back to article Facebook adds 50+ gender options: Stalking your 'Friends' just got more LGBT-friendly

Facebook has introduced more than 50 gender options its users can select when choosing how they wish to identify themselves. The Social Network revealed the new feature to The Associated Press, where a story features Brielle Harrison, a Facebook staffer who is "undergoing gender transformation, from male to female". It's also …

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  1. Ole Juul

    Sex is Not Gender

    I hope they have "don't know" on the list. As for pronouns, there aren't enough to go around.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Re: Sex is Not Gender

      I doubt they'll ever put "Don't know" on the list. Americans love labels. You might get "Decline to say" if you're lucky.

      Honestly, they could have five-hundred options and it still wouldn't cover everyone because gender is a fluid thing. Some people go through phases, some people might be gay but have a specific type (e.g. a man who might conceivably sleep with a masculine man if the circumstances were right, but finds effeminate and camp gay men really irritating). There aren't really a finite number of options, only a finite number of people.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Sex is Not Gender

        <form> <select width=180><option value="Stewie">A man who might conceivably sleep with a masculine man if the circumstances were right, but finds effeminate and camp gay men really irritating</option></select></form>

      2. johnnytruant

        Re: Sex is Not Gender

        "a man who might conceivably sleep with a masculine man if the circumstances were right, but finds effeminate and camp gay men really irritating"

        Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you talking about sexuality not gender?

        "Occasionally gay for the right sort of dude" isn't a gender, it's a sexual orientation.

        Or have the definitions changed around again? I can't keep up.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Sex is Not Gender

          We're gonna need a bigger Acronym!

        2. sisk

          Re: Sex is Not Gender

          Or have the definitions changed around again? I can't keep up.

          People who say gender is fluid haven't ever tried to keep up with the politically correct terms that surround gender.

      3. Turtle

        @ h4rm0ny

        "Americans love labels."

        Just like everyone else on the fucking planet. And it doesn't take much of an understand of the way the human mind works to understand why.

        1. handle

          Re: @ h4rm0ny

          I always thought the labels were not much to do with people but more to do with getting another piece of information out of you with which to target you with advertising.

  2. Mondo the Magnificent
    Childcatcher

    WTF!

    So, now I can man up. or woman up, or trans up, or whatever up to being whoever or whatever I want to be?

    Surely they could have gotten this down to seven choices

    Male

    Female

    Both

    Neither

    Undecided

    Outcome pending

    To be confirmed

    1. xperroni

      Re: WTF!

      My first thought was much the same, but then I pondered, hell what do I know – maybe there are 50-plus unique ways people relate to their reproductive organs, and it's just me that haven't been keeping up. Guess I'm just an old fart that can't let go of the outdated ways of yore...

      1. solo

        Re: Extend to "Post visibility options"

        Friends

        Friends of Friends

        Female Friends

        Male Friends

        Female Friends of Friends

        Trans Friends

        Cross Friends

        Wanna Be Friends

        Friends To Enemy

        "FB respects your privacy and gives you total control."

      2. Gerardo McFitzpatrick-O'Toole

        Re: WTF!

        Oh but gender is /so/ much more complex and nuanced than the relation between a person* and their reproductive organs - it's a social construct, doncha know. Or that is what those involved in the academic pusuit of Gender Studies would have us believe.

        *Please forgive what could be seen as personist language; I wasn't trying to exclude those who self-identify as not being people, or as not having identities, or not existing.

        1. h4rm0ny

          Re: WTF!

          >>"Oh but gender is /so/ much more complex and nuanced than the relation between a person* and their reproductive organs - it's a social construct, doncha know."

          Gender is a social role. You might be thinking of sex (you probably are), which is a biological characteristic.

          And if you actually don't think social expectations based on sex make any difference, then you really have led a very sheltered life and should meet more people from different backgrounds. If you don't think gender is a social construct then how do you explain major differences in the roles sexes play in different cultures? Because it's a sure thing that there isn't a gene that says Indian women are more likely to be interested in a career in programming than Caucasian women, or which turns on and off whether pink is seen as a masculine or feminine colour between different generations.

          1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

            Re: WTF!

            " how do you explain major differences in the roles sexes play in different cultures? ... "

            Well that's a three-pint conversation, and certainly not something that's suited to being conducted in anonymous text boxes.

            Personally, I think that gender roles are the expression of a number of mostly biological factors and gender is loosely coupled to sex and sexuality, so I must respectfully disagree, but with the emphasis on "respectfully".

            It is, after all, the weekend.

            1. sisk

              Re: WTF!

              Personally, I think that gender roles are the expression of a number of mostly biological factors and gender is loosely coupled to sex and sexuality,

              I would say very loosely. While most peoples' gender does indeed match their sexual equipment there are many who don't. Furthermore not all people who are biologically gay have gender identities that don't match their sex. There are, for example, some very masculine gay men. Where it gets confusing is when you start dealing with asexuals, bigendered people, and true transexuals (as opposed to a transvestite -- there is a lot of crossover, but not all transvestites suffer from gender dysphoria).

