Facebook abandons the binary with 50 new gender options
FACEBOOK has announced changes to the way users can identify their own gender, expanding the binary male/female options to a list of over 50 options.
On the basis of consultation with people in LGBTI communities, Facebook came up with a list covering a wide range of gender identities, including many relating to trans*, intersex and queer communities.
The social media giant will also provide three pronoun options for users, available regardless of gender identification in a given category: him, her or them.
To address concerns from users a gender change would be made public by default, Facebook has said such changes won’t be automatically posted to users’ timelines. Facebook also said this means advertisers won’t be able to target people who have recently changed genders.
The move has been praised by Australia’s leading trans* and intersex organisations as a big step towards increased recognition of gender diversity.
“The announcement itself, the fact that it’s there and people will think about it, that alone increases awareness of gender issues, for a start,” Transgender Victoria Executive Director Sally Goldner told the Star Observer.
“One person I know has already said, ‘I’m reactivating my Facebook account now I can be more who I am.’”
Tony Briffa from Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia gave more qualified praise.
“I congratulate Facebook on becoming more inclusive of gender diverse and trans people, but would rather see intersex off the list as a gender identity. Intersex is about biology, not gender identity. All the other options are wonderful so people born biologically intersex can use any of those options if they identify other than male or female,” Briffa told the Star Observer.
At the time of writing the changes had not yet been implemented on Facebook in Australia, but are expected to become available soon.
Other than the existing categories of “male” and “female”, the full list of gender options announced by Facebook is:
Agender
Androgyne
Androgynous
Bigender
Cis
Cis Female
Cis Male
Cis Man
Cis Woman
Cisgender
Cisgender Female
Cisgender Male
Cisgender Man
Cisgender Woman
Female to Male
FTM
Gender Fluid
Gender Nonconforming
Gender Questioning
Gender Variant
Genderqueer
Intersex
Male to Female
MTF
Neither
Neutrois
Non-binary
Other
Pangender
Trans
Trans Female
Trans Male
Trans Man
Trans Person
Trans*Female
Trans*Male
Trans*Man
Trans*Person
Trans*Woman
Transexual
Transexual Female
Transexual Male
Transexual Man
Transexual Person
Transexual Woman
Transgender Female
Transgender Person
Transmasculine
Two-spirit
Can’t wait see the updated profiles if all my friends!
…Femme is my gender and it’s not there
endless lists that give ever increasing choice is not going to solve the problem rather they entrench the legitimacy of gender and especially the two dominant ones.
Gender is an oppressive system where one half of humanity is privileged over the other . Gender performance is at the heart of homophobia transphobia , Intersex normalization indeed it the very crux of nearly all the discrimination that LGBTI people suffer.
Why on earth do we want to buy into this oppressive system…why on earth should we be pleased that we are now given 56 non man options to choose from instead of only one.
Its the same as trying to fix apartheid by inventing new races that non whites can be assigned to.
Why do I need to specify any gender so that I can be availed of this service??? What the hell do Facebook need to know my gender for????
Except maybe hawking data from my page so I can be targeted by advertisers ….
Intersex IS NOT a gender. #fbfail
why is this necessary at all – why do they even need to know my gender, if I have one. What about how this conflates sex and gender and therefore is completely incorrect listing intersex as a gender, what a mess this is and it just makes things worse so that FB can add to its data mining for its advertisers. DISLIKE.
Well, for people that dont want to list their gender, they had no option, now they do. This is pointless for most people, everyone that feels comfortable in the gender they were assigned. But for the people that arent, this makes a world of difference. There is more that male and female in this world, and its good that facebook now recognizes all those that arent cis and gives them options.
@ Jason male and female refer to sex not gender .