It is polite to address people with a salutation. Sir, Ma’am, Miss, and the like. That is, unless you get it wrong, whether deliberately as an act of rudeness or hostility, or out of ignorance. Ignorance can be corrected through education, but rudeness cannot.
I am ordering desk copies of texts from academic publishers, and in most cases the forms cannot be completed without selecting from the ‘salutations’ pull down menu which contains only gendered options. Now I am old enough to remember the fight to include Ms in that menu. The open hostility to the idea that it was a woman’s right not to disclose her marital status when functioning in public environments, and that was a valuable and hard-fought and won battle.
The next one is Mx, the gender neutral salutation. I’m ordering books. You don’t need to know my gender, or what’s in my pants. It has no bearing on what I am ordering, and should have no bearing on your data analysis. If you want data then, ask people to self-identify for surveys.
It is honestly some of why I want to get the doctorate. To facilitate the salutation ordeal.
“No, it’s Dr…”