Facebook goes beyond 'male' and 'female' with new gender options

[Scott]

Facebook goes beyond 'male' and 'female' with new gender options

By Brandon Griggs, CNN

February 13, 2014 -- Updated 2225 GMT (0625 HKT)

(CNN) -- You don't have to be strictly a man or a woman on Facebook anymore.

In a nod to the "it's complicated" sexual identities of many of its users, the social network on Thursday added a third "custom" gender option for people's profiles. In addition to Male or Female, Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as "transgender," "cisgender," "gender fluid," "intersex" and "neither."

CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/social-media/facebook-gender-custom/

[tx22cb]

Yep, just checked my FB - indeed a bewildering array of gender choices, half of which I have not heard of.

Makes me feel very old-fashioned.

[mightyatom]

Obviously bowed to the PC pressure mob.

[Costas2008]

mightyatom, on 15 Feb 2014 - 10:27, said:

Obviously bowed to the PC pressure mob.

In some years to come, it will be very odd, to be a straight male or female.

[willyumiii]

Whenever asked "Sex?" on a form or website,

I always answer "Sure!"

Seriously, will FB adopt this in Thailand?

I do have some friends in Thailand who look like beautiful women.

They registered with FB as "male". ( just being honest I guess )

When ever they change their profile photo, FB announces that " Beam has changed HIS profile picture "

I smile but wonder why they didn't claim to be female when registering.

[Jingthing]

Obviously bowed to the PC pressure mob.

Got please the ...

<<<EDITED OUT HOMOPHOBIC SLURS>>>

This change wasn't about sexual orientation. It was about GENDER identity. Interesting that people think it is OK to post homophobic slurs on this forum.

[Kerryd]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

[Sheryl]

A homophobic post with offensive language has been removed.

[Jingthing]

Facebook in the U.S. is becoming much less relevant for young people. Kids are TURNED OFF to know their parents and grandparents are now on that site too! Facebook is probably doing a lot of things to try to retain and attract the younger market and this is probably one of them.

[willyumiii]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

58 varieties?

Wow!

Heinz only has 57 varieties!

I'm telling John Kerry's wife!

[arnold40844]

I think it will soon be made made public knowledge that the increases in gender confusion are largely related to all the endocrine disruptors in our diet. All the chemicals we consume increase and decrease levels of estrogen and testosterone. A lot of the chemicals still used in SE Asia are banned in the rest of the world.

Anyway its good to see Facebook moving with the times.

[tetleythedog]

Yep, just checked my FB - indeed a bewildering array of gender choices, half of which I have not heard of.

Makes me feel very old-fashioned.

Lol.....................and i thought they had done it just for the Thais !

[Scott]

Keep the discussion civil, please.

[RickBradford]

'Gender fluid' sounds like something cleaners have to vacuum off the floor of porno cinemas .....

[soalbundy]

Obviously bowed to the PC pressure mob.

Got please the ...

<<<EDITED OUT HOMOPHOBIC SLURS>>>

This change wasn't about sexual orientation. It was about GENDER identity. Interesting that people think it is OK to post homophobic slurs on this forum.

You're so right, with all the problems the world has one must think of the trannies.....Hey what about the Great Danes....woof woof

[soalbundy]

Yep, just checked my FB - indeed a bewildering array of gender choices, half of which I have not heard of.

Makes me feel very old-fashioned.

Lol.....................and i thought they had done it just for the Thais !

Another reason to despise FB. Its more dangerous than Chalerm with an empty wine bottle.In my house its banned much to the anger of my step daughters.

[soalbundy]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

58 varieties?

Wow!

Heinz only has 57 varieties!

I'm telling John Kerry's wife!download.jpg

Have they got one where "the inside pony is waiting to come out and we'd rather like to try"?

[soalbundy]

Facebook in the U.S. is becoming much less relevant for young people. Kids are TURNED OFF to know their parents and grandparents are now on that site too! Facebook is probably doing a lot of things to try to retain and attract the younger market and this is probably one of them.

That would assume that the majority of kids are into "Two plugs and no socket" or"two sockets and no plug" relationships. God help us all, is there no discretion,no shame anymore.

[Maestro]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

It is not a question of your geographical location, respectively the location of your Internet Service Provider's servers. In your General Account Settings, change your language preference to "English (US)".

Then, in your Profile settings, on the line "Gender", click on "Edit", then click in the selection box.

Now click on "Custom"

Here, you are not presented with a predefined list from which to select. You must define your gender in your own words. The CNN article erroneously wrote "Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as...", wrongly quoting what Facebook said were some 50 new gender definitions entered by Facebook members on their profiles up until that point in time.

