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Facebook offers more ways to express gender beyond 'male' and 'female'

Slartibartfast

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Facebook offers more ways to express gender beyond 'male' and 'female' - Computerworld

Facebook, in a move that acknowledges the social issues around gender identity, updated its site to give its users more ways to express their gender.

The changes make available to users a list of roughly 50 different terms they can use to identify themselves. Among them: "Trans," "Trans Female," "Trans Male," "Genderqueer," "Gender Variant" and even "Androgynous," a term used for describing combined male and female characteristics. In addition, users can choose among three pronouns to be used in referring to them: "her," "him" or "them."

Facebook has incorporated privacy controls into the term selections. If users choose one or several of these new options, they can use Facebook's settings to control with whom their new classification is shared, such as "public" or "just friends.

The choice of pronoun, however, is always public. If a person chooses "neutral" for the pronoun, then instead of Facebook saying, "Wish her a happy birthday" on someone's special day, the site will say, "Wish them a happy birthday."

The new options can be accessed from a person's "About" page, by clicking on "Custom" in the drop-down menu for gender.

To make the changes and decide which terms to add, Facebook worked with a group of LGBT advocacy organizations, with the nonprofit Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, leading the charge. Other groups involved in the effort included The Trevor Project, which provides crisis and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth (the "Q" stands for questioning), and the San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center.

In my opinion, this is pretty cool. The ostracism that a lot of these folks feel for not fitting a mold leads to all sorts of issues, such as depression. This thing that Facebook is doing which harms nobody and perhaps helps others feel more comfortable in their own skin.
 
Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

MENLO PARK, CALIF. – You don't have to be just male or female on Facebook anymore. The social media giant is adding a customizable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them.

Facebook said the changes, shared with The Associated Press before the launch on Thursday, initially cover the company's 159 million monthly users in the U.S. and are aimed at giving people more choices in how they describe themselves, such as androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid or transsexual.

"There's going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the world," said Facebook software engineer Brielle Harrison, who worked on the project and is herself undergoing gender transformation, from male to female. On Thursday, while watchdogging the software for any problems, she said she was also changing her Facebook identity from Female to TransWoman.

Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender | Fox News


How far we have strayed....
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

Did Zuckerberg fail English class? "Them" is a plural pronoun. Unless you're two people, "them" is superfluous. A better distinction is "it". A trans can be properly described as "it", since there's a disconnect between what they are and what they want to be. Neutrality wins out.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

Did Zuckerberg fail English class? "Them" is a plural pronoun. Unless you're two people, "them" is superfluous. A better distinction is "it". A trans can be properly described as "it", since there's a disconnect between what they are and what they want to be. Neutrality wins out.
Split personalities or something.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

"gender fluid"?

Sounds sticky.
 
We posted this at the same time! I asked the Mod to combine them.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

*Male
*Female
*Magical Third Gender

On a serious note, why waste time listing some fifty terms when they could just let the user fill it in?
 
We need two words to define the gender of 99.99999% of the worlds populations and we need 50 to define the remaining 0.0000001%? Why?
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

*Male
*Female
*Magical Third Gender

On a serious note, why waste time listing some fifty terms when they could just let the user fill it in?

To be inclusive, tolerant and allow everyone freedom of expression.

Then they set it on private.
 
Facebook offers more ways to express gender beyond 'male' and 'female' - Computerworld



In my opinion, this is pretty cool. The ostracism that a lot of these folks feel for not fitting a mold leads to all sorts of issues, such as depression. This thing that Facebook is doing which harms nobody and perhaps helps others feel more comfortable in their own skin.

Maybe it's time for DP to follow suit.

Edit:

I wonder what the little symbols would look like. :lol:

Re-edit:

Perhaps this would suffix for "other" --
transparent_transgender_symbol.jpg
 
Last edited:
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

Just do like the relationship status - male, female, or "it's complicated".

This way, if you know they list their gender as "it's complicated", just stay the hell away to avoid a hodgepodge of nonsense down there.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Merging dupe threads.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

To be inclusive, tolerant and allow everyone freedom of expression.

Then they set it on private.

There's more freedom to the user if they can just type in their gender term. It's really not hard.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

There's more freedom to the user if they can just type in their gender term. It's really not hard.

It probably would be better. I type in my political viewpoint label for instance.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

They could throw it back down to 2 if they just replaced it with "urinal or stall?".
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

*Male
*Female
*Magical Third Gender

On a serious note, why waste time listing some fifty terms when they could just let the user fill it in?


Because they are selling you to the highest bidder so they still need to control the "gender" field to simplify the sale.


The "If a service is free then you are the commodity" rule governs all things Facebook.
 
