Facebook is taking measures to be more socially conscious. It already changes its features constantly to try and keep up with user interest, but a timely change Facebook made to its infrastructure allows users to identify their gender as choices outside of the gender binary of male and female.
“Facebook is a place where you tell about yourself, and I think it’s important, if you’re comfortable with it, to have the option to explain yourself accurately,” an anonymous senior said. “Often I’ll get to a pull-down menu on a website sign-up page or a survey for school that says ‘male’ or ‘female’ and that’s it. I don’t really know what to click. I mean, I know what gender I was born as, but it kind of hurts when I click just one, since I’m so much more than a single category.”
Facebook now allows users to choose from over 50 gender options as of Feb. 13. This change also allows Facebook users to choose from “him,” “her” or “they” pronouns. This decision was prompted by a generation of younger transgender identifying people requesting that they be able to properly state their gender to avoid confusion and criticism by peers. Facebook software engineers were advised by GLAAD, an organization concerned with the promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the media, while developing the list of gender options.
Amidst celebration over the addition of new gender options, some were outraged over the change, believing that gender is strictly divided between male and female without differentiation beyond that of biologically based gender identifications.
“What if you identify as a pine cone or a chicken or a weed whacker? Facebook doesn’t offer those options. But they do allow users to be gender fluid. I’m not sure what that is–but you might want to have a roll of paper towels handy–just in case,” Fox News radio reporter Todd Starnes posted via Facebook.
Despite this criticism, others are optimistic about what this change could mean for educating people about nonconforming genders.
“This change is great; it allows people of all gender orientations to feel that they are recognized and accepted,” an anonymous sophomore said. “It’s really educational for those who are unaware that there are more than two genders. Gender is more than that–gender is a full spectrum.”
As an increasing amount of people begin to embrace transgender identities, it becomes more likely that social media platforms will begin to adapt to better recognize gender identities outside of standard gender norms.
“I just want people to know that I’m not a myth. I’m here, and there are others like me,” the anonymous senior said. “Gender identity is something less talked about than sexuality, but it is just as important. Ignoring our existence won’t make us stop existing.”
— Meredith Norman and Ashlynn Davis
