Facebook finally gives LGBT users the vocabulary they need

Facebook is finally on the road to trans*, androgynous, cis-, and beyond.

Read the whole story

 

[Bluefinger]

Wow. So Facebook has done something nice for once. Credit where credit is due and all.

 

[DarkSkyForever]

Gender: Custom
Title: Meat Popsicle.

 

[cressk]

can open, genders everywhere.

 

[insecto]

As a trans person, I find this interesting, but personally had just been planning on flipping the switch from male to female when the time came. Cool, nonetheless.

 

[CygnusRising]

Kudos to Facebook for doing this. Someone called me a meat stick once. I wonder if I could use that?

 

[Hattori HANZo]

So is the "interested in" part shown in the screenshot already changed, too? Because otherwise I proclaim not being able to express my interest in people identifying themselves as "cisgender" as a discrimination

Edit: To make my intention clear, adding new genders at one point but not another is half-assed and kind of defies the idea of accepting those genders wholly.

 

[aliksy]

This doesn't directly, personally affect me, but I'm glad other people are getting something nice. It's even been a few hours since the story broke and I haven't heard any hate speech about it, yet.

 

[mikehild]

DSF1942[/url]":3rfsl9rj]Gender: Custom
Title: Meat Popsicle.

Yeah, if people can type in whatever they want I'm sure this feature will get a LOT of misuse.

 

[DoomHamster]

Their list is incomplete with out the "women over sixty-five" classification.

Edit because I know there will be resistance from those who think I am being serious...just read slaughterhouse 5.

 

[jeremiahlee]

Regarding the headline, "Facebook finally gives LGBT users the vocabulary they need", this vocabulary is for gender (T), not sexuality (LGB).

 

[Wyrmaster]

Its kind of interesting that this was announced today, because last night I was reading an article on Cracked that contained a section on English's lack of a good gender neutral singular pronoun.

 

[Jiraiya]

In my more cynical moments I think that Facebook has done this because they've found a way to monetize the additional information. Would advertisers pay to reach this specific audience? Or pay to exclude them? Probably...

 

[grim ajax]

We really need to develop a universal third person singular personal pronoun that's efficient and suitable for all; not necessarily for political correctness, but for efficiency.

 

[Bad Monkey!]

Ah, finally I get to list myself as "cis scum"

 

[craigc]

Currently, the custom gender identifiers will only be available for users in US English.

So does anyone know how they'll now deal with "international translation issues"? If someone does not identify as male or female, how will their gender be represented in pronouns in another language (where, as in English, there is often not a gender-neutral representation)?

 

[DarkSkyForever]

craigc[/url]":2sdoet0c]

Currently, the custom gender identifiers will only be available for users in US English.

So does anyone know how they'll now deal with "international translation issues"? If someone does not identify as male or female, how will their gender be represented in pronouns in another language (where, as in English, there is often not a gender-neutral representation)?

You explicitly select your prefered pronouns. I'm sure they'll go off of your selection rather than your gender choice for the translation.

 

[crs117]

Jiraiya[/url]":3tx4jx85]In my more cynical moments I think that Facebook has done this because they've found a way to monetize the additional information. Would advertisers pay to reach this specific audience? Or pay to exclude them? Probably...

+1

Came here to state "not that advertisers would be interested in this information???". Not so sure this is a positive for FB as much as a positive for their advertisers.

 

[WIT_IDE]

As a person who gives minimum fucks either way, I have to say that some of the LGBT community supported options just seem like a big pendulum swing back the other way against years and recurring oppression for the sake of doing it.

Male to Female? You mean female? I think you are defeating your own purpose at that point.
Trans male? What? I mean, I guess that could honestly be valid depending how you approach it.

Gender: Batman.

Edit: I knew I was going to get a lot of downvotes for this because no one wants to have a real conversation. It's either anti- or pro- and that's that. No one is allowed to sit down and be like "really?"

 

[Relto]

mikehild[/url]":ah42rvcx]

DSF1942[/url]":ah42rvcx]Gender: Custom
Title: Meat Popsicle.

Yeah, if people can type in whatever they want I'm sure this feature will get a LOT of misuse.

It doesn't seem like you can. :/ At least not on mobile.

