myself a dollmaker since I create CGI dolls. Most people think of dollmaking as a female profession but again I'm not sure it's a much greater percentage, really. 

[Shang]

I'm going to teach.  Which was originally female dominated, but I've only had male history teachers in school so I guess I'm going into a male-dominated position which I'm fine with. 

I plan on going into paleontology later on in my life, and I think that's a 50/50 split.  I have got to be a paleontologist or cryptozoologist at some point in my life.

I also want to be a housewife/husband, I just need to find that special someone to propose (gender and sex don't matter XD).

[Teknoir]

I've always had male dominated interests and work. Not deliberate, just happened that way.

If I had a female interest, I'd pursue it anyway... just not in front of my work mates .

I have an extremely male dominated profession. It's great fun!

[Muffin]

I'm not sure, I guess originally I viewed any form of driving to be male oriented.. I guess perhaps bigger vehicles it makes more sense. But the more I look while I'm out on the streets the more I notice smaller cars for smaller parcels even driving for pathology and hospitals, patient transfer etc is more female oriented. So I guess across the whole scope of driving it could be since as gender neutral *shrugs*.
Though I once worked for a car company and both the drivers that were already there were female.
I haven't worked for over a year now and it's proving to be hard to find something for me. Hopefully I find a driving position that is with a smaller car and smaller packages! ^____^
Post-op I will no doubt consider something completely different.

[Byren]

Not at all.

I'm currently a bookseller, and we're a pretty even divide. Funnily enough there ARE a lot of gay folks, though!

I have two dream careers...to be a writer and a film director. Writing is typically neutral, but film-making is pretty male-dominated...I think it's something like a 80/20 ratio or so.  However, the stories I create focus almost entirely on male characters. My protagonists are always male (not intentionally...that's just how the story forms in my head) and the female characters are usually just in the background. I've never been able to write a convincing female...if I try, they always turn out to be masculine type like Trinity from the Matrix or the Bride from Kill Bill. *shrug*

~Byren

[Cindy]

I'm a scientist and my research team are all females. I never seem to find suitable males at interview, not sure why. My hobbies are those of 'traditional' females. Dress making/design and cooking, but both are very 'male' orientated at the professional level. Because of my stature I found it very difficult to compete against males in sport, but I enjoy competitive female sport. I'm thinking of playing netball next season and just not letting on about the biology stuff  .

But I also think that jobs are becoming far more gender neutral.  We have male midwives, female firefighters, etc. I have also noticed that the sanitary disposable unit collecting/changing person, in a private company, contracted in my hospital is male. That I do find a bit weird. But then again the cleaner who does the male loo's is female.

However I did find it interesting that the recent announcement from the Vatican that being a female priest in the RC church is equivalent to being a pedophile priest. At least in the mind of god, according to the pope.

In reply Nero, I wonder what professions should be gender restricted? I don't mean that as a trivial question. But where do we draw lines? Interesting posts generate interesting thoughts.


Cindy

[lightvi]

I think actress to actors is about 50/50 but I've never seen any statistics

I don't think any profession should be gender restricted, if you can do it who cares of you have "the goods" or not!

Kind of on the same note, I think sports are really sexist. Such as "Mens" Football and "Womens" Softball. That's sooo stupid in my mind!

[Byren]

I don't think any profession should be gender restricted, if you can do it who cares of you have "the goods" or not!

In general I agree, but I think there are a handful of professions that should be gender-specific, or at least have a member of each gender on hand. For example, to my knowledge it's common practice during vaginal exams to have a second person, female, present. I see this as a positive thing, as in the case of a male doctor, it could alleviate the woman's fears of...er...mistreatment. Same goes for therapists treating rape/abuse victims.

[MillieB]

Hmm, Addiction Therapist/Counsellor is pretty gender neutral although there are more women than men. I have also found that a lot (but not all) of the guys tend to have a more analytical/Freudian approach whereas women tend towards the more empathic methods. I agree that some types of therapy should be gender specific and I had a local organisation specifically wanting me to work with male victims of rape/abuse, I think that may be out of the question now though.

[cynthialee]

I think actress to actors is about 50/50 but I've never seen any statistics

I don't think any profession should be gender restricted, if you can do it who cares of you have "the goods" or not!

Kind of on the same note, I think sports are really sexist. Such as "Mens" Football and "Womens" Softball. That's sooo stupid in my mind!

Wetnurse is pretty much a gender exclusive job.

[lightvi]

Wetnurse is pretty much a gender exclusive job.

Erm well.. I guess you're right about that one lol! Though it's not impossible for men to breast feed

[Muffin]

Hmm, Addiction Therapist/Counsellor is pretty gender neutral although there are more women than men. I have also found that a lot (but not all) of the guys tend to have a more analytical/Freudian approach whereas women tend towards the more empathic methods. I agree that some types of therapy should be gender specific and I had a local organisation specifically wanting me to work with male victims of rape/abuse, I think that may be out of the question now though.

wow...so agree. I just voluntarily left a TG website this week because someone bullied and harassed me for having the same opinion. She was nasty.. I'm glad I left and came back here! ^_______________^

[windowlicker]

I'm a translator - fairly gender-neutral.