Thursday, July 02, 2009

Filling out Forms

I hate most forms. I hate them because they try to club you into categories and file you away. I hate them because they usually ask for "Father's/Husband's Name" and rarely for the name of your wife or mother -would it hurt to write "parent" and "spouse", if they do need to know? I hate that it's usually mandatory to fill out surnames, and sometimes middle names as well. (My telecom service provider used the Guy's first name to give me a middle initial, even though I don't use his last name. A friend described how he started using a last name, even though he didn't have one, because it needs to be filled in on forms.)

I hate that they ask you for your religion. And that "atheist" is not an option.

They seem so inhuman, these forms. So unreasonable. So unable to grasp that people don't come in little colour-coded boxes.

But I hadn't really thought about what a transgender person faces. I read this and shuddered.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can understand why they want you to fill in your full name but I can't understand why they want to know what religion (if any) you follow...

Pallavi Sharma said...

I always, always think about the gender question when I fill forms. I simply hate it when they as for the husband's or father's name. Compared to that I can't even imagine how restricted transgender people must be feeling when going through these horrors every time.

Unmana said...

Bones: The only reason I can think of is to compile statistics - but that reason doesn't seem strong enough to me - at least it shouldn't be a mandatory field.

Pallu: I know!

dipali said...

The trans gender experience was so painful to read.
In general, though, I've had issues with work places (long ago) asking for caste/religion information on their forms, and have made it a point to say that I will not fill these on principle. They still wanted me to work for them, so they agreed, but it seemed like an unnecessary fight. It only makes sense for jobs where the socially disadvantaged are given compensatory opportunities.

Sumedha said...

I hate, hate, HATE that they ask for Father's/Husband's name!!! I hate it so much!! And the problem is, I can't even just write my mom's name because they won't know what to do with it, and how to deal with it, so my work will just get fucked up!

Unmana said...

Dipali: Indeed. At the very least, all this information should be optional, don't you think?

Sumedha: Yeah, I hope things change soon.