 

[metavirus]

A quibble with the title: This really isn't about giving (LGB) users the vocabulary they need - this is a move to accommodate T (trans)

-- Edit: it seems the title has been changed.

 

[adiabatic]

Bluefinger[/url]":3gf0zgha]Wow. So Facebook has done something nice for once. Credit where credit is due and all.

I'm cheered that many nerd-run corporations (Google, Facebook, among many others) are openly supporting LGBT issues.

It's the logical thing to do.

 

[caseyjohnston]

jeremiahlee[/url]":3eep4ptr]Regarding the headline, "Facebook finally gives LGBT users the vocabulary they need", this vocabulary is for gender (T), not sexuality (LGB).

I hesitated over that, but GLAAD used the same acronym referring to the type of users this services, so it seemed ok. http://www.glaad.org/blog/facebook-intr ... o-they-are

 

[cyber|kinetic]

Never heard of 'cis-gender' before...

What is the difference between gender and sex? I thought it was just linguistic preference, but apparently there is more to it than that.

Actually somewhat surprised it's taken so long for this to happen on FB, or anywhere really. Glad it's been sorted though, it's always annoying to be pigeonholed in the wrong box, so to speak.

 

[Noiro]

grim ajax[/url]":20m75240]We really need to develop a universal third person singular personal pronoun that's efficient and suitable for all; not necessarily for political correctness, but for efficiency.

We have one. It's called "they". Some people get upset by this because we also use it as a universal third person plural personal pronoun, but it's been used as a singular for pretty much as long as there's been an English language.

 

[cyber|kinetic]

crs117[/url]":ctcfkkxj]

Jiraiya[/url]":ctcfkkxj]In my more cynical moments I think that Facebook has done this because they've found a way to monetize the additional information. Would advertisers pay to reach this specific audience? Or pay to exclude them? Probably...

+1

Came here to state "not that advertisers would be interested in this information???". Not so sure this is a positive for FB as much as a positive for their advertisers.

Whatever the motivation, it's finally happened and that's good for FB users who needed this. If you're *that* paranoid about the worth of it, why even use FB? It's free to use, so targeted advertising is how it pays for itself. It's not the worst deal on the internet...

 

[WIT_IDE]

Noiro[/url]":2mwohvfx]

grim ajax[/url]":2mwohvfx]We really need to develop a universal third person singular personal pronoun that's efficient and suitable for all; not necessarily for political correctness, but for efficiency.

We have one. It's called "they". Some people get upset by this because we also use it as a universal third person plural personal pronoun, but it's been used as a singular for pretty much as long as there's been an English language.

True. Though that may also be because people have always been like "fuck it, I'm just going to say 'they'"

 

[mikehild]

Relto[/url]":38gyh56a]

mikehild[/url]":38gyh56a]

DSF1942[/url]":38gyh56a]Gender: Custom
Title: Meat Popsicle.

Yeah, if people can type in whatever they want I'm sure this feature will get a LOT of misuse.

It doesn't seem like you can. :/ At least not on mobile.

Probably just something they haven't finished rolling out anywhere. The article states,"Under custom, users can enter custom descriptors or can select from provided descriptive terms." I don't use FB so I can't check it myself.

 

[Jiraiya]

cyber|kinetic[/url]":3hxmen8h]

crs117[/url]":3hxmen8h]

Jiraiya[/url]":3hxmen8h]In my more cynical moments I think that Facebook has done this because they've found a way to monetize the additional information. Would advertisers pay to reach this specific audience? Or pay to exclude them? Probably...

+1

Came here to state "not that advertisers would be interested in this information???". Not so sure this is a positive for FB as much as a positive for their advertisers.

Whatever the motivation, it's finally happened and that's good for FB users who needed this. If you're *that* paranoid about the worth of it, why even use FB? It's free to use, so targeted advertising is how it pays for itself. It's not the worst deal on the internet...

It's not a commentary on the worth of the option to Facebook users. It's a comment on the worth of the option to Facebook. The two are not the same. Also, actual use of Facebook is not a requirement to comment on its business practices. You don't have enough information to know whether or not I use Facebook.

