research-article

Gender Recognition or Gender Reductionism?: The Social Implications of Embedded Gender Recognition Systems

Authors:

Morgan Klaus Scheuerman,

Stacy M. BranhamAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 8, Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173582

Published: 19 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Automatic Gender Recognition (AGR) refers to various computational methods that aim to identify an individual's gender by extracting and analyzing features from images, video, and/or audio. Applications of AGR are increasingly being explored in domains such as security, marketing, and social robotics. However, little is known about stakeholders' perceptions and attitudes towards AGR and how this technology might disproportionately affect vulnerable communities. To begin to address these gaps, we interviewed 13 transgender individuals, including three transgender technology designers, about their perceptions and attitudes towards AGR. We found that transgender individuals have overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards AGR and fundamentally question whether it can accurately recognize such a subjective aspect of their identity. They raised concerns about privacy and potential harms that can result from being incorrectly gendered, or misgendered, by technology. We present a series of recommendations on how to accommodate gender diversity when designing new digital systems.

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Index Terms

Gender Recognition or Gender Reductionism?: The Social Implications of Embedded Gender Recognition Systems
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
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Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Published: 19 April 2018

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3701186
Kim HYang S(2024)Mother’s Experiences of their Transgender Children’s Coming OutKorean Journal of Human Ecology10.5934/kjhe.2024.33.2.17133:2(171-185)Online publication date: 30-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.5934/kjhe.2024.33.2.171
Haider AAbu Tair SObeidat MSaed HSahari Y(2024)Shaping the visually impaired perception of gender through Netflix audio description of movies and seriesLebende Sprachen10.1515/les-2023-003469:2(317-345)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1515/les-2023-0034
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