Facebook allows users to customise gender
Facebook has announced that its English language users will now be able to select a custom gender for their profile page.
The 50-odd options, which include "bi-gender", "transgender", "androgynous" and "transsexual", will allow people "to express themselves in an authentic way", Facebook said in a post.
Users can also choose whether to be referred to as "he", "she" or "they".
The new options will initially only be for those using the site in US English.
The new options were formulated after consultations with five leading gay and transgender rights' organisations, Facebook says.
"There's going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing. But for others, it means the world" Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison told the Associated Press. "For the first time I can go to the site and specify to all the people that I know what my gender is and I can let only the people that I want to know, see that," she said.
The move reflects the growing influence of the transgender rights movement in the US, which is demanding similar civil rights to the gay community.
The San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center welcomed the move, saying "many transgender people will be thrilled" at the news.
One estimate in a report by the Williams Institute think tank in 2011 said that an estimated 0.3% of adults in the US were transgender, almost 700,000 people.
Facebook should remove all gender options
Two cheers for Facebook, who have just expanded their personal gender options from the somewhat limiting binary of male and female to an eye-watering 50 plus descriptions.
Of course, there's criticism already. An online friend expressed frustration that Facebook does not include their preferred gender option: non-gendered identity.
In addition, Facebook still gives precedence to the gender binary: its online presentation takes the form of male, female or the choice of 48 "custom" categories. Others have objected that the relationship options (both romantic and familiar) still remain gender normative.
More fundamental, though. Is the issue that Facebook kicked off a conversation about gender with trans and gay groups, while omitting one significant voice: women.
Many women have deliberately selected "male" as the only way to remove a succession of tiresome ads for wrinkle cream and diet products from their timeline.
Facebook should remove gender altogether, which might interfere with its commercial activities and interests.
adapted From The Guardian and BBC News