              I do believe that there are certain things which, for whatever reason, are more interesting to one gender or the other. For instance men like to hunt more than women do in general(which is probably a holdover from way back when hunting was a necessity of survival and usually handle by the physically stronger men). There are things women are attracted to universally across cultural lines similar to hunting for men, but its late and none come to mind. However a lot of it is socially ingrained. Why, for instance, are men interested in cars? Or, even better, why aren't men interested in sewing (almost a necessary survival skill since everyone has damaged clothes at times that could be saved by rudimentary sewing skills).

    2. Gav

      Re: WTF!

      You've forgotten;

      None of your business

    3. alain williams Silver badge

      Re: WTF!

      I was told that one large UK Gov't department has several values for gender: male, female, male was female, female was male & I think 'unknown' & a couple more where people had decided to revert to their original gender.

      None of this is about preference of sexual partner - and is (or should be) of no interest in a corporate database.

    4. Christoph

      Re: WTF!

      One more option needed.

      "It's complicated"

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I applaud with all three hands ! To make things more fun they should also widen & blur all other categories... And why not introduce parallel time lines, and time loops (otherwise tardis users could not use facebook properly).

    Not sure how they could monetise the data though....

    Some options....

    What kind of being are you? - Conscious / Drunk / Distributed / Cyborg / Machine / Ravenous beast / Vegetable

    Gender? - Male / Female / Emale / Transgender / Who cares / Werechicken / Asexual / Vegetable

    Birthday? - Yes/ No / don't remind me / Unbirthday / every year / 20th century / a long time ago in a galaxy far away....

    Religion? - Only in emergencies / hedonist / tory / Grauniad reader / pseudo scientist / football fan

    Education? - Pardon? / Wot? / Work in Progress / Classical / Over Educated for his own good / School of hard knocks .

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They won't even let me put my location on Facebook! Mars to them is not a real place...

      1. Matt 21

        I know you posted AC but you've got to be "amanfrommars", who else could you be?

    2. Nordrick Framelhammer

      What kind of being are you? - Conscious / Drunk / Distributed / Cyborg / Machine / Ravenous beast / Vegetable

      You forgot "Meat Popsicle". I am also faily positive you left "Bugblatter" and "Of Traal" out as well

  4. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    The original internet

    If men are kids, women are men, and kids are undercover FBI agents, what are all the other options?

  5. Bluenose
    Trollface

    bigender

    I would have thought this was a question of size or boasting to be honest rather than one of gender.

    (Bad joke alert)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: bigender

      I read it as "big-endian" at first.

      1. h4rm0ny
        Facepalm

        Re: bigender

        So did I.

        (genuinely)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WFT

    Penis size appears to be covered by big-ender!

    Why would anyone fill this type of information in, has their been a really big change in the gene pool?

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: WFT

      has there been a really big change in the gene pool?

      It's the gender pool which has exploded.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WFT

      There hasn't been a change in the gene pool, just a growing awareness, respect and tolerance that everyone is born different. Of course you are right, unfortunately a lot of people won't fill this in because of a social stigma associated.

      There will be others who say this list is ridiculously long but people don't always fit into neat little roles and through no fault of their own so this is progress.I'm far from a fan of the site but this shows a good level of respect from Facebook.

      1. A Long Fellow
        Thumb Down

        Re: WFT

        "...a good level of respect from Facebook."

        ??

        Facebook is only respecting its ability to tag you with ever-more-focused labels for its own marketing benefit -- not yours or mine.

    3. Vociferous

      Re: WFT

      > has their been a really big change in the gene pool?

      No, but political correctness has reached critical stupidity.

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: WFT

        Other than the desire to label everything and everybody, it's also attempting to merge biological identification with orientation into one label.

        Biologically, there are "male", "female", "both" and "neither". The occurrences of the latter two are very low in comparison but they do exist. To further complicate this, questions such as "is a female who is 'born' with no ovaries truly a biological female?". Best not to answer this one unless you want a very long discussion, but it's an example of how things are complicated.

        Beyond the straight biology, for many thousands of years humans themselves have blurred the lines, starting with eunuchs and cross dressing and moving on to trans-sexuals in various applications and stages (surgical, hormonal, etc).

        This is before the complication of sexual preference comes into play where the basics are accepted as male-female, male-male and female-female however these basics only take into account the two primary biological sexes. Expanding just the biological side and sticking to pairings there are ten distinct combinations. Add in those who are interested in more than just one partner type and it becomes quite a mess. Next include the non-naturally occurring "genders" and it's one hell of a matrix. Lastly, don't forget those who have no sexual desires at all and are happy that way therefore they shouldn't be identified as one of the others.