Facebook offers more ways to express gender beyond 'male' and 'female' - Computerworld



In my opinion, this is pretty cool. The ostracism that a lot of these folks feel for not fitting a mold leads to all sorts of issues, such as depression. This thing that Facebook is doing which harms nobody and perhaps helps others feel more comfortable in their own skin.

I think it's stupid..... You're either a man or a woman - it's that simple and not that complicated.

This is nothing more than facebook pandering to a small confused crowed of people go gain brownie points with progressives.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

Did Zuckerberg fail English class? "Them" is a plural pronoun. Unless you're two people, "them" is superfluous. A better distinction is "it". A trans can be properly described as "it", since there's a disconnect between what they are and what they want to be. Neutrality wins out.

There's no singular neutral gender pronoun. We (and by we I mean English writers everywhere) have been struggling with this futilely forever. I've opted to go with "he" and if someone doesn't like it he's free to make the effort to introduce the word of his choosing to the English language.
 
I'll say this much, If J. Edgar Hoover were alive today Facebook would be his best friend.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

1. Agender/Neutrois — These terms are used by people who don't identify with any gender at all — they tend to either feel they have no gender or a neutral gender. Some use surgery and/or hormones to make their bodies conform to this gender neutrality.

2. Androgyne/Androgynous — Androgynes have both male and female gender characteristics and identify as a separate, third gender.

3. Bigender — Someone who is bigender identifies as male and female at different times. Whereas an androgyne has a single gender blending male and female, a bigender switches between the two.

4. Cis/Cisgender — Cisgender is essentially the opposite of transgender (cis- being Latin for "on this side of" versus trans-, "on the other side"). People who identify as cisgender are males or females whose gender aligns with their birth sex.

5. Female to Male/FTM — Someone who is transitioning from female to male, either physically (transsexual) or in terms of gender identity.

6. Gender Fluid — Like bigender people, the gender-fluid feel free to express both masculine and feminine characteristics at different times.

7. Gender Nonconforming/Variant — This is a broad category for people who don't act or behave according to the societal expectation for their sex. It includes cross-dressers and tomboys as well as the transgender.

8. Gender Questioning — This category is for people who are still trying to figure out where they fit on the axes of sex and gender.

9. Genderqueer — This is an umbrella term for all nonconforming gender identities. Most of the other identities in this list fall into the genderqueer category.

10. Intersex — This term refers to a person who was born with sexual anatomy, organs, or chromosomes that aren't entirely male or female. Intersex has largely replaced the term "hermaphrodite" for humans.

11. Male to Female/MTF — Someone who is transitioning from male to female, either physically (transsexual) or in terms of gender identity.

12. Neither — You understand this one: "I don't feel like I'm fully male or fully female. 'Nuff said."

13. Non-binary — People who identify as non-binary disregard the idea of a male and female dichotomy, or even a male-to-female continuum with androgyny in the middle. For them, gender is a complex idea that might fit better on a three-dimensional chart, or a multidimensional web.

14. Other — Like "neither," this is pretty self-explanatory. It can cover everything from "I'd prefer not to specify how I don't fit in the gender dichotomy" to "My gender is none of your damn business, Facebook."

15. Pangender — Pangender is similar to androgyny, in that the person identifies as a third gender with some combination of both male and female aspects, but it's a little more fluid. It can also be used as an inclusive term to signify "all genders."

16. Trans/Transgender — Transgender is a broad category that encompasses people who feel their gender is different than the sex they were born — gender dysphoria. They may or may not choose to physically transition from their birth sex to their experienced gender.

17. Transsexual — Transsexual refers to transgender people who outwardly identify as their experienced gender rather than their birth sex. Many, but not all, transsexuals are transitioning (or have transitioned) from male to female or female to male through hormone therapy and/or gender reassignment surgery.

18. Two-spirit — This term refers to gender-variant Native Americans. In more than 150 Native American tribes, people with "two spirits" — a term coined in the 1990s to replace the term "berdache" — were part of a widely accepted, often respected, category of gender-ambiguous men and women.

This at least sheds some light. But honestly, this is really confusing. I like boobs.
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

There's no singular neutral gender pronoun. We (and by we I mean English writers everywhere) have been struggling with this futilely forever. I've opted to go with "he" and if someone doesn't like it he's free to make the effort to introduce the word of his choosing to the English language.

"It" works.
 
I am surprised. Nobody has coined the term (and I know my dark humor will get the best of me one day as I even make fun of thing I hold sacred and myself)

50 shades of gay
 
Re: Male, female or 'custom'? Facebook announces 50 ways to define gender

"It" works.

No it doesn't. "It" refers to an inanimate or at least non-human object. Use it in a sentence and tell me with a straight face it doesn't sound clumsy. And that's the problem with the English language: we don't have a word that doesn't sound wrong as a gender neutral singular pronoun.
 
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