 

[crs117]

cyber|kinetic[/url]":29s1ilv2]

crs117[/url]":29s1ilv2]

Jiraiya[/url]":29s1ilv2]In my more cynical moments I think that Facebook has done this because they've found a way to monetize the additional information. Would advertisers pay to reach this specific audience? Or pay to exclude them? Probably...

+1

Came here to state "not that advertisers would be interested in this information???". Not so sure this is a positive for FB as much as a positive for their advertisers.

Whatever the motivation, it's finally happened and that's good for FB users who needed this. If you're *that* paranoid about the worth of it, why even use FB? It's free to use, so targeted advertising is how it pays for itself. It's not the worst deal on the internet...

I don't use facebook. Do you really think that advertisers would not appreciate this information? If FB were so noble, how come this is US only?

 

[biohazard918]

cyber|kinetic[/url]":3lv3lvbc]Never heard of 'cis-gender' before...

What is the difference between gender and sex? I thought it was just linguistic preference, but apparently there is more to it than that.

Actually somewhat surprised it's taken so long for this to happen on FB, or anywhere really. Glad it's been sorted though, it's always annoying to be pigeonholed in the wrong box, so to speak.

Did a quick google search as I didn't know either it refers to someone who identifies as the gender they were born as.

 

[mudlock]

mikehild[/url]":131f0efw]

DSF1942[/url]":131f0efw]Gender: Custom
Title: Meat Popsicle.

Yeah, if people can type in whatever they want I'm sure this feature will get a LOT of misuse.

...and yet, misuse causes no damage. So there's nothing but up-side.

 

[cyber|kinetic]

Of course advertisers appreciate the information but as I understand it, there is a benefit to FB as they have now got more ways to profile/target advertising to relevant people. I can't exactly imagine what kind of product service might be interesting particularly to transgender people etc...

I'm not sure what the issue is. FB doesn't supply this information 'as is' on a per-person basis to advertisers - it says 'we have X number of people' who meet your target audience profile, so you have to pay this much. It's aggregated info that advertisers get and they are only going to get your personal info (presumably) if you actually click on their ads?

I have never understood the animosity to targeted advertising. It pays for the services we get for free and it is at least more relevant than just random ads.

As for FB being 'noble' I think all they said was 'we don't know when or where we're rolling this out' and not 'we're ONLY doing this in the US'. Comanies tend not to commit themselves ahead of time, and for all I know there are plans to iron out issues in the US first before rolling out abroad. And that's before you get into potential legal, cultural etc issues - some countries might well make such options illegal.

 

[dmccarty]

I have not much idea what most of those options even mean, and I'm afraid to google most of them at work.

Things were so much easier when I was a kid.

 

[vigeelebrun]

"We want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self"

So if your "true, authentic self" is a breastfeeding mother and you post a picture of yourself, Facebook actually wants you to feel comfortable?
-------
http://www.3news.co.nz/Facebook-censors ... fault.aspx

Breastfeeding mums are angry that Facebook has removed their pictures from a private group page.
Timaru mother Renee Lyons posted in the Mummy Matters group on Friday that her breastfeeding picture was taken down, her account suspended and her profile reported as spam or fake.
Another mother said a photo of herself breastfeeding was marked as nudity and pornography.
-------

"We want you to feel REPRESSED and ANGRY when being your true, authentic self"

There, now Facebook can be its true, authentic, repressive self again... FTFY.

 

[reitwagen]

cyber|kinetic[/url]":1rvbitc7]What is the difference between gender and sex?

Sex has the potential to be quite fun, I'm not sure about gender.

 

[beebee]

Great. We need more variety in those fake Facebook accounts.

 

[sonolumi]

It doesn't matter if they accept signups from all the colors of the rainbow, Facebook is still first and foremost an information pusher selling your personal information to anyone who pays them.

Do you really want assumptions made about you, by companies and interests with no good reason to have your info, based on a Facebook flag that shows you do not self-identify with the gender on your original birth certificate?

Or your political views?

Or any god damn thing?

Facebook are waving a rainbow flag. Whoop-dee-do! They're still the same sleazy Personal Data Pimps they've always been, pushing your information to entities that DON'T have your best interests at heart.

Stay safe and kick your Facebook habit.

 

[axia777]

Gender: Meatbag.