[Maestro]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

It is about gender definition, not about genetic heritage (race). I don't know whether Facebook monitors and censors the entries being made under "Gender --> Custom" and whether an entry like "Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage" would be disallowed. Try it and you will see, then tell us here how it went.

[Maestro]

Removed another off-topic post. This topic is about gender identity, not about sexual orientation, and the two are not the same.

[Scott]

A post with a commercial link has been removed.

[F430murci]

Removed another off-topic post. This topic is about gender identity, not about sexual orientation, and the two are not the same.

And a normal person would know and understand this?

[sirchai]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

It is not a question of your geographical location, respectively the location of your Internet Service Provider's servers. In your General Account Settings, change your language preference to "English (US)".

Facebokk gender 01.png

Then, in your Profile settings, on the line "Gender", click on "Edit", then click in the selection box.

Facebokk gender 02.png

Now click on "Custom"

Facebokk gender 03.png

Here, you are not presented with a predefined list from which to select. You must define your gender in your own words. The CNN article erroneously wrote "Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as...", wrongly quoting what Facebook said were some 50 new gender definitions entered by Facebook members on their profiles up until that point in time.

If anybody on this forum needs an IP in the States but living here, please page me. Send it to you for free, called Suuppaa Haid...-

[sirchai]

Removed another off-topic post. This topic is about gender identity, not about sexual orientation, and the two are not the same.

And a normal person would know and understand this?

I always thought it's the same. Thank Buddha to have such a forum,. Okay, gender identify would be being male, or female, or both. Sexual orientation could be all of gender identity, plus many other sexual orientations, such as XXXXXXX GGGGGGGG YYYYYY and of course LLLLLL. and -of course- Japanese Bukake. .

[Kerryd]

Currently only available to users in the USA ? What about all those poor, confused people in the rest of the world ? When will I finally be able to express my Alien (Alpha-Centauri/Borg/Jedi/Cyborg/Unicorn) heritage ? Surely my particular gender is amongst the 58 varieties now offered to users ?

It is not a question of your geographical location, respectively the location of your Internet Service Provider's servers. In your General Account Settings, change your language preference to "English (US)".

Facebokk gender 01.png

Then, in your Profile settings, on the line "Gender", click on "Edit", then click in the selection box.

Facebokk gender 02.png

Now click on "Custom"

Facebokk gender 03.png

Here, you are not presented with a predefined list from which to select. You must define your gender in your own words. The CNN article erroneously wrote "Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as...", wrongly quoting what Facebook said were some 50 new gender definitions entered by Facebook members on their profiles up until that point in time.

Oddness indeed. My language setting was already set to English (US) but there is no "Gender" option anywhere under any of my settings. While it shouldn't matter (much) - which browser/OS are you using ? I'm running Chrome on Win Vista.

(I've found some programs, such as Outlook Web Access, behave differently and have different options depending on the browser.)

[Jingthing]

Removed another off-topic post. This topic is about gender identity, not about sexual orientation, and the two are not the same.

And a normal person would know and understand this?

An EDUCATED person of any gender or orientation would. It's really basic.

[manarak]

Obviously bowed to the PC pressure mob.

actually, I think giving only male and female as a choice is the PC variant.

[krisb]

Facebook in the U.S. is becoming much less relevant for young people. Kids are TURNED OFF to know their parents and grandparents are now on that site too! Facebook is probably doing a lot of things to try to retain and attract the younger market and this is probably one of them.

This won't save them, it's slowly sinking because it's too complex. A victim of itself.

[dslocum]

Facebook in the U.S. is becoming much less relevant for young people. Kids are TURNED OFF to know their parents and grandparents are now on that site too! Facebook is probably doing a lot of things to try to retain and attract the younger market and this is probably one of them.

This won't save them, it's slowly sinking because it's too complex. A victim of itself.

Hi folks. I've been lurking for months now. It's about time I had a bit of a voice. My name is Doug. Great to be here and really appreciate everything I've learned from your site. Please forgive me as I learn the culture and rules, and feel free to enlighten me, but please don't judge. Just ask or PM if necessary.

FWIW - I agree with the above. FB and other social media needs to be reinvented. IMO, they have become way too divergent and unfriendly even in simple terms of user experience. It never seems clear what a is expected of a user, or how his information will be used.

I'd STRONGLY suggest that social media needs to reevaluate its user experience, else they lose serious groud, not only with the older, less savvy crowd, but even the younger folks who start looking for a simpler "fix" of social.

Down off my soap box.