According to a study at UCLA, there are approximately 700,000 people in the United States who identify as transgender. Although this accounts for less than .5% of the total population, these people often feel conflicted when they go to set up online accounts and are asked to mark which gender they are. In their situation, either before or after gender reassignment surgery (if they opt to get the surgery), which gender are they supposed to mark on the paper? This conflict is an extremely touchy subject for them and for many people in the LGBT community.
This week, Facebook announced that they would be adding many more gender options to their traditional gender list. In addition to male and female, they have decided to add an "other" option. When you click other, a list of more than 50 options appears, including androgynous, transgender man/woman, and cisgender. While this change won't matter to most of the population, the half of one percent that are actually conflicted about what to put down as their gender can finally mark down what words they feel describe their gender identity.
Now that Facebook has made the change, do you think that other organizations (like the ACT or College Board/SAT) should change their options as well? Should this be a "thing"?
Here's the link to the article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/13/276530020/facebook-gives-users-new-options-to-identify-gender?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook
really? more than 50 options. I never knew there were so many options, wow.
ReplyDeleteI think that the ACT and Collegeboard will probably be the next organizations to make the change. They won't be able to give that many options, so maybe they'll just have male, female, other? Is other an offensive term? Or is it a good thing to be other? I guess if you don't identify as male or female then it's nice to have some sort of other option so you don't feel like you have to conform into a box that you don't feel a part of.. I don't know.
Honestly, I think Facebook adding more options for gender won't bring about as much of a response as the ACT and College Board adding more options, should they decide to. I think just leaving it at "other" is sufficient, though, like Racheli said, this could be offensive. It's hard to know how people will receive the change. But, I also agree with Racheli that those people will probably be happy with anything that doesn't force them to pick one or the other.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually pretty interesting. I mean, 50 other options that people might identify themselves as..thats a big step for Facebook. Like Racheli and Shani, I'm also wondering if "other" is offensive at all to people who don't identify as being male or female. That kinda makes it sound like they're not human. I could see the SAT/ACT making that change especially with how many transgender stories are making the news.
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