I’m filling out forms today. Lots and lots of forms. Some I’m filling out because I just moved. Some I’m filling out because in the run-up to the move, I kept putting off non-move-related tasks such as filling out forms.
The form of the moment is a fingerprinting application. They take this lawyering thing seriously, I suppose, seriously enough to make you have fingerprints on file when you take the bar exam. As I understand it, they take another set of prints when you show up, so that you can’t (easily) have someone else sit for the exam for you.
In any event, box 13 on this form is “Gender (select one).” The mutually-exclusive options are “Male,” “Female,” and “Both.” The form is dry and humorless in almost every other way, so that it’s striking to come across what reads like a sly bit of gender play. I find this amusing, in part because it’s not clear just how sophisticated the fingerprinting company is trying to be about its gender theory.