Google+ to offer 'infinite' gender identity options Google+ will expand the range of options it offers when it asks users to identify their gender. The Chocolate Factory's social network has, to date, offered “Male”, “Female” and “Other”. Gooogle developer Rachael Bennett writes it's now possible to select a “Decline to State” or “Custom” option. Selecting the latter will mean …
"So outside of Male, Female, Androgyne, Hermaphrodite what else actually exists in the physical form?"
I can't abide inconsiderate Cisgendered a-holes ignoring and therefore offending members of the Zorticodial-bleep-zackding community like me. Don't you know what a struggle it's been for me being so different ?
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@Khaptain wrote: So outside of Male, Female, Androgyne, Hermaphrodite what else actually exists in the physical form?
I work in health care integration and so far I am aware of the following gender codes:
Male
Female
Other
Hermaphrodite
Unknown
Undifferentiated
None!
I suspect there are many more, health data stats folks are nothing if not thorough.
@Khaptain
Unknown is more than a bit worrying. I have twice encountered unknown as a gender in HL7 messages (the 'standard' messaging format for health data). Both times it has been where an unknown emergency patient was involved in an accident of sufficient severity that their gender could not be determined.
Of course if you are self-selecting unknown you probably need to pay more attention in biology class.
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For physical form you have a point, but for those in the community that would use anything other than Male or Female gender is not a matter of what's between their legs. Even most natural androgynes and hermaphrodites have grown up with a male or female gender thanks to the long-standing practice of surgically assigning a gender to such babies (which is thankfully finally being questioned but there are very few such people who have reached adulthood with hermaphrotitic organs intact yet).
How is this a big deal? On most systems I've worked on, there is an "other" option which would allow people to specify (if they want to). That goes for any dropdown box based field unless it specifically needs to be one of the provided options for business reasons.
Choosing whether or not to provide this functionality should be a no brainer. It's easy to do and if it makes someone who normally has a difficult time happy then why not?
Most systems? I see it rarely enough it always catches my attention when you get more than just M/F options.
I never noticed it before until a LGBT (or LGBT* as it's meant to be these days) friend mentioned it as something that is a small slap in the face to such people every time they have to join some website.
Since when did either of the choices, LGBT, become a "gender"...
Here are some tips/guides
* Women menstruate while men do not
* Men have testicles while women do not
* Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men have not
* Men generally have more massive bones than women
By selecting from the above we can determine the correct category. Obviously surgical changes don't count..
* Many women do not menstruate
* Some people have XX chromosomes and a penis (from birth)
* Some people have XY chromosomes and a vagina (from birth)
* Some people have all the chromosomes and all the genitals
* Some men (XY, penis) have breasts and can lactate
etc etc etc. It is genuinely quite complicated for some people, albeit a minority.
Biological gender and gender identity are separate concepts (which overlap, of course). And then some countries have legally accepted "3rd gender" as a real thing.
Hence the whole existence of someone who has a female body but insists they are a man.
Personally I'm sort of with you, inasmuch that I'm not sure that how you perceive yourself should determine how everyone else has to perceive you. Is a man who claims to be a woman to be treated as one, or treated as ill? It's pretty difficult issue to debate objectively.
As far as I understand, according to the best research available the only effective treatment for 'men' who actually feel that way is for them to have hormones, surgery etc and become 'women'. When that is done, something like 5% want to go back and be, er, 'retooled'. This applies regardless of sexual orientation, previously Male-to-Females who were attracted to women were regarded simply as incredibly kinky men, this is now believed not to be the case.
There is evidence of structural differences in the brains of transsexuals, before any hormones are administered. The theory is that this is either due to as-yet undiscovered genetic reasons, or to do with transient hormone levels in the womb, ie excess female hormones at the right/wrong moment = male body + 'female' brain.
As for how people are perceived, of course no-one has the right to enforce a particular perception of themselves on others. In general laws apply to harassment and proscribed discrimination, how someone is actually treated or referred to is more a matter of civility than anything else.
>etc etc etc. It is genuinely quite complicated for some people, albeit a minority.
"Minority" being a very important word here.... unfortunately it is impossible for society to cater for every indivudual's personal requirements.
I understand that certain people need to be understood, that is easy to comprehend but pushing things to the level where catering for all of the classes/sub-classes/sub-sub-classes/tendancies within sub-sub-classes simply becomes too complicated and would lack any truly beneficial outcome.
The world is not black and white and I agree that it is difficult to find complete solutions to everything but lines have to be drawn in order that a certain level of sanity prevails.
But what if the completion checking sees "other" or "freeform" as incomplete forms and refuse to process my application? And come to think of it, why do these forms often ask me to submit? We're not all submissives you know!
And would it allow me to specify my identiy as
Ambivalent'); DROP TABLE PATIENTS; --
tbh allowing other options is pointless. What they are really asking is how you like to be addressed/refered to, what stereotypes do you fall into, etc. If you choose something other than a predefined category then there is no way of linking the usage to the question.
To be inclusive you need to split those questions out. Eg. refer to me as he/she/they/something else. show me masculine/feminine/some other grouping of products and so on.
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