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Facebook Debuts New Gender Options, Pronoun Choices
beaverdownunder writes "Facebook has recognized it's a gender-diverse world — at least in the U.S. 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.' 'Users also now have the ability to choose the pronoun they would like to be referred to publicly: he/his, she/her, or the gender-neutral they/their.' A post on Facebook's Diversity page said, 'When you come to Facebook to connect with the people, causes, and organizations you care about, we want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self. An important part of this is the expression of gender, especially when it extends beyond the definitions of just "male" or "female." ...We also have added the ability for people to control the audience with whom they want to share their custom gender. We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way.'"
Transgender vs. Transsexual generally refer to someone who hasn't had surgery, and someone who has, respectively.
An androgynous person doesn't present as one gender or another.
Gender questioning is pretty obvious, with the individual in the process of working out inner feelings and unsure how they're presenting.
Bigender, I'm not sure of. Maybe someone who is comfortable switching gender roles in a culture with 2 or more genders. (Some cultures have several)
Pangender sounds like a lot of work.
or:
3. You have ambiguous genitalia
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Gender is not the same as Sex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
No, "they/their" is plural. Using it as gender neutral for a single person is just stupid and bad grammar.
You should try to get in the habit of looking things up, just to be sure, before engaging in ad hominem. From dictionary.com's entry for "They":
Usage note
Long before the use of generic he was condemned as sexist, the pronouns they, their, and them were used in educated speech and in all but the most formal writing to refer to indefinite pronouns and to singular nouns of general personal reference, probably because such nouns are often not felt to be exclusively singular: If anyone calls, tell them I'll be back at six. Everyone began looking for their books at once. Such use is not a recent development, nor is it a mark of ignorance.
It can mean a variety of things. It can often mean that the external genitalia between a person's legs seems to be something between a vulva/vagina and a penis. This can take the form of, for example, what appears to be a vulva with very swollen labia majora and a very large clitoris that can physically resemble a very small penis.
Such persons are referred to as 'intersex' and while it's still a minority of humans, it's more common than I thought it was. The condition exist in degrees, and due to social expectations, relatively few intersex people advertise that fact if they can "pass" as one sex or the other.
It's called intersexed, and here is some stats and more information on it. For years, doctors would just say "well, we can't tell, so take your pick boy or girl, and then the kid grows up and says 'WTF?' " because it was an arbitrary choice.
For some people, gender identity is a little more complicated than "penis or no penis" -- I've known a couple of trans people over the years, and once had a co-worker who began the process after I'd known him as 'he' for several years.
Trust me, nobody would go through all of that stuff (the reaction of people, the hormones, the discrimination, the cost, the upheaval to your life, the surgeries, people telling you you're going through a phase) unless they were REALLY certain that was what they needed.
I won't claim to understand it fully, or even be able to explain it well. But I do know these are real things, and that the people going through them have to deal with a lot of stuff which I sure as hell wouldn't wish on anybody.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The hell I didn't.
The second link provides statistics on how many people with the various types by births and was identified as such.
I'll note that you didn't read the links. But if you need it spoon fed to you:
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In the fifteenth century, yeah. Not today. Lack of a dick does not make you a woman and the presence of one does not make you a man. As yet we cannot change a person's gender, only their appearance. Whether you're a man or a woman depends on whether or not you have a Y chromosome.
That said, there are a very few folks with some strange DNA; two Ys, Two Y's and an X, three Xes, etc. However, these folks have far worse problems than gender identity.
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