Blue-Eyed Girl
I subscribe to a magazine from the good people at Advance. They make publications to anyone in the medical field or allied professions. It's free, but you do have to update your contact information once a year.
Right now the magazines go to my parents' house, which is my permanent address. Since it was time to renew anyway, I figured that I might as well have them start sending things to Mike's address since I'll be moving there in a month or two anyway.
I went to the website and clicked on the option to update my information. I quickly went through and changed my address, city, and ZIP code. Then at the bottom of the page was a field I hadn't noticed before.
"Eye Color"
Eye color? What the hell do they need to know that for? Below the blank was a disclaimer in small print.
"For auditing purposes only"
Oh, well, if it's for auditing purposes that totally puts my mind at ease.
There was also a field asking for my professional designation, but I left that blank because I had no idea what that meant. I submitted the form.
No go. It came back with an error message telling me that they wanted that information. Other items that I'd left blank - middle name, for instance, and phone number - were fine. But they really, really wanted to know what color my eyes were.
It makes me wonder what possible use they'd have for that information. Are they sorting our information by eye color? If so, will the brown-eyed auditor get a slew of accounts to look at, while the auditor in charge of the hazel section gets off easy? If they wanted to organize us, couldn't they do it another way? Like, alphabetically? Or by state?
What if the guy dealing with our data just has a lackluster fantasy life? What if he wants to know eye color so he can more adequately fantasize about the women whose data he's entering?
"...her fingertips caressed the keyboard and her bright green eyes became wistful as she longed for the touch of a man...a real man, a man who knows his way around a computer terminal..."
Eww.
But I really like getting that magazine, and it is free. So I guess if they really want to know that they have a blue-eyed subscriber with "MS, CCC-SLP" after her name, they can go ahead and have that knowledge.
I just hope that next time they don't ask for my blood type and first-grade report cards. Sheesh.
posted by Danulai @ 7:29 PM
4 Comments:
ooh, so if they asked for your annual household income that would be alright. Or how about your average educational level. I've been a market researcher for years and I'm sick of the demographics. Asking for eye color is a gross way of asking for race. If you have blue eyes you are caucasion and if you have green or hazel eyes you are of Eastern European decent. But somehow asking what your annual household income is acceptable.
The thing that the demographics leave me with is that this is a new way to discriminate. It is no longer whether you are black or white, but did you graduate from high school? college? how much money do you make? are you white or blue collar?
When do we all just deserve to live in a respectful world?
that is totally bizarre! maybe writing to them and asking what that's all about? i mean, eye colour for auditing? and worse, why they so need the information that their form won't let you go on without it.
weird!
I saw one like that as a 'security verifier' for an online account I set up a long time ago. I typed in red, just to confuse them. To this day, if I forget my password, in addition to the name of my first pet and email address, they ask for my eye color. I wonder if anyone's ever seen that little bit of data and wondered.
Wow.. now that's just... strange.
I like Daves idea. Instead of red, next time try 'ocean blue with flecks of gold and a dark azure outline thats sometimes turns greenish teal when Im angry, or, you know, in the mood'
See how they like THAT.
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