        Even attempting to refactor the single label into a few becomes an exercise in pointlessness as no single label will fit all unless there are n! combinations. So in essence, it's a multiple choice list and not a single selector, after all your work colleague could be a heterosexual man during the week and a cross-dresser that is only interested in other cross-dressers at the weekend...

        50+ doesn't seem too insane a number considering...

    4. TRT Silver badge

      Re: WFT

      I haven't even reached the gene pool yet. I couldn't decide which changing room to head for.

  7. Chris Miller
    Joke

    Someone's been reading Gulliver

    Bigender? I'm sorry, I was raised a Littleender, and will die a Littleender!

  8. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face
    Headmaster

    ReferenceError: invalid assignment left-hand side

    I see a problem on the left-hand side of the equals sign. The definition of the entity to which all of these politically correct attributes are being assigned should be "sex" rather than "gender". The former relates to the characteristics of the whole person, the latter pertains to the physical characteristics of objects. (At least this used to be the case, but since we all started giggling and writing "three times a night" when official forms asked us our sex, the two words have started to be used more interchangeably).

    1. aBloke FromEarth

      Re: ReferenceError: invalid assignment left-hand side

      Other way round:

      Sex is the biological term for the physical attributes.

  9. TrishaD

    "Changing gender is simple"

    If only ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Changing gender is simple"

      Changing gender is currently impossible, you can do the cosmetic alterations, and they are getting damned good at it but unfortunately they cannot change your biological gender, your internals will always be the gender your born with. Eventually organ printing will let us really do functional sex changes, but we're not quite there yet.

  10. thosrtanner

    What saddens me is not that facebook have done this - I applaud them for that, (it's about the only thing I do applaud them for admittedly) - but I just know what the reactions will be.

    Technology and medicine have come a long way in the last 2000 years. It's a shame that culture and behaviour don't seem to have caught up.

  11. Semaj

    I'm all for not discriminating against people who like to say they are whatever gender they want but this seems like a little strange way to go about it. I'd have just replaced the dropdown with a tag based textbox so it covers all bases while still remaining elegant.

    1. Test Man

      I think it's fine. Clearly there's a significant amount of people who want to describe themselves a bit more than the standard blunt "male" or "female" choices so let them, it's their profile page.

      It's also a bit like the "race" question you sometimes see on things such as job applications. I'm fine with the choices myself, but as the list is usually very short sometimes you do wonder how people can choose when they may not identify with the blunt choices they are presented on the form?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The race question...

        I find that question itself racist and I NEVER answer it for me or my children.

        Why do you need to know my race?

        The ONLY person who needs that information is my Dr, because there are differences in genetics between the various breeds of humans...

        1. oddie

          the amazing race

          I think it's sometimes asked to make sure there is no discrimination or something like that.. not entirely sure on the details... like the details of how it helps determine that they aren't discriminating.. maybe its like - if I put out adds for a job-position, and then maybe I had a review bit of the application process (for next time or whatever) to see what genders/races replied to ensure that I had put out the adverticements in areas sure to reach a wide demographic.. to avoid situations where I would be left with applicants from only a certain subsection of genders/races/nationalities/all people from the same pub.

          edit: spelling and clarity.

        2. Vociferous

          > The ONLY person who needs that information is my Dr,

          Also dating sites. On a related note: I knew there were a lot of weeabos, but I didn't know there were enough to skew dating site statistics.

        3. Suricou Raven

          To make sure that you see advertising featuring characters matching your race. The industry doesn't like to admit it, but it's known to work. It's common in radio advertising to segregate by region just so you can always use a local accent.

        4. skeptical i

          race: [x] human

          Ditto about gender: if you ain't my doctor or bedroom activities partner it is not your concern. Period. However, having said that selecting 'male' for web- based stuff generally gets one shown somewhat less- insipid adverts (big dumb trucks and military recruiting -v- weight loss products and cosmetics). Curious to see what adverts come up with the different options, I see much facepalm in future.

    2. harmjschoonhoven

      @ Semaj

      Let us not forget FB will USE the gender info. That is why there is no textbox.

    3. Ben Rosenthal

      Absolutely, they knew it would make a nice attention grabbing headline that blogs would all jump on.

  12. Slacker@work

    And even more ridiculous...

    Hermaphrodite is not on the full list but Cisgender is.

    I had to look up the designation Cis (as in cismale or cisfemale), and basically it breaks down to "individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity"

    So using myself as an example: Born male, lives as a male, identify myself as a male

    So that's male then.

    Major kudos to the research psychologists who managed to get funding for this research!!

    1. WraithCadmus

      Re: And even more ridiculous...

      Initially I too found the term 'cis' a bit awkward, but I couldn't come up with a term I knew that didn't seem a bit pejorative in some contexts. So I think it's a good term to have around when one wants to be specific.

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